Steve Hansen is wary about opening the national selection door to New Zealanders playing abroad, yet the former All Blacks boss says the debate is no longer black and white.
Hansen built his success with the Men in Black on a strong domestic system, but admits there may be room for flexibility when it comes to selecting overseas-based players.
“It’s a really hard question because right now we’re not being successful. So, it would be easy to say: ‘Let’s pick them from everywhere’,” The the 2015 World Cup winner said on the DSPN podcast.
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“However, personally, I believe the reason not to pick from anywhere and everywhere are our competitions. We need strong competitions in this country to keep people engaged in rugby, to keep growing, learning, and understanding how we want to play the game as New Zealanders.”
The debate has intensified in recent years, particularly as the reigning back-to-back world champion Springboks scrapped their overseas selection restrictions in 2018.
Hansen added: “If you start picking from all over the world, and you can pick a young fella who has been playing the English way, which I’m not saying is a bad thing, but you’ve got to bring him back and mould them into a group in how we want to play, what’s our DNA?
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“Having strong competitions that creates a DNA on how we want to play. We have to have a pathway for our own coaches as well.”
He advocates that exceptions could be made, particularly for proven Test veterans.
“So you might turn around and say, ‘Well Brodie Retallick is playing out of his skin, let’s pick him.’ He has played over 100 Test matches, created some form of rule or expectation, and you might look at him.
“But if you start doing that, then you ask yourself, what about the [Josh] Lords and the [Sam] Darrys and those boys that have developed and become really good All Blacks and really good rugby players.”
Photo: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images
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