Time to scrap the Giteau Law and select Wallabies from wherever they are playing

If Australian rugby is ever to get out of the mess it currently finds itself in, the Wallabies have to start winning.

Lock Rory Arnold, in action for Toulouse, is not available for Wallaby selection. Picture: AFP

New Wallabies coach Dave Rennie stated earlier in the week he would like to abolish the so-called Giteau Law and make all overseas-based Australians eligible for the Wallabies, but realises it would be disastrous for Super Rugby.

Rennie, however, was open to the idea of selecting Australian players who are playing for New Zealand Super Rugby teams. This makes a lot of sense, but it would just delay the inevitable.

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Australian rugby is rapidly heading towards a situation where it will have no choice but to select overseas-based players for the Wallabies regardless of whether they have played 60 Tests or not, as required by the Giteau Law.

I understand that lifting restrictions on overseas players could potentially weaken Super Rugby, but if Rugby Australia does not do it, it will continue to hurt the Wallabies and that is a much bigger problem for the game in Australia.

If Australian rugby is ever to get out of the mess it currently finds itself in, the Wallabies have to start winning again. But they will only do that if the best players are eligible for selection.

The Wallabies are ranked seventh in the world, their lowest-ever rating.

RA seem to think Rennie will just come in and wave a magic wand.

Maybe Rennie is a better coach than his predecessor, Michael Cheika, maybe he’s not. We don’t really know.

Coaches are important, there’s no doubt about that but even the best coaches cannot win without cattle.

Just take a look at the calibre of overseas-based Australian players who are currently ineligible for the Wallabies – Rory Arnold, Adam Coleman, Liam Gill, Sean McMahon, Will Skelton and the Timani brothers, Sitaleki and Lopeti.

Kurtley Beale and Izack Rodda are heading overseas and I doubt they are the only ones.

The Wallabies might be able to still field a reasonably competitive first XV, but World Cups are not won by run-on sides or even 23-man match-day squads but 31-man squads.

Australia needs to ensure its best players are eligible for the Wallabies no matter where they are playing club or provincial rugby around the world.

South Africa proved in Japan last year that a team can win the World Cup with a squad consisting largely of overseas-based players.

I believe Australian rugby is fast approaching a tipping point where the flow of players overseas will become an unstoppable flood, which will force RA’s hand on selecting foreign-based players for the Wallabies.

As is usually the case in professional sport, it’s all about money.

There has been speculation this week about Australian players threatening to strike over being asked to take 40 per cent pay cuts during the upcoming Super Rugby AU competition.

For those of us who played for love, not money, talk of strike action was particularly galling, but rugby is now the players’ livelihood, not necessarily their passion.

On average, players had already taken 60 per cent pay cuts during the Super Rugby shutdown period and were expecting to return to full pay, or something near it, following the resumption of play.

But those hopes were dashed when RA negotiated an interim broadcast deal with Fox Sports, reportedly worth only $8m to $9m, barely enough to get the Super Rugby sides through the new domestic competition.

At the moment RA does not have a broadcast deal for 2021-2025, largely because of uncertainty about the competition models for Super Rugby and Test rugby.

There is talk Fox Sports is only prepared to pay between $15m and $18m a year for the next broadcast rights, which is around $40m less than what RA had been receiving before the coronavirus pandemic.

Without a massive injection of private equity, that amount would not even cover the salaries of Australia’s top 15 players, let alone four of five Super Rugby squads.

In this scenario, Australia’s best players will almost certainly head off to Europe and Japan, where they could still command big money.

RA can tinker with the Giteau Law all it likes, but at the end of the day, if the best players are offshore, you have to pick them.

What would happen to Australian Super Rugby?

Well, it would become another A-League, but that is not really RA’s major problem.

It does not make any sense for RA to prop up Super Rugby clubs at the expense of the Wallabies.

RA must focus on the Wallabies and ensure Australia’s premier rugby team is as competitive as it can possibly be.

Rennie might be a good coach, but there is an old saying in rugby that players make coaches.