As the British & Irish Lions series draws nearer, Australian rugby continues to be a hotbed of contract news and rumour as players look to shore up their futures, either at home or abroad.
On Tuesday, three separate developments presented an interesting case study for the game Down Under, specifically Rugby Australia and its four Super Rugby franchises, as all parties do their utmost to keep the local talent on home soil.
That is exactly what Queensland Reds have managed to do with Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, who inked an extension through to the end of 2028. As an abrasive, hard-hitting second-rower, Salakaia-Loto has a profile few other Australian locks share.
At 28, he is also about to enter what are genuinely regarded as the golden years for a Test forward; better yet, he has already experienced life overseas, learning the kind of rugby it takes to be successful in dreary, heavy conditions across the U.K. and Europe.
Also on Tuesday, Western Force announced the re-signing of offseason recruit Nick Champion de Crespigny. Such has been the back-rower’s impact through three rounds that the franchise raced to square him away, also until 2028.
In fact, the quality of his performances against Moana Pasifika, the Brumbies and then the Queensland Reds, have also put Champion de Crespigny into Wallabies “bolter” calculations for the Lions series later this year. That may not eventuate given the growing level of depth across Australia’s back-row, but he will likely face the tourists as part of the Force squad and could loom as the perfect option for the ANZAC XV in Adelaide.
Little known outside of Shute Shield circles ahead of this season, Champion de Crespigny had to head offshore to earn his first professional start, departing Australia for France in 2021. There Champion de Crespigny played three seasons for Castres Olympique, where just like Salakaia-Loto, he experienced an entirely different style of rugby, starting in a Top 14 final along the way.
Champion de Crispegny’s age now then? Twenty-eight. Again, Australian rugby is about to see the best of him, even if he slipped through the cracks beforehand. It was a similar situation for Harry Potter, who joined the Force for the 2024 Super Rugby season after winning the English Premiership with Leicester two years earlier. Potter became a Wallaby in November.
There is a school of thought that given the global player market, and the sizeable contracts on offer overseas, that perhaps Rugby Australia shouldn’t be as concerned about players heading offshore at an earlier age as perhaps it once was.
“It’s a great opportunity for people to experience a different type of rugby,” Champion de Crispegny told The Roar last month.
“It’s not an easy task moving away from home, especially in a foreign country that’s native language isn’t English, so I think you still find the guys who do do it seem to grow a fair bit and I think some people come and come into their own.
“Australia can sometimes get caught in a single way of playing and guys can move overseas and find their own feet.”
It’s a path that worked for Waratahs and Wallabies star Andrew Kellaway, too, whose own journey from a disenchanted NSW squad member to Northampton, Japan and then New Zealand helped make him the player, and person, he is today.
“Moving on from the Waratahs to Northampton was not something I wanted to do at the time, but I look back now and that experience I had at Northampton was monumental for me in terms of the way I approached life and rugby,” Kellaway told ESPN in 2021.
Now coach of the Queensland Reds, and potentially later this year, the Wallabies, Les Kiss understands the global player market better than most, and the attraction of Australian players for overseas clubs.
Kiss said that while Australia had to retain as much talent as possible, there were situations when it was better to let some players leave – and hoped they return at some stage later in their careers.
“I’ve only a been here a year, so it’s only new to me of how it’s working, but I do know one thing that when I was in the Irish system and I helped out with Ulster and then later coached London Irish, we’d be definitely looking at Aussies and Kiwis, that’s not going to go away,” Kiss told ESPN earlier this year. “But I don’t think we’re ever going to stop that, it’s not going to be something that goes away.
“And you’re right, some people go away and needed that exposure. I don’t think all of them, though, there are some opportunities when you must keep the right people at the right time. You must keep the right players for the right reasons, so you ensure you keep strong local teams.
“But you’re right, you’re not going to stop it, there are going to be times when players, younger players, do go and then they come back, because that’s the beast that it is up in the north. They’re after good players all the time. And Australians and Kiwis, in particular, are very interesting to teams up there; at London Irish we had a number of Aussies and Kiwis, and Argentineans too. But you’re always looking for quality in the northern hemisphere.”
As Kiss says, an offshore adventure isn’t for everyone, and nor should RA want it to be.
Lastly on Tuesday, Waratahs back-rower Langi Gleeson fronted the media, only this time it wasn’t to speak about a contract extension. While no deal is finalised, Gleeson is reportedly poised to move to French club Montpellier later this year.
With his shorter-term future seemingly not being tied to Australia, Gleeson was disinvited from Joe Schmidt‘s Wallabies camp in January, though the national coach later informed him that he could still yet feature against the Lions.
And Gleeson has since admitted to playing with a “chip on his shoulder” as a result.
“Physically I’m sort of the same as last year, but I think it’s just been mindset shift. I don’t know, I just feel like I have a point to prove,” Gleeson told reporters in Sydney.
“I didn’t really have the best start last year and I’ve just got to have that mindset of just being physical with every carry, every tackle and just do it for the boys that are on the field with me.”
While he became a regular fixture on the Wallabies bench last year, Gleeson is by no means a walk-up start in a Test 23, particularly with the return of fellow internationals Liam Wright and Rob Leota, who were both injured for the second half of 2024.
And at just 21 years of age, would it be the worst thing if the Sydneysider did head offshore for a couple of seasons, potentially returning home in time for the 2027 World Cup?
At a time when RA’s cheque book is stretched more than ever, an $80 million loan already significantly drawn down, and with multiple first-choice frontline Wallabies off contract either this year or next, the benefits of Gleeson’s departure could work both ways.
Of course there are no guarantees that Gleeson would enjoy the same positive outcomes that Salakaia-Loto or Kellaway did overseas, and he is already considerably ahead of Champion de Crispegny, given the Waratahs No. 8’s first professional opportunity came in Australia. And for every Salakaia-Loto, Kellaway or Champion de Crispegny, there is a Mack Hansen, whose Irish roots made him a prime target for the current Six Nations champions.
But if the goal is to have Australia’s best players based on home soil in their late 20s, then letting them experience life overseas earlier in their career, rather than paying overs to keep them, at a younger age could well be the best course of action.
Just as long as they do come back.
Source: espn.com