Giteau's law

Giteau's law, or the Giteau law, is a name given to a practice by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) introduced in 2015 to allow overseas-based Australian rugby union players to be eligible to play for the Australian national rugby union team. The policy change is colloquially named after Matt Giteau, as the rule was seen primarily to bring Giteau into the Australian side for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.^[1]

Year(s)	Criteria
Apr. 2015–Sep. 2020	Minimum 60 Test caps for Australia; and/or seven seasons at Super Rugby level.
Sep. 2020–Feb. 2022	Minimum 60 Test caps for Australia; and/or seven seasons at Super Rugby level. Two extra overseas-based players (no criteria).
Feb. 2022–present	Minimum 30 Test caps for Australia; and/or five seasons at Super Rugby level. Only three overseas-based players can be selected per tournament/series.

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 competition.

Then-head coach Michael Cheika devised Giteau's Law to enable key overseas players to be eligible for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. In April 2015, the Australian Rugby Union announced this new arrangement.^[1]

The rule also allows players to return to Test duty immediately if they have signed with a Super Rugby club for the following two years.^[2]

Effect

Assistant national coach Stephen Larkham 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."^[3]

The New Zealand Rugby Union Chief Executive Steve Tew said he would not implement such a rule as New Zealand "didn’t often follow Australia".^[4]

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 including players available under Giteau's Law.^[5]

Current eligible players

Caps updated: 25 August 2022

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Sekope Kepu	Prop	(1986-02-05) 5 February 1986 (age 38)	110	Moana Pasifika
Rory Arnold	Lock	(1990-07-01) 1 July 1990 (age 34)	30	Hino Red Dolphins
Adam Coleman	Lock	(1991-10-07) 7 October 1991 (age 32)	38	London Irish
Will Skelton	Lock	(1992-05-03) 3 May 1992 (age 32)	24	La Rochelle
Rob Simmons	Lock	(1989-04-19) 19 April 1989 (age 35)	105	London Irish
Tom Staniforth	Lock	(1994-07-13) 13 July 1994 (age 30)	0	Castres
Kane Douglas	Lock	(1990-06-01) 1 June 1990 (age 34)	31	Bordeaux Bègles
Sam Jeffries	Lock	(1992-05-20) 20 May 1992 (age 32)	0	Bristol Bears
Sam Carter	Lock	(1989-09-10) 10 September 1989 (age 34)	16	Ulster
Liam Gill	Flanker	(1992-06-08) 8 June 1992 (age 32)	15	Urayasu D-Rocks
Jarrad Butler	Flanker	(1991-07-20) 20 July 1991 (age 33)	0	Connacht
Jordy Reid	Flanker	(1991-10-03) 3 October 1991 (age 32)	0	Gloucester Rugby
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto	Flanker	(1996-09-19) 19 September 1996 (age 27)	30	Northampton Saints
Angus Scott-Young	Flanker	(1997-04-23) 23 April 1997 (age 27)	0	Northampton Saints
Will Genia	Scrum-half	(1988-01-17) 17 January 1988 (age 36)	110	Hanazono Kintetsu Liners
Joe Powell	Scrum-half	(1994-04-11) 11 April 1994 (age 30)	4	London Irish
Bernard Foley	Fly-half	(1989-09-08) 8 September 1989 (age 34)	76	Kubota Spears
Quade Cooper	Fly-half	(1988-04-05) 5 April 1988 (age 36)	76	Hanazono Kintetsu Liners
Duncan Paia'aua	Fly-half	(1995-01-20) 20 January 1995 (age 29)	0	Toulon
Jake McIntyre	Fly-half	(1994-04-24) 24 April 1994 (age 30)	0	Perpignan
Samu Kerevi	Centre	(1993-09-27) 27 September 1993 (age 30)	41	Tokyo Sungoliath
Matt To'omua	Centre	(1990-01-02) 2 January 1990 (age 34)	59	Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars
Alex Newsome	Centre	(1996-01-20) 20 January 1996 (age 28)	0	Clermont Auvergne
Kyle Godwin	Centre	(1992-07-30) 30 July 1992 (age 31)	1	Lyon
Ben Tapuai	Centre	(1989-01-19) 19 January 1989 (age 35)	7	Sharks
Marika Koroibete	Wing	(1992-06-26) 26 June 1992 (age 32)	47	Saitama Wild Knights
Henry Speight	Wing	(1988-03-24) 24 March 1988 (age 36)	19	Biarritz
Joe Tomane	Wing	(1990-02-11) 11 February 1990 (age 34)	17	Biarritz
Luke Morahan	Wing	(1990-04-13) 13 April 1990 (age 34)	3	Bayonne
Jack Maddocks	Fullback	(1997-02-05) 5 February 1997 (age 27)	7	Pau
Tom Banks	Fullback	(1994-06-18) 18 June 1994 (age 30)	21	Honda Heat

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.^[6]^[7]

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.^[8]^[9] Just five months after new amendments to the policy, coach Dave Rennie urged Rugby Australia (RA) to expand the overseas-based player policy to four.^[10]^[11]