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'We're joined at the hip': NZ players' boss Rob Nichol embraces Super Rugby Pacific draft idea with Aussies
Paul Cully
Players’ association chief executive Rob Nichol has warmly embraced the possibility of a Super Rugby Pacific draft involving Australia and the Pacific Islands, rubbishing the idea that Super Rugby sides in New Zealand “owned” the talent coming through their systems.
A draft idea for the competition has been championed by Rugby Australia as a way to even up the spread of talent in Super Rugby Pacific, with incoming chief executive Phil Waugh vowing this week to discuss it with New Zealand Rugby boss Mark Robinson.
Any draft would be dead in the water without the consent of the players’ associations on both sides of the Tasman, but Nichol told Stuff that he was “100%” open to it and had already been involved in talks about the concept with Rugby Australia chair Hamish McLennan.
“We never say no to opportunities,” Nichol said. “Something I think that can be really attractive is a prospect of a draft which is around New Zealand talent, Australian talent and Pacific talent.
“New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific now through Moana Pasifika, we're joined at the hip to retain professional rugby in this part of the world.
“I don't think people really understand that. We’re competing in the global marketplace, which is becoming incredibly aggressive with private equity interests becoming very influential in the northern hemisphere.
“We've got to be innovative. We’ve got to say, ‘How can we all work together to not just retain but actually attract talent back to this part of the world?’
“We have a generation of professional players who have gone offshore, from Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, have stayed offshore, settled, got married, had children, and those children are now coming into the prime of their rugby careers.
“And, they're all eligible to play for countries down here.”
The devil would be in the detail for any draft proposal, as drafts for organisations such as the NBA and NFL differ significantly from the old Super Rugby draft, when coaches could protect a certain number of players from being available to other sides.
Players would also need to be confident that if they nominated for the draft they would be well looked after whenever they landed.
However, Nichol’s heavyweight support of the concept removes one significant hurdle to some form of draft that would invariably increase fan engagement.
“Should we be considering it? Absolutely,” Nichol said. “We should be considering it because we need to consider everything.
“We want to strengthen all of the teams, and we want to provide pathways for our professional players or aspiring professional players to be able to get out there and express their talent.”
One obstacle could be the current eligibility laws, which would prevent a young New Zealander from representing the All Blacks if, for example, he accepted a draft deal with the Waratahs in Sydney.
But, Nichol said the introduction of a draft would represent the perfect time to take another look at those regulations.
“I think it becomes really important,” Nichol said. “It might not be super important for the young 19, 20, 21 year-old who's looking to get a one or two-year break, but it becomes incredibly important when they get into a Super Rugby environment, they’re starting to find form, and then they start thinking about the next step.
“It's always a conversation that we're having...the logical [answer] is that as long as you play in a competition that New Zealand [Rugby] is an owner in, what about that?
“In other words, if you play in Super Rugby Pacific, could you be eligible for the All Blacks? That to me, if there was to be a change, that's probably the logical change to go to.”
Nichol also dismissed potential opposition from Super Rugby clubs who might lose some local talent they had helped to nurture.
Nichol said that athletes had a right to choose where they went, and that player development did not equate to player control.
“It’s not about forcing people or exerting some form of ownership over them,” he said.
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Originally Posted by AndyS
