New Zealand must ‘accept the reality’ of losing players as Sir Steve Hansen weighs in on latest exodus
Fehi Fineanganofo and an inset of ex-All Blacks head coach Sir Steve Hansen.
New Zealanders need to accept that losing players to overseas clubs is simply a reality of the modern game, according to legendary All Blacks head coach Sir Steve Hansen.
A plethora of top players will leave Aotearoa at the end of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season, including the likes of Hoskins Sotutu, Dalton Papali’i, Xavier Roe, Sevu Reece, and Fehi Fineanganofo, who has been in outrageous form this campaign.
This comes after the departures of Tom Christie, Fergus Burke, Harry Plummer, Ricky Riccitelli, Mark Tele’a, Shaun Stevenson, Levi Aumua and Sam Gilbert, to name just a few.
The flow of players out of the country is unlikely to stem after next season, with the end of a World Cup cycle usually leading to an increased exodus.
NZ Rugby need to look after the train
Speaking on the DSPN Podcast with Martin Devlin, Hansen explained that because there are just five Kiwi Super Rugby teams, there are limited opportunities for players and New Zealand has to accept that players will leave their shores.
Hansen is confident that the country can continue to produce talented players to fill the voids being left by those heading abroad but says that NZ Rugby has to look after its pathways.
“The train will stop if we don’t keep working hard underneath it,” he said. “And there’s enough understanding to know that we probably aren’t doing as good a job down there at the moment as we could be. But they are looking at that and they will find a way.
“I’m excited by the leadership of this rugby union at the moment. They’re making good decisions. They’re making well-thought-out decisions. They’re not being rushed into anything. When they do make a decision, it’s been based on a good process and good people are being put into seats on the bus. When you get the right people in the right seats on the bus, then good things happen.
“We’ve got an opportunity coming up. There’s a new role coming [high-performance director at New Zealand Rugby] which will be exciting to see who gets that, and I’m sure they’ll put the right person in there. That person will work with a team to help create a pathway that has probably slipped a little, to be honest.
“I do believe that there’s plenty of talent being produced; we just have to go back to making sure we have good pathways for it to come through and show that you care about them. I mean, a lot of people are going offshore and that’s just because of the lack of opportunities or the lack of recognition. Young people need to know that they’ve got a chance; otherwise, they’ll take the other chances that they’re being offered.
“League has always been out there; it’s not new. Offshore clubs have been out there for a long time, too. So, we’re not just building players for the All Blacks or Super Rugby or NPC rugby; we are building players for two other areas as well. We have to make sure we are doing that well.”
Create an environment that entices players to remain in New Zealand
However, Hansen added that it is important NZ Rugby creates an ‘exciting’ environment to entice players to remain in New Zealand. “Well, we have to understand and accept that’s what could happen because it is happening. So, it’s a reality [that players are leaving]. What are we going to do about it? We’ve just got to make sure that we keep developing enough players for our own market as well.”
Hansen believes that keeping young players engaged in the sport is particularly important, using the example of there being really only one rugby school in Hamilton and what happens if a player isn’t making the age-grade teams.
“Unless you are so obviously good, no one knows who’s going to be good at under-15, I don’t care who you are. If you went and said: ‘Right, him, him, him, and him’, you’d probably be wrong at that age unless they’re a superstar. It’s easy to find the superstars. We have to find the guys that become superstars later in their career, and we’ve got to give them opportunities and excitement to stay here and be involved in the game. That’s the job of our pathways,” he said.
Another growing threat for New Zealand is dual-qualified players who take up opportunities abroad with the prospect of playing international rugby for another country. Burke is one example of this, as the former Crusaders pivot has gone on to represent Scotland after making the move to Saracens.
The threat of dual-qualified players
Riley Higgins could follow suit, with the Hurricanes back joining Edinburgh at the end of the season, while Crusaders scrum-half Louie Chapman has also signed with the same club. Asked how New Zealand Rugby stops those kinds of departures, Hansen remarked: “”Well, sometimes you don’t. That’s the reality.
“But at least we got him to that point where we’ve kept him to that point, and then it’s about making the jersey so exciting, making wanting to play for the All Blacks an exciting thing.
“That’s probably changed a wee bit over the last while; we’ve had a lot of in-house fighting and lack of unity, if we’re being honest with ourselves. So the jersey has lost a little bit of its glow for the young Kiwi kids because they’re not seeing everybody or hearing everybody talking about how great it is.
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“We’ve got to make it an environment where everyone wants to be in it, and they’ll stay and fight for it. You’ll still lose some overseas because it’s just the nature of what we’ve been talking about, but all the things have to be in place for us in New Zealand to keep our players wanting to stay because they are going to get paid less money. There are only five franchises, so there are not a lot of opportunities for everybody. We understand that.
“There is an aggressive market across the ditch in the NRL… and it’s their aim to try and make it the best game in the world, and it is a great game, it’s exciting at the moment. But our own game has to be exciting, too. And our own teams have to be teams that we want to be in.”
