Australia is being treated like a free rugby nursery

Of Eddie Jones’ starting XV to face the All Blacks on Saturday, eight come from Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.

The secondary argument put forward by those up north is that Test rugby has become a transactional game, and that player movement is simply part of modern society in which members of any given workforce can cross borders.

There is truth in this, and again this column is no slight on the Tuipulotus or their right to play for Scotland under current laws.

But where this argument falls woefully short is in the “transactional” bit, because Australia will get nothing in return despite the fact that Sione could cut them to shreds twice in the next eight months.

There’s no money in it for Australia, despite the country having a clear and important role in helping the former Junior Wallaby become the player he is today.

The only winners are Scotland, and they have doubled their victory by also naming Mosese Tuipulotu in the Scotland squad this week, despite having done next to none of the hard, and expensive, development work with the younger brother.

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Similarly, take the case of Fergus Burke in New Zealand. He had been steadily groomed through the Canterbury and Crusaders systems to take over from Richie Mo’unga, but ended up joining Saracens in the UK because he qualifies for both England and Scotland (although he missed out on both of those squads this week it would be a minor surprise if he is not in contention by the time the Six Nations rolls around).

Canterbury and the Crusaders got nothing from their investment in Burke, and copped the flamethrower treatment from fans and former player Wyatt Crockett for signing James O’Connor to plug that gap that he left.

It might be wishful thinking that Australia or New Zealand, or the Pacific Islands, receive a cent in compensation for the constant stream of players they prepare for other nations, but it is the big idea that Brett Robinson has talked about repeatedly during his campaign to replace Bill Beaumont as World Rugby chair.

The importance that Robinson put on the idea has somewhat been lost in the blizzard of other rugby headlines in recent months, but having spoken to Robinson at length I am convinced that the Queenslander who could soon become the most powerful figure in the game is increasingly convinced the current system is broken.

I don’t like using excuses for Australia, particularly when there is clearly work to do in areas such as talent identification, but a world in which it has effectively become a fee-free nursery for others to use is one in which the Wallabies will forever be locked out of the top five.