Damian McKenzie weighs in on NZR's approach to eligibility after departures

Just looking at how some of the players who are leaving, you would think:

AJ Lam

Dalton P

Fehi Fineanganofo

I would think that all three would be looked at pretty closely by the new coaching panel for the AB Squad. Personally think AJ Lam has taken a big step forward playing 13 and has the key element the position requires today: size.

The bigger issue for me is the loss of these players from NZ Below are the names of the players that have left (last season) or are leaving(end of this year):

Pouri Rakete-Stones

Dalton Papali'i

Sevu Reece

Hoskins Sotutu

Shaun Stevenson

Harry Plummer

Braydon Ennor

Fehi Fineanganofo

Etene Nanaï-Seturo

Dallas McLeod

Harry Plummer

Ricky Riccitelli

Shaun Stevenson

Sam Gilbert

Thomas Umaga-Jensen

Peter Umaga-Jensen

Mark Telea

Adrian Choat

Tom Christie

Zach Gallagher

Xavier Roe - rumoured to be heading offshore

As an idea, I think the AB XV from last year is losing around 15% of their players at the end of this season, not a healthy stat.

So a lot of these players are not going to play for the ABs, however, all these names are people who I would perceive as quality Super level rugby players (at a minimum) - when you lose these players and replace them with kids aged 20-23, coming through the NZ U20 Progam - it is obviously going to have an effect on the quality of Super rugby.

And the reason the ABs are historically so good is not only that we produce great players/athletes, but that those players are playing against other really high-quality players - if you gut your middle tier of players in a comp, leaving only AB/AB XV and players aged 20—23/24, longer term it is going to have an effect on the ABs.

I’m a proponent of selecting ABs offshore (maybe 5 players and meeting certain criteria) and then investing funds saved into NZ Rugby pathways to ensure that we have talent feeding through - addressing the challenge of the NRL, and I’m wondering if we are investing enough funds into NZ Schools/U18/U20 programmes.

Anyway you view it - either select off-shore or don’t select off-shore, that list of names I have listed above should be a might concerning if you are a NZ Rugby fan….

75 tests and or 150 combined Super and or NPC games

DMac is wrong and like a lot of players is just thinking it through from just a player perspective. Keeping the selection to ABs playing in NZ is a huge part of the good pathways that produce good ABs and it needs to stay. For some reason as soon as players go off shore their reputation seems to grow, often to a level they never had when playing in the local competition, and people seem to think they are needed to help the team win. Funnily enough I’ve never seen it with any player coming back into any team and for the disruption they bring with a lack of cohesion, less time to integrate and the sheer cost doesn’t make it worth it.