If Rennie and Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan have a beer at 7am tonight, they can toss it out by the time they’ve had the last gulp of their first schooner. It doesn’t need a six-month worldwide trial, an experimental law variation or 10 committee meetings to change it like most laws in rugby. It’s nothing more than a colloquial term created by the media in 2015 to describe former coach Michael Cheika inventing a clever 60-Test threshold that allowed him to bring Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell back from France for the World Cup of that year. We all quote the “Giteau Law” like it’s a statute enshrined in Rugby Australia policy. Cooper qualified under the old 60-Test requisite for selection from abroad. Strictly speaking, the “Kerevi Clause” has only really roped in Kerevi and McMahon for the Test side. Rennie hasn’t enlisted McMahon, 27, just to holding tackle bags at training so expect his tackle-shredding intensity to help the Wallabies finish the job against Argentina at Cbus Super Stadium (5.05pm). Utilising the foreign legion will gather further pace on the Gold Coast on Saturday when backrower McMahon pulls on the Wallabies jersey for the first time in nearly four years. He’s now throwing better passes before contact, limiting those 50-50 offloads that too often became wasteful turnovers and showing that he’s really worked on his skills with Japanese club Suntory. Centre Kerevi has been a superb game-breaker and not just because of his jarring, tackle-bumping rampages with the ball. If the Wallabies need a player for a certain position, fly him in from anywhere in the world ASAP. The “Kerevi Clause” is as simple as this.

Head coach Dave Rennie and Director of Rugby Scott Johnson deserve full credit for enhancing the Wallabies by bringing Samu Kerevi, Quade Cooper, Sean McMahon, Duncan Paia’aua, Izack Rodda and Matt Philip back into the fold this season.

Losing players abroad is always tough and seemingly the end of the world yet getting the best back, by whatever means, is even more important. There are at least 10 players in the current Wallabies squad who have played abroad and all talk up what being in a different rugby environment has done for them. Name a player who hasn’t been improved by playing overseas and channelling that experience or self-discovery into being a more complete player?Ĭlick here to get your tickets for the eToro Rugby Championship One key point always seems to be undervalued in the debate about whether the Wallabies should just pick home-based players or salute the “Kerevi Clause” as the smartest move of 2021.

Getting out of comfort zone