Wallaby great Campese wants 'stupid' Giteau Law scrapped immediately
Wallaby legend David Campese wants to scrap the “stupid” Giteau Law that is stopping Australia from selecting overseas players such as powerhouse lock Will Skelton who is now based in France having become a European champion with Saracens.
Skelton and fellow Wallabies Rory Arnold and Tolu Latu – also based in France – plus flanker Sean McMahon in Japan, cannot be picked while playing outside Australia because they have not won at least 60 caps. That rule is top of the Australian rugby agenda after the 57-22 thrashing by the All Blacks on Saturday which meant the Wallabies had failed to win the Bledisloe Cup for 19 successive years.
In the wake of that embarrassing loss, Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos has made it clear the 60 cap rule is under review but Campese believes the time for debate is over and immediate action needs to be taken to allow Wallaby coaches to pick the best available players.
With nearly 100 Australian players who have played at Super Rugby level playing professional rugby abroad, Campese wants all artificial barriers removed to help give what is a very young Wallaby team the opportunity to include experienced players like Skelton, who won his last cap in 2016, and Arnold with the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France on the horizon.
Campese, part of the Channel 9 and Stan sports commentary teams, told RugbyPass: “What has prompted this is the massive hiding we got against the All Blacks and of course it is a knee jerk reaction. If scrapping the rule helps us win another World Cup then get rid of it now and if the guys overseas are exceptional and their form is good enough then use them. Why wouldn’t you? It was a stupid rule anyway.
“When I went to play in Italy and then returned the Union told I had to play three games to qualify to play test rugby again and so I played for the Randwick fourths and first grade on the same day and they realised it was a waste of time!
“You have Will Skelton who is going to be a far better player because he is playing against international players week in week out in France and you cannot pick him at the moment because of the current rule.
“The problem is that the system to wrong here and when we went professional that was the start of it all. In 2015 when Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell came back for the World Cup I tried to help by finding sponsors because they weren’t getting paid by their clubs in France. We need a set up in Australia that allows the older players to stay around and pass on their knowledge to the young guys – it is something we desperately need. We are in a mess because knowledge is not being put into these young players.
“The current Wallaby side is very young and will eventually be good but at the moment they don’t have the game understanding, management and knowledge. They are learning as they go along and we have another Kiwi coach in Dave Rennie. I don’t know why we continue doing this because we won two Rugby World Cups with Aussie coaches. We have an obsession with “ if you are not good enough to coach New Zealand come and coach Australia.” It’s bizarre.
Marinos was involved with the South African rugby union when they scrapped their own rules on overseas players which adds to the expectation that it will happen in Australia. “We do need to look into eligibility,” Marinos told the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday. “I’m not saying it’s going to be alpha and omega. But it will certainly bring a lot more experience and a lot more depth across the board.
“When you look at the pool of talent from which we are selecting in comparison to our biggest rivals; be it New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, England – they have access and the ability to choose their very best players no matter where they’re playing.
“I’ve lived through this and I’ve seen this movie before, when I was in the director of rugby role in South Africa. We were faced with exactly the same scenario,” he added.
“I’m not saying what worked in South Africa is the recipe for here. But we have to look at the eligibility piece to make sure we have the best players available to play week in, week out.
“I’m not saying we have to open the gates completely. Not at all. But we have to be more specific in identifying where we need to bolster the team, so that when we put a team out on the field we have the best against the best.
“We need to be able to choose from as broad of a pool as possible. That’s all part of building a high-performance program.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments