Bundee Aki has become a not so secret weapon at Connacht and will soon be running out for Ireland. Photo / Photosport
Bundee Aki has become a not so secret weapon at Connacht and will soon be running out for Ireland. Photo / Photosport
The offshore exodus is starting to hurt New Zealand rugby. But not in the way that was predicted, writes Gregor Paul.
Since the earliest days of professionalism, New Zealand has seen a steady stream of good players leave for foreign clubs, prompting endless commentary that the drain of talent would, eventually, have a detrimental impact on the ability of the All Blacks to rule the rugby roost.
So far the prophecies of doom haven't materialised: the All Blacks have held the No1 ranking since 2009 and won back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015. They have lost only six games in six years and yet good players such as Steven Luatua, Charles Piutau, Charlie Faumuina, Aaron Cruden and Tawera Kerr-Barlow continue to head overseas.
The exodus has had no negative impact on the quality of rugby being produced by the All Blacks. But there are increasing signs the diaspora are using New Zealand rugby intelligence to fast track the progress of rival nations.
The danger for New Zealand Rugby is that while they continue to keep the players they want - with the recent four-year deals signed by Sam Cane and TJ Perenara illustrating that - the ones they are losing are having a major impact in lifting standards elsewhere.
The major Northern Hemisphere teams have announced their squads for the November tests in recent days and scattered through them are a handful of New Zealanders. Former Chiefs midfielder Bundee Aki is in the Irish squad; former Auckland captain Hadleigh Parkes has been named by Wales and Scotland have picked former Highlander Phil Burleigh.
Although New Zealand rugby followers may not immediately fear what these players can bring on the field to their respective new nations, it is possibly more what they offer off it that is in demand. The Kiwi development system tends to instil players with a specific mentality of how to play and prepare.
There is often an edge, a mindset that Kiwis have without realising the rest of the world doesn't possess the same instincts.
Last week, Australia beat the All Blacks in Brisbane for the first time since 2015. They had six New Zealand-born players in their squad and former All Blacks skills coach Mike Byrne in their management team. Byrne is Australian but would freely admit that it was 10 years with the All Blacks from 2005 to 2015 that made him a world renowned coach and sharpened his rugby intelligence.
Just as the All Blacks underwent a skills revolu- tion under Byrne, so, too, are the Wallabies.
There is now a plan to foster greater alignment between Australia's Super Rugby sides and the Wallabies - a direct result of analysing what is working so well in New Zealand. And the day after the test in Brisbane, it was announced that star fullback Israel Folau is taking a sabbatical, a concept as Kiwi as pavlova.
Australia are cleverly allowing a strand of Kiwi influence to shape their development while retaining a decidedly Australian flavour.
It's proving an effective mix and while it would be a huge overreaction to predict a period of Wallaby dominance on the back of one Bledisloe victory, there is no doubt they are becoming a serious contender.
Nor is there any doubt that they are trying to emulate the same desire to be better which drives the All Blacks.
"Out first layer is to build a team of workers," said Wallabies coach Michael Cheika in Brisbane. "Players who want to work hard when you don't have the ball and when you do have the ball; doing the stuff that people don't see. That is what I would like us to be doing first. From that, we will kick on and see who wants to go to the next level."
It is in other parts of the world, though, where the Kiwification is stronger and reaping more obvious benefits. Ireland have been strong investors in New Zealand assets and have bought large sums of Kiwi rugby capital over the past decade which has unquestionably been a driver in their emergence as a genuine world force.
Joe Schmidt.
The influence former Blues and Bay of Plenty assistant Joe Schmidt has had since he became head coach of Ireland in 2013 is well known. But over the same period, Rob Penney had a stint at Munster, Pat Lam at Connacht and former All Black Jono Gibbes is head coach at Ulster.
There has been a stream of New Zealand players on the provincial books, too, and what has probably gone unappreciated is the strategy behind that recruitment.
The Irish have signed a deliberate mix of players. They have tended to focus on players who have a had a few years Super Rugby experience such as Aki, Rhys Marshall and James Lowe, who is now at Leinster.
Ireland have harvested enough Kiwi influence to instil a mental edge within their clubs: to drive good habits, bring a bit of innovative thinking and inspiration and to make them a better rugby nation.
Scotland, not quite to the same extent, have done the same. They transformed between 2014 and June this year under the coaching of New Zealander Vern Cotter and Glasgow, coached by former Chiefs supremo Dave Rennie, sit atop the Pro14.
Wales have also had a Kiwi flavour running through their development with Warren Gatland having been head coach since 2008, while Wayne Pivac is coaching the Scarlets.
Australia, Ireland, Scotland and Wales seem to be striking the right balance of retaining their own identity while benefiting from being open to some New Zealand influence.
Even England, who have undergone the most stunning transition since they bombed out of their own World Cup, have done so with a troubled but tough New Zealand-born captain Dylan Hartley and a handful of others such as Mako Vunipola, Ben Te'o and Teimana Harrison who began life here.
