Giteau's law, or the Giteau law, is a name given to a practice by the

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

(ARU) introduced in 2015 to allow overseas-based Australian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

players to be eligible to play for the Australian national rugby union team. The policy change is colloquially named after

Matt Giteau Matthew James Giteau (born 29 September 1982) is an Australian rugby union professional player who plays for the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR). Giteau plays as a Rugby union positions#Utility players, utility back. His usual posi ...

, as the rule was seen primarily to bring Giteau into the Australian side for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

Background

Before the policy change, players could play for the Australian national rugby union team only if they played for an Australian team in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition. Then-head coach

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian professional rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is head coach of Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

devised ''Giteau's Law'' to enable key overseas players to be eligible for the

. In April 2015, the Australian Rugby Union announced this new arrangement. The rule also allows players to return to Test duty immediately if they have signed with a

club for the following two years.

Effect

Assistant national coach

Stephen Larkham Stephen Larkham (born 29 May 1974) is a retired Australians, Australian rugby union professional player, currently in the role of head coach for Brumbies. He spent his career with the Brumbies (rugby), Brumbies in Super Rugby, for whom he playe ...

said the rule enabled the Australian world cup squad to benefit from more experienced players. He said ""It’s not just a team that’s a little bit older and therefore more experienced (but) we’ve got the right number of experienced guys, the right number of older guys and the right number of younger enthusiastic guys." The

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the Sports governing body, governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it b ...

Chief Executive

Steve Tew Stephen John Tew (born ) is a New Zealand sports administrator. He was the chief executive officer of New Zealand Rugby from 2008 to 2019. Early life and family Tew attended college at Hutt Valley High School in Lower Hutt and then graduated f ...

said he would not implement such a rule as New Zealand "didn’t often follow Australia". Besides Giteau, Drew Mitchell returned from France for the 2015 World Cup under this rule. Following the 2015 World Cup, head coach Michael Cheika hoped as much as 85% of the squad would be available for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

including players available under Giteau's Law.

Current eligible players

* Caps updated: 25 August 2022

Amendments

In 2020, Rugby Australia approved an amendment to Giteau's Law that allowed up to two overseas-based players to be selected, regardless of the total overseas-based players in the squad, that did not meet the original criteria to be selected. In February 2022 further amendments were made to the ''Giteau Law''. The new amendments would lower the original rule (sixty test caps for Australia and a minimum of seven seasons at Super rugby level) to thirty test caps and five years at Super Rugby level, respectively. However, the new amendment only allowed for three overseas-based players to be selected. Just five months after new amendments to the policy, coach Dave Rennie urged

Rugby Australia Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

(RA) to expand the overseas-based player policy to four.

References

{{Australia national rugby union team Australia national rugby union team Rugby union terminology

Background

Effect

Current eligible players

Amendments

See also

References