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With the Rugby World Cup just around the corner.
The merits of the Giteau Law have been called into question again.
So, my question is this:
Does the Giteau law help or Hinder Australian Rugby?
Personally, I think it helps Australian Rugby at the Super Rugby level. But, prevents the Wallabies from picking the best possible side.
I reckon they should loosen the restrictions in RWC years but be more strict between RWCs
I'm gonna play the devil's advocate role with this one.
The Giteau law is a short term solution to a long term problem.
It's the response of bureaucrats who don't wish to admit their responsibility for the failures in rugby's talent development system.
By selecting players from outside the key development pathway, we're reducing the cohesion of the team.
New Zealand don't seem to suffer from this issue despite a smaller population, their super rugby teams are strong and their national team has been the world's benchmark for all but the last two years.
The major issue we have in Australia is not the lack of the number of talented players we produce but the lack of funds to enable them to ply thier trade onshore.
The real issue is getting enough funds into the sport nationally and locally to prevent players seeking overseas opprotunities and building the quality and stregnth of the teams here.
The Giteau law at its heart is intended to try and "force" players to stay onshore for "loyalty" rather than "renumeration" purposes.
Without the Giteau law, super rugby without a second tier below it has the potential to drop to a level that we would not be comfortable with as with a lower quality competition less players will be able to break through and show enough to become targets for overseas teams and thus there will be a lot less better paid players.
If we had enough funds onshore there would be no need for players to move offshore, except for the genuine different culture and fresh opportunity seekers, and there would be no need any Giteau Law.
As we are and probably likely to remain a "second" tier sport in Australia and unlikley to generate sufficient income, the Giteau Law neeeds to remain for the foresable future.
Perhaps what we need is the "Hodgo Law"
Where the top 2 or 3 players in each Super Rugby Squads Remuneration package are not included as a part of the Salary Cap.
So Super Rugby Teams can search for sponsorship to ensure that the top 10-15 players in the nation aren't attracted to Europe or Japan purely for financial reasons.