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ESPN staff
Rugby Australia [RA] boss Raelene Castle has confirmed the governing body will conduct a review of its Giteau Law with the policy having now been used across two World Cup cycles.
Australia’s overseas player policy was thrust into the spotlight in the lead-up to Michael Cheika’s Wallabies squad announcement last Friday with speculation giant lock Will Skelton could be included in the 31-man party for Japan.
But Skelton’s name wasn’t called at Sydney Airport, and he this week confirmed a two-year extension with English club Saracens.
Skelton had been trying to squeeze an extra season in England, rather than returning to play Super Rugby next year after his Saracens commitments had concluded in a situation that would have likely seen him included in Cheika’s lock stocks.
Castle confirmed as much at the launch of Australia’s National Rugby Championship on Tuesday, but also revealed RA was open to tweaking the policy if it was in the best interests of Australian rugby moving forward.
“I think we’ve got a responsibility to do it,” Castle said in confirming that she, high performance manager Ben Whitaker and director of rugby Scott Johnson would conduct a review of the policy.
“So the Giteau Law has worked really well for us and if you think about the players we couldn’t select for the World Cup, there’s probably only three or four that you’d say would have had a big crack at making the Wallabies for the World Cup.
“That said, with South Africa looking to change the way they treat their players and potentially New Zealand also in the same process of reviewing their very strong stance on things around players not playing overseas, and the movement of foreign players, it would be irresponsible of us not to review it.
“But the fundamental is that we need to make sure we have our best players playing Super Rugby and don’t give any open doors for opportunities for players to think ‘well, I’m going to disappear off, not play Super Rugby and then I’m a dead-certainty to get selected for the World Cup’. So that’s the bit that we’re trying to balance.” While Skelton would have seemingly walked into the Wallabies squad if available, Australia may have only otherwise looked towards Scott Fardy if they were able to pick players based overseas without any restriction at all. As the current policy stands, both Nic White and Matt Toomua were eligible for the World Cup with the former to return to Australia once his contract with Exeter winds up midway through next year. Toomua returned home towards the end of this year’s Super Rugby season after getting an early release from Leicester. But a decision to tweak the policy from next year may be worth considering given the looming departures of Samu Kerevi and Rory Arnold, with both men having developed into truly world-class players this season. Meanwhile, Castle wouldn’t be drawn on a media report that suggested New Zealander Dave Rennie was as good as locked away as the next Wallabies coach. She did however acknowledge that RA had not done its best to develop young Australian coaches with another Kiwi, Rob Penney, tipped to take on the vacant role at NSW Waratahs. “I think you always want Australian talent, there’s no doubt,” she said. “But Rugby Australia has held its hand up and said that it hasn’t done enough in the past to focus on developing young Australian coaches to make sure that they can come through. “And that’s the work that we’re doing to make sure that we have identified that talent and we’re putting the support networks around them.”