Pat Lam weighs in on All Blacks eligibility with proposed rethink

Better solution is to make your domestic competition more commercially attractive. You’ll need the best players to do that. NRL won’t generate as much revenue that they do if their best players played oversees, would they? It’s short-term thinking. You gotta build your revenue by investing in a quality product, not plan your own shrinkage by letting top quality players go.

“really good flashy skills” on display, but a lack of fundamentals

What are fundamentals if not “flashy skills”! I’m going to predict this article has him talking out of his arse again, because I’d love to know what he thinks has been really good. I can’t believe it, he’s trying to make it come across as piecemeal for making evident the lack of technical skills on display.

I’m a big fan of the they rugby is played in the Prem, and it’s right in the differences he highlights, but sadly for the state of the game in England NPC is still at about the standard of the none knockout PREm teams. That’s just how much better and useful the “flashy skills” are, along with the athlete, to a game.

“But the competition needs money… a lot of friends have told me they need money, right?”

Yes broadcast revenue from booming markets in Japan and America are pivotal. But they don’t just need to get a more competitive Super (better non NZ sides), they need to make it marketable in general. Better laws and much better fan engagement to drive it’s external appeal are arguably more important in reaching these markets as what Lam has mentioned so far.

“As Rassie does, let the other countries take the 50-capped All Blacks and let them play.

Yeah I like these sorts of concepts. This is probably a bit too simplistic for this day and age, it would have been something used if they had of broached it a decade ago (no need to not move with the times because they didn’t do it a decade ago, think bigger and better as if you have been doing it for a decade already), 50 caps are a lot. Recent examples of Leicester (who along with Jordie don’t seem to have really developed them that well, we wait and see if Rieko adds to his game) going abroad at a good learning age would make more sense.

I suspect it also would really solve an problem. The players leaving would just fail to feature as All blacks there after, a new cycle of local players in better form would start their way to 50 caps. What benefit would we get out of selecting people like Scooter or Ardie from Japan? They simply wouldn’t be as good as local players. For World Cup years they might be able to get upto speed with a solid 4 or 5 months in black, coming back to play in Super, but I fair the disruption would be too high and keeping cohesion with locals would be better.

My idea is essentially to create system that allows the two best players in every position to remain eligible while overseas. So when that cycle happens and the top local player leaves and Scooter is no longer 2nd or 3rd best overseas lock, he knows he has to return home to balance that change. Essentially there are already one or two players abroad in every position now, so not a lot changes, apart from of course those players being added to the eligible list, and now having some formal, visible sign that they need to return home/raise their stocks etc when they drop down the ranking.

But you are not going to save a 30million wage bill that way, but 30 mil is not really going to do a lot anyway. We need to double our yearly revenue/broadcast dollar if local rugby in the pacific is going to remain relevant.

It might be enough for what I expect Lam to be driving towards, bringing back quality coaches and raising standards a bit. It would be good to hear from someone who knew what they were talking about regard the points he raises at grass roots level. I can imagine that funding is a long way off what it was a few years ago with Super booming and then Silverlake money being dished out.

The bonus would be that players who go to England / France would develop under the their systems and be more rounded / hardened players. So win win for AB and national game with more $ available etc. But better happen soon as on current arc of travel, the ABs may not be much in demand.

Yeah but SA has a big gap in development highschool superstars go to the big 4 (Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers) and fight for game time instead of closing the academies and giving those structures to the Varsity simple more teams in the Varsity Cup play a minimum of two years and then let the 14 provincial teams draft pick them

What’s happening in NPC rugby? Because I just saw too many players who are fundamentally poor.

Spot on and this is a big concern as it looks like those fundamentals aren’t being concentrated on.

Pat Lam’s a genius.

Just do what SA did. Simple.