Beauden Barrett at Blues training this week. Photo / Photosport
Beauden Barrett at Blues training this week. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Here we are, living in the information age where what we need and want to know is freely available and yet professional rugby this last week has preserved its long-loved code of secrecy.
Stuff the fans and stuff this whole idea that what they want matters and keep ita giant nudge-nudge, wink-wink, in-joke as to whether Beauden Barrett was eligible to play for the Blues in this weekend's Super Rugby Transtasman final.
Sadly, information is still used as power in rugby, withheld at times on the same basis that luxury shops don't put price tags on anything, arguing that if you need to ask how much, you can't afford to buy anything there.
Rugby bosses, as much as they will protest otherwise, still think about catering only for the initiated – that their stadiums will organically fill with those who have at some time played and are therefore familiar with the sport's inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies.
The people running the professional game can't be bothered having to explain irregularities as they apply to eligibility, the laws of the game, refereeing decisions or anything else, as if the whole business of providing clarity would be beneath them and in some way insulting everyone's intelligence.
Or worse, it would offend those who have acquired their knowledge by playing the game and learning the quirks the hard way.
The prevailing thinking within the administrative and executive world is that someone who has never played – put their head in a scrum or at the bottom of a ruck - but wants to be a paying fan, shouldn't be handed inside information they haven't earned.
Beauden Barrett was back training with the Blues but won't feature in the Super Rugby Transtasman final. Photo / Photosport
What we had instead of clear, proactive communication from New Zealand Rugby about Barrett's eligibility status, were pictures of him at training and Blues assistant coach Daniel Halangahu making ambiguous comments that clouded the issue.
What everyone wanted to know, definitively, and not to have to interpret or determine from cryptic clues, was whether the world's most talented footballer was going to be available to play in the final or not.
A simple question became beyond confusing because while there was confirmation that the rules stated that only players who had been selected in the match day 23 at some stage during the competition were eligible for the final – something Barrett hadn't been – exemptions could be made if a team suffered an injury.
On cue, Otere Black was photographed at training nursing a heavy bang to his lower leg on the same day Barrett was scampering around, fit as a fiddle and full of the joys of life.
Apparently Black wasn't injured enough, suggesting there is a scale – an undeclared target of hurt that must be recorded to satisfy everyone the whole business is genuine.
Which brings us to what may in fact be the real issue, which is that the bigger purpose this cloak of secrecy serves is to deliberately shroud the issue.
Best to keep it vague, confused even and ideally with few questions being asked as it seems that the rules can be bent, broken or simply not applied whenever it suits the needs of those making them.
Barrett can't play this weekend for the Blues, but he will be eligible for the All Blacks when they play in two weeks despite the fact that the rules for test eligibility state that only those who played in the preceding domestic tournament (Super Rugby) can be picked.
He's been granted an exemption to play for the All Blacks but not in Super Rugby – something which has also been extended to Brodie Retallick, who like Barrett, spent the first half of this year playing in Japan.
TJ Perenara has re-signed with the Hurricanes after playing in Japan. Photo / Photosport
But TJ Perenara, who like the other two, was in Japan and has now committed to an NZR contract through to 2023, can't play for the All Blacks in July, but will be eligible for the Rugby Championship.
It seems the best players in this country are not all treated the same by NZR.
If they somehow manage to follow an unwritten set of expectations and retain favour, they can be granted dispensation to make money offshore without it compromising their test aspirations.
Fall foul of the top brass, though, as Perenara presumably has for flirting with the NRL, and punishments potentially await.
The real losers in this make-it-up-as-you-go-along world, however, are those who invest their hard-earned money on match tickets or TV subscriptions.
This Saturday at Eden Park the 22,000-plus people who are expected to be there will have paid to see Barrett act as water boy for the Blues, but if they pay again in two weeks to go to Mount Smart to watch the All Blacks play Tonga, they will likely see him come off the bench and showcase his immense range of talents.
One week the rules can't be broken, the next they can and fans should just accept that's how it is, not ask why and hope that if they keep turning up, handing over their cash, they will one day be brought into the insiders club of knowing why they can see the players they want to see at certain times but not at others.
The common-sense ruling – one that would suggest everyone is on board with the fact they are in the entertainment business and governed by a need to put their supporters first - would be to scrap the existing rule and allow any and all contracted Super Rugby players to be eligible for any and all Super Rugby games.
Fans here get a raw deal with the self-serving rule-breaking compounded by this attitude of who is eligible to play being deemed a need-to-know basis. It illustrates to some extent why these last few months NZR has talked about their need to better engage with followers as part of their quest to monetise an offshore fan base that is in the millions.
Maybe, though, they need to take a step back and think about the more pressing need to engage with local fans and not through some quirky, pointless social media post of a player eating a sandwich or something equally mundane trying to masquerade as human interest or big news, but through the application of strong, clear, consistent, well-communicated policies that govern the fundamentals of the sport.
