Apologists for Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon need look no further than the RDS Arena on Sunday for a poignant case study. It is certainly not an exaggeration to say that Charles Piutau, who will turn out for Wasps in their European Champions Cup tie at Leinster, would be wearing a World Cup winner’s medal now had he not chosen in March to sign a contract with Ulster which does not actually start until next summer.
During the World Cup itself he was under contract with the NZRFU, making himself far more available to the All Blacks than Armitage or Abendanon had made themselves to England. But Steve Hansen articulated his anger over the matter quite clearly, and in October Piutau was forced to settle for a runners-up medal in the ITM Cup with Auckland.
“It was real tough,” he said of watching the Rugby World Cup, in which his brother, Siale, appeared for Tonga. “No one likes to be a spectator. You do have those what ifs, but I’m the type of person, once I’ve made my decision I’m happy. I knew it was a possibility that [the Ulster contract] could affect my chances of making the team. I hoped it wouldn’t, but I knew it could. I was told by the coaches that that wasn’t the reason, but I felt it was part of it.”
So entrenched was the anger that the NZRFU blocked the Super Rugby contract the Blues wanted to offer him for the first half of next year, leaving him without a team for nine months. That decision allowed Wasps to come in with the offer that means he will play in England for the rest of this season, alongside Frank Halai, fellow All Black and alumnus of Wesley College.
Others would do well to note the dignity with which Piutau has taken his exclusion, or indeed to note the very fact that such policies exist – and have long existed – in countries other than England. A cynic might wonder why he did not keep the Ulster deal to himself until the World Cup was concluded, but the man himself comes across as too honest to play such games. “I could have,” he acknowledges. “But I backed myself to make that team, and I gave it everything. It wasn’t to be.”
His All Blacks career will pause for now on 17 caps, the most recent earned in this year’s Rugby Championship. New Zealand travelled to England with only one specialist full-back and three wings, one of whom was returning from a broken leg, so a full-back-cum-winger such as Piutau might have been seen as just the ticket. There is little doubt that the decision to join Ulster cost him dearly, if it rewarded him in other ways.
“Financially it’s a great support for me and my family,” he admits. “But I guess the new culture and the different experience, living in a different country – it’s a big thing for me. You’re quite lucky in rugby if you get 10 years, let alone five. I wanted to make the most of it.”
Piutau turned 24 the very day his erstwhile team-mates raised the World Cup. The reason his departure touched such a nerve is that he represents just the kind of brilliant youngster with a long All Blacks career ahead of him who is not supposed to be tempted by the approaches of the north. Piutau has sympathy with the very policy that has excluded him, but fears it will be tested like never before in the years to come.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s a different type of generation coming through in New Zealand. Sometimes players wait so long to try to get a crack at playing in the black jersey. I wouldn’t say people have become more realistic but this option to come here is one to think about. But with the talent that is always coming through in New Zealand, no matter who leaves, there’s always someone there.”
It appears there are a few talents here, too. Piutau may have made his debut for Wasps only last Sunday in the win over Gloucester but he dovetailed with his new team-mates as if he had been playing in black for years, never more so than when he combined with Christian Wade and Elliot Daly for the former’s brilliant try, the three of them transcending the soaking elements for a moment. Piutau is impressed.
“I don’t think I’ve seen someone as fast as Wadey, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with as big a boot as Daly. To be on the same team as them and their skill set is awesome. I remember Wadey from the Under-20 World Cup. He caught my attention, because his pace is unreal.”
England may have looked like rabbits in headlights when it mattered most this autumn, but if they can learn to harness talents such as Wade’s the outlook need not be all bleak. Piutau knows a team who would find a way. “The All Blacks would love players like Wadey and Daly. Talented, attacking boys like that. I’m biased, but I’d love to see my team-mates play international rugby.”
And so should we love seeing Piutau play European rugby. His decision to come here may have proved controversial but he made it with his own mind and has borne the consequences like a man. Now let’s see what he can do for rugby on this side of the planet.
