The Six Million Dollar Man

The Number Of New Zealand Players Heading Offshore is Rising But still not at a Level that has Anyone Panicking. That Said, There is one Man who, Should he Depart would change Everything

- Gregor Paul

 The player market is a tough one to read. To some it looks like the volume of players shifting offshore is nothing to worry about it.

Others interpret things with a gloomier view and worry that too many are leaving and that New Zealand is on the cusp of becoming much like South Africa, where most of the best players have long fled to Europe.

Who is right? How best to see the last few years and make sense of them?

The answer is that both views have some validation. Since the last World Cup – excluding those such as Dan Carter, Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu who announced their plans before the tournament – 20 players who have featured for the All Blacks have left for offshore clubs or have agreed to do so.

That is a considerably higher figure than the corresponding period after the 2011 World Cup.

In the two years after that tournament, the All Blacks who left were Adam Thomson, Piri Weepu, Tamati Ellison, Ali Williams, Zac Guildford and Hosea Gear. And from that list, Weepu was unlikely to have held his place due to his difficulties in playing at the pace the All Blacks wanted; Williams was all but broken and Guildford had enormous personal issues that were consuming him.

The All Blacks said farewell to this group with no major concern about what their departures would mean for the longer term.

All those departing had been good professionals, but their best years were behind them. The important thing was that the players that mattered, the players the All Blacks wanted to keep, all stayed.

They had already locked in Dan Carter and Richie McCaw before the 2011 World Cup on four-year deals. They had Kieran Read through to 2015, along with Sam Whitelock, Jerome Kaino, Aaron Smith, Aaron Cruden, Sonny Bill Williams, Ben Smith, Tony Woodcock and Dane Coles.