Ancestral nightmare for ARU and John O'Neill
Bret Harris | March 27, 2009 Article from: The Australian
ARU chief executive John O'Neill is proud of his Irish heritage, but it is unlikely he would have been too pleased with an announcement by the Irish Government on St Patrick's Day.
Thousands of Australians will find it easier to take out Irish citizenship after the announcement that foreigners with an Irish great-grand parent would be eligible.
At present, Ireland requires a person to have at least one Irish grand parent to claim ancestral right to citizenship.
But Ireland has decided to loosen the rules to extend naturalisation rights to people who are one generation further away from their Irish roots.
As a result of the Irish diaspora of over 80 million people, this initiative will have political and social ramifications around the globe, including the world of rugby.
In particular, Australian and New Zealand rugby will be significantly affected.
If you have Irish citizenship, you also carry with it a coveted European Union passport, which gives you the right to live and work in 27 nations - and that applies to professional rugby players as much as anyone else.
Since the advent of professional rugby in 1995, Australia and New Zealand have been suffering from a player drain to rich clubs in Europe.
Several years ago Australia lobbied the IRB to abolish the grand-father clause, which allowed Australians of European grand parentage to play as locals in Europe and represent European national teams in Test rugby.
Now the Irish are opening the door to the spoils in Europe to a whole new generation of players.
For South Africa, New Zealand and Australia (SANZAR), this could not come at a worse time.
The SANZAR partners are currently discussing the expansion of Super rugby to a 15-team competition with an additional team in either Australia or South Africa.
It appears Australia will secure a fifth Super rugby franchise in Melbourne, Gold Coast, western Sydney, Central Coast or Newcastle.
But there are question marks over whether Australia has sufficient depth to support a fifth team.
O'Neill has effectively acknowledged this by saying the ARU would look at filling a new Super rugby team with Australians playing overseas, rugby league converts and Pacific Islanders and Argentinians.
Certainly, there is a whole squad of Australians playing in Europe and Japan - Manny Edmonds, Peter Hewat, Adam Wallace-Harrison, Justin Harrison, David Lyons, Rocky Elsom, Steve Kefu and Rodney Blake to name but a few.
And there is just as many, if not more, New Zealanders playing in Europe.
That does not even include rugby league converts Mark Gasnier, Sonny Bill Williams and Craig Gower.
Some of these players such as Elsom and New Zealand inside backs Dan Carter and Luke McAllister are coming back to the Antipodes to be part of the 2011 World Cup.
Elsom, Carter and McAllister are party of a new trend of high profile players earning big bucks in Europe between World Cups.
But how is the ARU going to lure the majority of Australian players playing overseas to come back, especially as there are other players such as NSW Waratahs fulback Sam Norton-Knight who are on their way to Europe or Japan at the end of this season?
Most of the players who head overseas are Super 14 standard players who cannot secure an ARU top up to their contracts.
The ARU's Clayton's salary cap restricts them to earning no more than $155,000 a season unless they secure a wild card, which bumps up their worth to about $220,000.
The Australian expatriates are earning much more than this in Europe and Japan.
Once they realise their dream of playing for the Wallabies is either over or never going to happen, they have little financial incentive to remain in Australia.
The only reason players do not go overseas is for family and friends or lifestyle reasons.
Every now and then an Australian prodigal does return from Europe or Japan, but the traffic flows much more heavily in the opposite direction.
To be sure, the decision by the Irish government to extend citizenship will only increase the player drain from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere, which will inevitably undermine ARU attempts to fill a fifth Super team with Australian expats.
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