‘This Springboks argument will never wash with me’ – Ex-All Black’s epic rant in response to Scott Robertson’s plea

Rugby World Cup-winning former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald has accused Scott Robertson of “giving up” on New Zealand’s national game in a passionate rant about overseas-based stars playing for the Test team.

Following the All Blacks’ final match of the year, Robertson issued a warning to New Zealand Rugby about their policy around selecting players based abroad. As it stands, the All Blacks boss cannot select any players not contracted to NZ Rugby or one of the Kiwi Super Rugby Pacific teams.

The 50-year-old will now meet up with the governing body and make his recommendation to the board that this policy is changed, allowing him to select players like Richie Mo’unga who is currently plying his trade in Japan.

“We don’t want to be a cycle behind or a couple of years behind,” the All Blacks boss said after the victory over Italy.

“Professional rugby is always evolving. Let’s keep an open mind and see what’s next. I’ll definitely be presenting.”

Robertson used New Zealand’s fiercest rivals as an example to reinforce his point, adding: “They get the opportunity to use a lot of experienced players who are looked after and managed well into their 30s so they’ve got a great balance and they’ve got big squads, they can have two really quality fifteens.”

But Donald does not agree with the head coach as he believes that South Africa doesn’t ‘deal with’ the same issues that New Zealand do in terms of attracting young players.

Donald’s ‘biggest issue’

The former fly-half added that some players are just paying lip service as to how much the All Blacks jersey means to them while others have proved it by turning down overseas offers.

“The biggest issue for me, and call me old school, call me whatever – there has got to be an element of sacrifice,” Donald said on his Sports Nation “The Run Home” show with Kirstie Stanaway.

“We’d go around and I’m sure they are still in the environment saying, you get the guys at press conferences, saying ‘Oh, this black jersey means so much to me’. Well, at some point in your life, you got to prove it.”

Donald also feels that Robertson is making his case purely to get Mo’unga into his team – a player he enjoyed huge success with during his time as the Crusaders head coach. After the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Mo’unga packed his bags for Japan, signing a long-term deal with the Toshiba Brave Lupus, thus making him ineligible for selection under the current NZ Rugby policy.

“Let’s not sugar-coat it, this is about getting Richie Mo’unga back – it’s one person,” Donald continued.

“Well, let’s talk about sacrifice. Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie – look maybe Richie Mo’unga at his best is better than both of them – but both of them have sacrificed and I don’t think I’m being outlandish here to suggest $1 million.

“They would have both sacrificed $1 million because they put a price on the All Black jersey, and that’s what they were prepared to give up to go again.

“They could have gone to Japan too, people like Damian, for example, is probably even more attractive in Japan than a Richie is because of the way he plays.”

Richie McCaw and Jonah Lomu’s sacrifices

Donald also pointed to two All Blacks legends who also made huge sacrifices to play in the black jersey, with Jonah Lomu snubbing other sporting codes which paved the way for rugby to go professional.

Meanwhile, double World Cup-winning captain Richie McCaw never played for a club outside of New Zealand, representing the Crusaders throughout his illustrious career.

“So I got hot because of this. You’ve got to make sacrifices,” he added.

“Jonah Lomu is the reason why we all got paid as rugby players because he sacrificed the Dallas Cowboys, sacrificed the NRL and in fact sacrificed Super League before rugby was even professional. Because the kid from Otara, who went to Wesley, who came from Tonga, who had nothing decided that the black jersey had a price, and the price he was prepared to sacrifice was all of these offers.

“Richie McCaw never left New Zealand. Richie McCaw is never going to have to work a day in his life because he is the greatest All Black of all time, he has won two World Cups, and he went out and did it, and New Zealand will always look after Richie because of what he’s done for the country.

“So you can say ‘Oh look we can’t hold guys back and they have to go over all of this’ – that’s fine but look historically how it has happened. Look at Richie, look at Jonah, we need heroes.”

“This South African argument will never wash with me”

The Springboks used to have a policy similar to Australia where overseas-based players had to meet certain requirements to represent South Africa. However, that all changed when Rassie Erasmus took over in 2018 during a dire time for SA Rugby. He is now allowed to select players regardless of how many Test caps they have with Cheslin Kolbe and Jasper Wiese examples of players who earned their debuts while playing for clubs in the northern hemisphere.

The loosening of the SA Rugby’s selection policies played a huge role in the Springboks winning back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles but Donald feels that cannot be used to justify the All Blacks changing tack.

This is because New Zealand faces different challenges that he believes South Africa don’t, with football, basketball, and rugby league attracting the attention of kids in Aotearoa.

“This South African argument will never wash with me because South Africa doesn’t have the Warriors, doesn’t have the Melbourne Storm, doesn’t have Steve Adams, doesn’t Auckland FC and Phoenix taking all the young kids eyes and wanting to be football players,” Donald added.

“South Africans don’t deal with that. If you are an Afrikaans kid in South Africa, you don’t have an option, you are going to be a rugby and that’s what you are going to do and you are going to strive to be a Springbok.

“And now you can see the impact of the Springboks in their coloured policies that even the coloured boys who would have been football boys in the past are now following the Siya Kolisis because they have got heroes.

“So you are just giving up on our nation’s game and saying ‘Oh well, as long as we win the World Cup’ but how many World Cups are you going to win? You might win the next World Cup, maybe even win one after but if there’s not going to be kids coming through, you won’t win the ones in 20 years.”