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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nickdnz" data-source="post: 467198" data-attributes="member: 38640">You yourself said early on Darwin 23 I canÂ´t see how having a handful of imports in a squad of 30 or more players is detrimental to the All Blacks. I Therefore intrepret Darwin as really saying that foriegners are not wanted. Smartcooky also interpreted my request for a few imports to mean I want imports gallore. The Top 14 Final had players from Georgia, Samoa, Fiji, Argentina, South Africa, Spain and France. I am not asking for the Blues or Crusaders to copy this, not at all. IÂ´ve said maybe a few in each squad not a starting XV with two imports - Montpellier had nine and Toulouse four. This is an example of providing help at a level which would not bring in the doom and gloom that Darwin and Smatrtcooky argue. And this concerns me because there is room. Mariano Galarza took a cheap offer to play in Ireland last season. He is an example of a player that could easily be at the Blues in place of Brad Mika. FYI They donÂ´t have to be from Argentina. IÂ´m for the global game. Thats one way of looking at it but I feel the guy could play Super Rugby and do well because he (a) came through the ranks of Argentine rugby performing well for Duendes in Rosario, (b) had success with Los Jaguares in the IRB Nations Cup and was nomined for try of the year, (c) had a great Vodacom Cup where he was nominated for player of the year and easily the leading try scorer, (d) scored good tries vs Romania and Georgia at the World Cup and almost got the win vs England too. Defended well too, inc stopping Aaron Cruden from scoring. (E) has gone into Racing Metro and been able to adapt straight away - creating the winning try vs Castres and now has beenr etained for the Heineken Cup matches. Very often Medical Jokers are out of the Heineken Cup due to rules and regulations. The fact Racing Metro have him playing less than a month after arriving says that the coach, who is a former international player for France and Italian coach, thinks he is more than useful. Sorry if you felt I was saying he was good without backing it up. Hopefully this helps as the player has a future and is likely to knock Horacio Agulla out of the Pumas team. He has been LeicesterÂ´s regular right winger and Pumas left winger in both RWC 2007 and 2011. Not my favorite player but certainly someone of note. Ok - I am off to a city called Mogi das Cruzes for a vital Sevens event this weekend. Its only a 600KM drive...... Should be interesting though. 6 players from the Brazilian team will be playing. Then its a national holiday on Tuesday and this means Monday is a holiday too so IÂ´ll be away from this site until late next week. IÂ´ll check back to then. until then atÃ© mais (see you latter)!</blockquote>Hey man, enjoyed this read. Probaby my favourite of your posts so far. Good reply.1. Good to hear it. For a couple of years I've wanted this to happen. It just makes more sense than the current system, and would generate more interest and potentially more money. You also end up with more or less the same amount of games.2. I do understand this, but in my opinion many of the players are still ahead in terms of talent than Juan Imhoff in my opinion, as he would get no where near the All Blacks either. I suspect Ranger will eventually get a lot more time for the All Blacks in the future, although I hope it's at centre. The thing is, there are players who are fourth choice wingers which I suspect may one day make the All Blacks. At least 15 of those wingers have the potential to be an All Blacks standard wing, however some don't get enough exposure to Super Rugby (and buying talent wouldn't help that). Players like Declan O'Donnell, Buxton Popoalii, George Moala, Telusa Veainu, Julian Savea etc atc, are all younger than 23, so it's hard to know exactly how far they will go, they could all be All Blacks or they could eventuaklly be found wanting. Regardless, they have a much better chance of making the All Blacks and improving than if they were not selected for an overseas player, in which they would probably be forever lost to us for overseas clubs.I in frustration I chose the wrong choice of word in foolishly (sorry), I think I was going more for "in vain" or "in futility", which while not much better, perhaps don't have the same negative connetations behind it. Sorry about that (won't change the post, as it's a cop out on my part).I'm not guessing, rather looking at the influx of players you have mentioned that are now playing in the Top 14. In your Pumas XV side, many of the best players are now playing in Europe earning considerably more than they would in NZ. The point regarding players now wanting to play here for overseas, is equally obvious in our own players. There is a reason why we can't keep so many of them, as even the players in the top echlon of rugby, are earning well below their potential.The problem with selecting a small portions of quotes regarding opinions, is that I can make Nelson Mandela appear like Adult Hitler. In context, the point I think almost all those selected posts make, is that when you have a foreign player who is being imported to replace a more talented home grown talent. That's just bad decision making. Your particular quote from Darwin is very wrong interpreted. I don't think Darwin is against any imports, more that your idea of what we should do regarding imports would seriously damage New Zealand rugby. And it would. If we were to pay players their going rate in Europe, NZ rugby would die. The amount of money teams get each you to pay players is not large, and some imported players would take up a huge chunk of that. Not only that, but as I mentioned if foreign talent are selected over home talent, players just leave for more money. Look at Colin Bourke, missed out to Haskell so is now looking to move to France. Now I don't mind that. Good on Haskell for taking a huge drop in pay to experience Super Rugby, and Colin Bourke just hasn't fixed his game to warrent selection. No one in NZ really minds that (a part from BOP fans), it's just that he was willing to lower the price down to a point that we could accomidate him.I have been under the impression, that you were hoping for more than two or three foreign players per team. Other than PI players (who have been pointed as not even included as Foreign), there is very little exposure to players from the third tier. The big thing for them to get selection would be to play club rugby in NZ. Unless they have visited a Rugby Union in NZ they wouldn't get a look in anyway. The way for any player to play in NZ is to shine in the domestic competition, and then get selected for Itm Cup. I realize it sounds like jumping through hoops, but it is a fair way for any player to be selected. It's essentially the equivelent of a trial. Francisco Bosch was a bit of a cult hero in Manawatu, but he had to show interest in playing in NZ. With any luck, more players will be selected, especially after this "Rugby Championship" because comparrisons will be more easily made and they will spend a bit more time in NZ to talk to SR teams. I wouldn't expect players like Contepomi would take such a pay cut, but other may who don't have offers on the table or are just enthusiastic about playing Super Rugby.Nice point for Bosch. I have seen him play in the Vodacom Cup, and he is exciting and talented. I'm still not totally convinced he'd make a Super Rugby as a starter, and would find it difficult to keep out most of the home grown talent who are equally as exciting. What he does have going for him, is that he's played on a big stage, which I suppose would go some way towards getting prefered selection. Regardless, he's now earning hundreds and thousands of dollars playing in France, so there isn't much chance he'll join a Super Rugby team in the near future, as we can't afford him.Enjoy the 7's man. Massive drive. Fantastic. Wish I was there, ideally by plane. I've organised my own little 7's event which I'm off to, however it is just some mates down the local park...and their all smaller than me and don't play rugby. It's like the bully version of the game, but I know I'll enjoy it.[/QUOTE]

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