Oval Office June 2007

Steamroller

By Grant Batty

THE All Blacks are for sale ... and don’t the cashed up clubs on the other side world just love it.

With the likes of Carl Hayman, Chris Jack and Byron Kelleher in the vanguard, the pride of Kiwi rugby are deserting the Shaky Isles and following the money trail to a sort of sporting nirvana.

It wasn’t always so, but these days the British and French clubs are providing the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rugby rainbow and they are not afraid to spend it in the mercenary pursuit of silverware to adorn their trophy cabinets.

It’s a simple concept really ... the local club, then an NPC team, followed by a Super 14 franchise then finally the All Blacks develop and nurture the stars Down-Under and then the Poms and Frogs handle their pension packages on the northern side of town. Everybody, it seems, is a winner. Except, many would say, purist rugby!

When all is said and done it boils down to the same old argument that has been raging for the last 15 years ... patriotism versus professionalism. And it’s an argument that will continue for the next 15 years unless the fiscal playing fields are levelled and a common policy is adopted by all the unions involved.

Now, before anybody accuses me of being a disgruntled old player who missed out on the big bucks at the end of his career, let’s set the record straight.

I retired well before the advent of true professionalism. I played for the love of the game and the pride in representing my country. And, yes, there were limited financial benefits for doing so ... even in the day of the rugby dinosaur.

But had my career been fast forwarded by about 30 years, would I have followed in the footsteps of Hayman, Jack, Kelleher and the rest of the All Black crew?

To be brutally honest, I don’t know.

Sure it would have been nice to know I could finally walk away from the game with a handsomely packaged retirement fund and with the benefit of hindsight, I’m fairly confident I would be been able reconcile a decision to do so in my own mind.

But the other side of the argument is that I am wonderfully happy to live with my memories of my rugby life.

So jealousy is not a factor in my argument. What I have a problem with is the hypocrisy of the game.

Chris Jack flies high

Professionalism, under a variety of guises, is really nothing new in rugby. Players were copping  limited remuneration in one form or another for years and all the new era of openness has done is made honest men of them and their administrators.

And, believe me, it wasn’t the new villains, the northern hemisphere unions, who led the charge of the pay-for-play brigade.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were right up there when it came to slipping bulging brown envelopes under boardroom tables and, ultimately, forcing the demise of amateurism.

Leading the pack were the South Africans who, for the years they were in rugby isolation, bent the rules so badly that there really weren’t any left when they were welcomed back into the conventional rugby fold.

A mate of mine remembers having a long lunch in a beachfront Durban steakhouse with legendary Scotland skipper and full-back Gavin Hastings. It was in the months leading-up to the 95 World Cup and, as often happens over a couple of bottles of nicely chilled white, tongues loosened and the conversation turned to the apparent affluence of many of South Africa’s high profile players.

The boundless bonhomie of a bunch of very big men with no obvious means of support had not gone unnoticed and suffice it to say Hastings who, like the rest of his amateur Scottish and English peers, was doing it hard, was gobsmacked when he learned from my mate just how much cold, hard cash these guys were pocketing while their governing union stuck its tongue firmly in its cheek and loudly proclaimed the benefits of amateurism to anyone who would listen.

Shortly after that, along came Mr Murdoch and his vision for a bold new rugby future and the entire rugby firmament suddenly became a lot more honest ... but that’s another story.

The bottom line is that the southern hemisphere unions should be very circumspect in condemning the cynical player- grab by their affluent northern neighbours.

They started it and now they are reaping the dubious benefits of their actions.

Northern Tour

Now that I have got all that off my chest, let’s get back to the issue of some of the All Black team nipping off to England and France to make a quid.

Firstly, will it affect the NPC? Probably not.

Will it affect the Super 14? In the short term, probably.

The legends played for the love of it

Will it ultimately affect the All Blacks? Yes ... unless New Zealand changes it’s policy of selecting only players representing clubs and franchises in the NPC and Super 14.

Will it affect the players? Yes, but arguably positively. These guys spend the early part of their lives playing rugby, giving enjoyment to thousands of fans and bringing sporting honour to their country.

Is there anything wrong with them capitalising on their prowess in their final seasons of top notch rugby and reaping a reasonable reward for years of pain, sacrifice and dedication?

Dai is cast

Finally, the Welsh tour of Australia is copping a fair amount of flak because Dai and his boyos have decided to leave most of their good players at home.

A few years ago, the Poms did the same thing and the perceived insult was very badly punished by a 76 to zip shoreline in Brisbane.
Now there are similar mumblings of outrage among the green and gold supporters ... but they may be groundless.

I reckon the Welsh have decided that because of the somewhat delicate state of Australian rugby at the moment they have chosen to dispatch a team that they think are of similar strength to the Antipodes.

Enough said ... except the Poms seem to have taken a lesson from the Welsh … and not learned one from past catastrophes … and sent a similarly depleted team to South Africa.

I’d like to say they have done it for the same reasons as their cousins across the border. But I don’t think so.

If any team is in worse shape than Australia at the moment, it’s the Poms and I fear they are in for a nasty dose of rugby reality when they hit Springbok home turf.