Player drain is threat to Aussie competitiveness
Defection of Wallabies’ ‘Honey Badger’ to Japan’s lucrative Top League a sign of the times as talent pool keeps on shrinking
The Wallabies' emphatic 3-0 series win over France last month might convey the impression all is rosy in rugby Down Under, but the game's power brokers fear a quickening player drain could bring the code to its knees.
While some jostle for positions in Ewen McKenzie's squad a year out from the World Cup in England, other "players of national interest" are rushing to the exits, boarding flights to Europe and Japan to boost their salaries and see an exotic part of the world long denied by the pursuit of a gold jersey.
Western Force winger Nick Cummins' surprise announcement that he would quit Australian rugby to play in Japan's Top League has brought the issue into sharp focus.
If you start to look at losing players, you need to take a flexible approach to an international labour market situation
Though starting in all three of the tests against Les Bleus, Cummins' absence can be covered by McKenzie, who has a number of classy backs at his disposal for that position.
But the loss of the hirsute 26-year-old, nicknamed the "Honey Badger", was another reminder Australia is fighting a losing battle in rugby's global market for talent.
"There's substantially more money to be had overseas," said Greg Harris, chief executive of the domestic Rugby Union Players' Association. "Players are no different to anyone else in their own workplace with respect to money and other factors."
Apart from Cummins, who cited a need to earn more money to look after ailing family members, Australia will bid adieu to a number of top players, including 14-test lock Kane Douglas, who played all three matches against the British & Irish Lions last year but has signed with Leinster.
