The story of Brad Shields is a tale of everyday modern professional sport. Born in Masterton, on North Island, the back-row forward has played all his rugby in New Zealand, represented the Junior All Blacks in 2011 against an England Under-20 side containing Owen Farrell, George Ford, Elliot Daly and Mako Vunipola and is the captain of the Hurricanes. Now, on the basis of his English parentage, he wants to be part of England’s touring squad to South Africa in June.
We should wish him good luck, clearly, as he seeks to become a capped England international. He is eligible, keen and his globe-trotting parents moved back to Berkshire a couple of years ago.
He is significantly more qualified than several others who have worn the red rose over the past couple of decades and, at 27, it will be interesting to see how he goes once he completes his move to Wasps this summer. England, as everyone knows, are looking to boost their back-row resources and may just have found a valuable recruit.
There is just one snag unrelated to New Zealand Rugby’s sabre-rattling threat not to release him from his Super Rugby contract: Shields has not played a single minute of professional rugby for an English club. Playing against the British and Irish Lions in a midweek fixture on last year’s tour is the closest he has come to rubbing shoulders with any of his soon-to-be-colleagues.
Picking him for this summer’s England tour to South Africa would, among other things, also imply Super Rugby is of a significantly higher standard than anything the Premiership or European club rugby can offer. Try convincing all the in-form English-qualified players based in France they are less deserving of a tour spot than someone employed 12,000 miles away.
All of which makes this less of an eligibility argument than a question of judgment. Shields is more than entitled to opt for England but, for the sake of all concerned, that commitment should be displayed at club level in the first instance. Riki Flutey and Thomas Waldrom also represented the Hurricanes before swearing allegiance to England; both had to prove their worth in the English Premiership first. Piers Francis also had some experience of playing rugby in England before he was plucked out of Auckland last summer. It is a crucial distinction, particularly for other young English-reared players with international ambitions.
Better for Shields to be told he can compete for an England place but only after he has worn a Wasps jersey in anger. To parachute him in, sight unseen, recalls the unsatisfactory precedents of Michael Bent and, before him, Brendan Laney. Bent, who qualified for Ireland via a grandmother, was rushed into the Ireland squad in the autumn of 2012 having only just arrived in the country and ended up winning just four caps. Laney was selected by Scotland in 2001 just two days after arriving in the country from New Zealand.
For those who have grown up dreaming of representing their home country or have spent years developing the next generation of potential internationals these cases are particularly galling. The counter argument is that players who have been leapfrogged should wake up and smell the espresso: had they been surefire Test talents their coaches would not have looked further afield. But how does anyone know, definitively, that Shields is a better bet than Don Armand or James Haskell or Courtney Lawes or Jack Clifford or Teimana Harrison or Carl Fearns or any of the other players potentially affected by his imminent arrival? Until he plays a few Premiership games with and against his northern hemisphere peers, no one can be absolutely sure.
We are in danger of edging here into Sam Burgess territory: a big name arrival, in Burgess’s case from rugby league, with clear athletic potential but absolutely no track record in Premiership union. Shields is big enough to look after himself but how many rugby teams in history have been transformed overnight by the arrival of one individual, particularly a high plains drifter no one has met? Even Sonny Bill Williams, perhaps the best-qualified recent example, had to pay his dues before the All Blacks picked him. The best teams are built on all-for-one foundations, constructed over a prolonged period of time.
All this makes the Shields case a fascinating one. Imagine something similar happening in football and Gareth Southgate bussing in someone from La Liga on the eve of this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
For all Shields’ parental connections, plonking a rank outsider into a national squad is not a recipe for instant dressing-room harmony. Is booking someone overlooked by the All Blacks on to the first plane to South Africa really going to transform England’s World Cup prospects? Better, surely, for Shields to conclude his Kiwi commitments, settle in at Wasps and demonstrate this autumn he is worthy of fast-track promotion. Lobbing him a cap in June could create more problems than it solves.
Thin line
All best wishes to Rob Horne and Adam Hughes, the latest players to be forced into retirement on medical grounds. Horne has had to quit at 28 after sustaining nerve damage in his right arm. Hughes, who had been thinking about becoming a commercial pilot, has been informed by a neurologist he has two major trauma scars on his brain and that playing on for the Dragons was not an option. Playing rugby for a living can be hugely rewarding but, sadly, a potentially career-ending injury is never more than one unfortunate collision away.
Muldoon rides into the sunset
They will rise as one in Galway this weekend to salute John Muldoon, Connacht’s remarkable captain, on the occasion of his final game for the province against Leinster. For 15 years and 326 appearances the back-row forward has given his all to the cause, not least in helping Connacht to confound expectations by winning the Pro 12 title in 2016. One of the modern game’s great warriors, his imminent move into coaching with Bristol really will be the end of an era.
