Mortlock speaks out against scrapping Giteau Rule

The recent announcement that Rugby Australia would be scrapping the Giteau Rule has mostly been received with praise, however, some significant figures have slammed the decision. 

The Giteau Rule states that an overseas-based player may only be selected for the Wallabies if he already has over 60 international caps.

Wallaby legends Stirling Mortlock and Ben Darwin do not believe that the absence of the rule will be of benefit to Australian rugby in the long run. 

“With a team without cohesion, occasionally you can play really well but consistency is extremely challenging,” Mortlock, who played 80 Tests, told AAP. 

“I agree that highly cohesive teams create long-lasting success – in rugby union look at the Crusaders, who have big cohesion numbers. 

“To bring back players open slather from overseas who aren’t forming combinations with the bulk of your squad, that’s going to undermine your cohesion numbers. 

“Getting rid of the Giteau Rule is illogical.” 

Darwin had similar sentiments: 

“The Welsh have a much more cohesive system than they did when we were successful and they did it by reducing the number of teams they were drawing from, from 12 domestic teams to four,” he said. 

“When a singular club dominates the Wallabies we’ve won. 

“You can only play that card once, you can’t do that again if you’ve got an overseas-based model. 

“They’ve used some of their prior cohesion to help them be successful now but it’s a very short-term answer. 

“We already don’t have cohesion with our domestic product and this would 100 per cent decimate that and set us back further.”