One key point always seems to be undervalued in the debate about whether the Wallabies should just pick home-based players or salute the “Kerevi Clause” as the smartest move of 2021.
Name a player who hasn’t been improved by playing overseas and channelling that experience or self-discovery into being a more complete player?
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There are at least 10 players in the current Wallabies squad who have played abroad and all talk up what being in a different rugby environment has done for them.
Losing players abroad is always tough and seemingly the end of the world yet getting the best back, by whatever means, is even more important.
Head coach Dave Rennie and Director of Rugby Scott Johnson deserve full credit for enhancing the Wallabies by bringing Samu Kerevi, Quade Cooper, Sean McMahon, Duncan Paia’aua, Izack Rodda and Matt Philip back into the fold this season.
The “Kerevi Clause” is as simple as this. If the Wallabies need a player for a certain position, fly him in from anywhere in the world ASAP. Centre Kerevi has been a superb game-breaker and not just because of his jarring, tackle-bumping rampages with the ball. He’s now throwing better passes before contact, limiting those 50-50 offloads that too often became wasteful turnovers and showing that he’s really worked on his skills with Japanese club Suntory.
Utilising the foreign legion will gather further pace on the Gold Coast on Saturday when backrower McMahon pulls on the Wallabies jersey for the first time in nearly four years.
Rennie hasn’t enlisted McMahon, 27, just to holding tackle bags at training so expect his tackle-shredding intensity to help the Wallabies finish the job against Argentina at Cbus Super Stadium (5.05pm).
Strictly speaking, the “Kerevi Clause” has only really roped in Kerevi and McMahon for the Test side. Cooper qualified under the old 60-Test requisite for selection from abroad.
We all quote the “Giteau Law” like it’s a statute enshrined in Rugby Australia policy.
It’s nothing more than a colloquial term created by the media in 2015 to describe former coach Michael Cheika inventing a clever 60-Test threshold that allowed him to bring Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell back from France for the World Cup of that year.
It doesn’t need a six-month worldwide trial, an experimental law variation or 10 committee meetings to change it like most laws in rugby.
If Rennie and Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan have a beer at 7am tonight, they can toss it out by the time they’ve had the last gulp of their first schooner.
Locks Rodda (Western Force) and Philip (Melbourne Rebels) are both signed for returns to Super Rugby Pacific in 2022 but a season apiece in French rugby has added exponential growth to their education in tight forward play.
Expect skyscraper Rory Arnold (Toulouse) to be roped in at some stage too, perhaps on the upcoming European tour, because he’s a high-performer.
Rodda will always seem like a quite achiever compared to the more explosive mark made by Cooper’s new calm as a playmaker or Kerevi’s powerful package.
“From a Super Rugby point of view, we are more skilful and faster here but the French Top 14 was a lot more physical,” Rodda said.
“They are big bodies that want to whack everyone more. I think that’s the part that really grew in my time in France...my physicality.”
There’s the bonus right there of Rodda’s four-Test return since playing more than 20 matches for Lyon.
For halfback Nic White, it was regularly playing finals footy during 46 games for English club Exeter which enhanced his early years at the Brumbies.
Everyone has seen a more rounded and more dangerous halfback since he returned to the Wallabies’ fold in 2019.
“Playing with Exeter I was playing a different style to what I was back in Canberra in terms of holding onto the ball, running a lot more and different plays coming off No.9,” White said.
Winger Andrew Kellaway would not even be one of the rousing stories of 2021, with his five tries in eight Tests, but for taking the leap overseas.
His time at Northampton in England and Counties Manukau in New Zealand dumped him into a landscape totally out of his comfort zone.
In his own words, Kellaway said of the Northampton experience: “I came out feeling a lot surer about myself.”
How he organised game week preparations, performing again the Kiwis on their home soil...it built confidence and priceless experience.
That’s the Kellaway we are impressed with today, a player rounded by all his rugby adventures.
For James O’Connor (Sale Sharks, England) and Cooper (Kintetsu, Japan), the journey to being better men at their most recent clubs abroad was even more important than enhancing certain skills.
“I can only speak about my journey and what it’s done for my game. Part of it for me was getting out of the limelight,” O’Connor said of heading overseas as an immature 23-year-old in 2013.
Life abroad had pitfalls too but it’s where O’Connor finally found himself.
“I was a broken young man. It was huge for me to go overseas and eventually it became a good rebuilding phase.
“Also, I didn’t know the game before I moved away. It wasn’t because I wasn’t taught it here but I always relied on my natural abilities and beating players one-on-one.”
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At French club Toulon and with English clubs London Irish and Sale, O’Connor got a more rounded education in the game.
“Over there it’s a big set piece game, conditions play a huge part and a lot of games are really tight,” O’Connor said.
“It was a good thing for me to learn how to stay in the fight in games. Maybe, the other team has been dominant for a big part of the game but learning to stay in the fight is a skill.
“You learn different ways to win a game than perhaps you do in Australia.
“There are definitely things you can learn over there but I’ve found the best footy is here where it’s the quickest rugby at the highest skill level.
“I think it is awesome seeing more guys come back. Everyone brings a different take to the game instead of just how we do it in Australia.”
This melting pot of ideas and methods is a plus for any team and it's definitely making the Wallabies a better team.
