Rugby World Cup winner weighs in on Scotland's capture of young All Blacks talent
Edinburgh’s capture of Scotland qualified duo Riley Higgins and Louie Chapman has sent alarm bells ringing in Southern Hemisphere.
The threat of dual-qualified rugby players swapping a potential All Blacks future for other national sides is one that New Zealand rugby must address.
That’s according to legendary head coach Sir Steven Hansen, the 2015 Rugby World Cup winning boss of the Kiwis. It comes following the desertions of Riley Higgins and Louie Chapman, who will leave Super Rugby later this year and to sign for Edinburgh Rugby.
Both are eligible to represent Scotland, with Higgins in particular seen as a player who had the talent to earn senior caps with the All Blacks. Instead, his international future now looks to be with Gregor Townsend’s Scotland side and the country of his grandmother's birth.
‘What are we going to do about it?’ - World Cup winning coach asks question as All Blacks lose young talent
He follows in the foot steps of current Scotland fly-half Fergus Burke, who traded Crusaders for Gallagher Premiership side Saracens in 2024. The former New Zealand under-20 international was eligible to play for the All Blacks and England as well but chose Murrayfield as his international home.
Asked how New Zealand Rugby can stop young players from making these moves, Hansen said: “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.
“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.
“There are only five franchises, so there are not a lot of opportunities for everybody. 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.”
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