I know less than nothing about central contracts, so I'll focus on the change to make every overseas based player eligible for the Boks. I'm not going to be too critical, because I think Rassie is right about the economic realities and this day has been coming for the SH nations - it's just been a case of who would blink first. But it is another example of him giving himself access to players that his predecessor weren't allowed to pick - which may not be entirely coincidental (who wouldn't want to make their own job easier?). They've not even given the 30 cap rule 18 months, which strikes me as a hasty change. They haven't given that policy enough time to evaluate its viability in the long term. I thought it, combined with a Gatlands Law would be a credible policy balancing Bok strength and player development in SR. Once you authorise an exodus you can't put the genie back in the bottle.
I dont see how releasing top tier Bok talent to Europe at an early age will reduce project players, but the 5 year residency might hopefully help mitigate that issue for the Boks. So maybe this timing is a lot better than when residency was just three years.
I think it will undermine the strength in depth of all 6 main professional sides in SA though, with the Pro14 ones already having severe depth issues. The comparison of football in Argentina and Brazil is fair, but River Plate or Corninthians would never compete in a wealthy European league and I fear a SA SR franchise will never now compete with NZ teams, and possibly not Oz or Argentina in a couple of years. The Lions from the past two seasons (and hopefully the Sharks this year) might be the high watermark until the Oz and NZ unions have to follow suit.
The Boks will now also be drawn from players who are overworked by European leagues and who play in very different styles (primarily French based ones). We desperately some kind of rule limiting squad sizes in the main European leagues so they don't go padding out their squads with "cheap" SH players to keep their benches warm.
From my perspective it's not something to celebrate. It is a faintly desperate move, but one that may be replicated throughout the SH and even in Scotland, Italy and Wales. I do wonder if the SR TV money projections have informed this decision and left the SARU with little option, but if that was the case I'd have thought the Jaguares would have been the first to do this.
As always, so negative in your approach.
The 30-cap rule:
This was the dumbest idea SARU ever thought of in the first place, and while it was in the system, it was even undermined by players such as Jan Serfontein and Steven Kitshoff.
But again, you're not reading between the lines. When scrapping the 30-cap rule, not only do you widen the pool for selecting players with less than 30 caps who have already played for the Springboks, but you also have the advantage of picking young players who haven't been capped yet, and might have gone abroad very early in their career, gotten the necessary experience and is now ready to both feature for the Springboks, but also might return to SA shores and play for a local side as there will be more rewards for him than in the past, should he be part of the development programme.
Bigger rewards:
The plan is not to prevent players from going abroad, but to rather have them either take up short temporary contracts like in Japan, get a financial boost, and then return and be part of the local strategic planning process. RG Snyman is a prime example of this.
Invoking Section 9:
This will help with player burnout, as the players will now be part of the squad, and whether they play or not during the international window, they'll be with the Springbok team, and not their domestic club/union. Look how well it worked last year between Sale Sharks and SA Rugby with regard to Faf De Klerk.
Bottom Line:
We've been talking about a change for years. It's not something that happened overnight, or as you put it, a desperation move. In fact, like the article states, we've been looking at a model since the sport went professional and on ways to curb the mass exodus.
The people behind this system aren't idiots, they know that there are things that won't/can't change, and they can't prevent players from leaving SA. All they are trying to do is to be more competitive and try and keep more players in SA and represent the Springboks.
