Rugby Australia: Wallabies to adopt Springbok model on overseas player selection

As Australia follows South Africa's lead in widening its selection pool, Horne conceded that the Giteau Law had become "kind of redundant".

The Springboks ditched their selection policies in 2018, allowing the newly appointed head coach Rassie Erasmus to select players around the world, removing any kind of requirements. This led to the likes of Cheslin Kolbe making his debut while based abroad with Toulouse.

The change worked wonders for the Springboks, who have since gone on to win two Rugby World Cups, with many in Australia pleading for the Wallabies to go the same route.

In 2022, Australia's Giteau Law was tweaked to allow players who have at least 30 Tests or five years' service to Australian Rugby to be eligible to be picked while playing overseas, with a limit of three picks a series.

While Schmidt has been reluctant to select overseas-based players during his tenure, Horne has confirmed that the policy, which started back in 2015 and paved the way for Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell to represent the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup, has been binned.

Schmidt has selected the likes of Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete and Will Skelton, who ply their trades in Japan and France since taking over the head coach role last year. But the trend of selecting overseas-based Wallabies could become more regular with Noah Lolesio, Taniela Tupou, Langi Gleeson and Tom Hooper all heading abroad.

"We're pretty open, Joe's got no impediment to select whoever he wants," Horne told reporters on Tuesday.

"The Giteau Law, that's kind of redundant. The reality is if he wants to pick Josh Kemeny from Northampton, that's his call."

Horne adds that players who are contracted to Australian Super Rugby Pacific teams will get the benefit in a 50/50 decision.

"We've also made a choice that we select domestically because if the player's equal, or of that calibre, it's important that we invest in our premier competition in Australia. And then there's an opportunity to go out and develop.

"We've selected, I think, three overseas-based players in the last 12 months, from Samu Kerevi to Marika Koroibete to Will (Skelton).

"There's no impediment for Joe to select abroad. It hasn't been from the start. The board have been very supportive.

"But I think what we've been able to do is actually start to grow and develop a base of players in Australia that are actually able to compete, and it's been really positive.

"And we'll continue to invest in domestic-based players and invest in pathways to create more talent that's going to cut through into the back of Super and create more pressure and internal competition in those squads as well."

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh stressed the need for cohesion in the Wallabies squad but says that there is "a very open mind" to international selections. However, the need to keep as many top-line players as possible in Australia remains a priority.

"Cohesion's critically important," said Waugh.

"As we've seen with performances across Super level and Test rugby, and so I think being quite overt around the fact that our preference is to pick players who are based locally, and there's always the option where there's a material difference between what we have locally and what's available playing offshore.

"Clearly, our geography makes it a little bit more challenging than other unions that our position gets compared to.

"We've got a very open mind, but we certainly want to keep as many of our top-line players in Australia as we can."

The confirmation of the selection policy's binning comes in the same week that Schmidt will name his touring squad for the opening two rounds of the Rugby Championship against South Africa. The Wallabies boss will confirm his team on Thursday.