It's the national game versus the Euro's lure

By PETER BILLS

In case anyone in New Zealand is still scratching his or her head over the Kees Meeuws affair, a few simple facts and figures should solve lingering mysteries.

The All Black and Auckland prop is exchanging the clear air of New Zealand for France for a most compelling reason.

It is estimated that Meeuws earns a salary of about $450,000. But that is not guaranteed - a big component of it depends on being selected for the All Blacks.

In two years with the French club Castres, for whom he has signed, Meeuws will earn about $1,050,000, or $525,000 each season.

It is understood he has signed a two-year deal, with a further year's option. At Meeuws' age as a top-class rugby player, when someone knocks on your door with a deal like that, you don't start getting sentimental.

A player would have few reasons to reject such an opportunity in any professional game, especially one where you get beaten up so quickly and where it can all end in the next tackle.

Castres, after all, are the second-wealthiest club in France, which makes them arguably in second place throughout Europe.

French clubs have now passed most of their English counterparts for one good reason - there is no salary cap in France, while there is in England.

Castres, it is said, have an annual budget of about €12 million ($22.3 million). Toulouse have deeper pockets at €15 million and Montferrand are the next largest at €10 million.

And the French clubs can lure the best with figures such as those.

Meeuws will become the third All Black to head for Castres, a rugby town about 100km east of Toulouse, after Gary Whetton and Frank Bunce.

The deal was done with Castres president Pierre Yves Revol, who is boss of Sud Radio in France.

But the money man behind the club is Pierre Fabre, a multi-millionaire who owns a huge chemistry laboratory.

Castres, who are the only unbeaten club in the new French championship after five matches, also made several other signings during the close season, including Glenn Metcalfe from Scotland, London Wasps duo Paul Volley and Mark Denney, French left wing David Bory from Montferrand, and Argentine hooker Mario Ledesma.

Where clubs like Castres also benefit is from the support of their home town.

In many cases, the local municipality owns the ground and loans it to the club for a peppercorn rent. But there is traditionally strong financial support for the rugby club from leading businesses in the rugby-playing towns of the south of France.

Castres is a case in point.

But what ought to concern New Zealand and the All Blacks most is the long-term significance of this deal. If a top European club can cherry-pick the best All Blacks, then which players in Graham Henry's squad are safe from being snatched?

The answer is few - and perhaps fewer still in the future.

If the major European economies of Germany and France start to revive and the Euro strengthens, the pressure will increase on New Zealand's best players.

Of course, it's impossible to calculate a financial value in a young New Zealand rugby player's mind of wearing the All Black jersey. Thankfully, that still means a huge amount.

But for players who have done that 20 or 30 times, the offer of a huge contract overseas will be increasingly tough to resist.

What should alarm the leaders of the New Zealand game is that losing players of Meeuws' stature hurts the allure of the All Black ethos.

As someone in Wales said recently when fullback Gareth Thomas signed for Toulouse, thereby following a top-class player such as halfback Robert Howley or Welsh captain Colin Charvis out of the country, "What will the youngsters think? Who will go and watch if there is a steady departure of stars from the country?"

We shouldn't over-dramatise this - one player's departure is hardly a flood. But the precedent is significant and dangerous for New Zealand.

Unless I'm completely mistaken, Meeuws will not be the last leading All Black targeted by wealthy Europeans. And in a professional game, who would say no to such riches?


KEES MEEUWS

* A typical New Zealand season would involve about 28 games on average in Super 12, tests and NPC.

* New club Castres will play 30 games in the French championship plus playoffs if involved and up to nine Heineken Cup games if involved.

* His annual wage with the NZRFU and Auckland is about $450,000. About half of that income is dependent on being selected for the All Blacks.

* At Castres he'll earn about $525,000 a season.


* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London