I know. Friday night wasn't Manu's best game at all. He was a lot quieter than his usual impressive self.

but Tomkins was quiet as well and Manu put a good couple of tackles on him whilst Tomkins did none

my opinion as ive posted on other sites:

three points!

1 - he is nowhere near good enough!

2 - he is not english and has already played for tonga.

3 - im sorry mcnamara, australia dont do this. we may have picked players who were born overseas but they emigrated to this country as children with their families where they learnt to play rugby league. manu signed a contract and moved to england for work, there is an extremely strong chance he will return to australia when he finishes in super league.

Didn't Jarred Hayne play for Fiji in the 2008 World Cup? I'm pretty sure he'll feature this autmun

Dont talk about what the Aussies do they have been doing it for years,Tony Carroll played Origin then for the Aussies then the Kwis.

If we are going down that route I belive Clint Newton's mother is english.
Do I want Clint playing for england though....................Nope.

im not sure how this is even relevent to manu playing for england. hayne played his first test for australia in 2007 against nz. he was then allowed to switch to fiji for the world cup (qualified through a fijian father) which we all know is an absolute joke, before switching back to australia in 09. it is completely different to somebody who signed a sporting contract to move to england and 3 years later potentially play for england. australia have never done a faasavalu, brent webb, nathan fien or potntially a willie manu.

carroll is a joke. im in no way defending playing for two countries, it is my biggest pet hate in rugby league, but i do remember the circumstances in why he played for nz quite well. he had already played origin for qld, when in the year 2000 he didnt make the australian team and was encouraged quite strongly by the arl to play for nz as it would affect his chances of representing qld and australia in the future. the arl stupidly had the impression that the world cup matches werent test matches (which they have since rightfully corrected) and they wanted to 'even' up the competition as much as possible so they encouraged a number of players to play tests for their second choice nations. this is a view they still share today and it holds international rugby league back immensely. tonie carroll moved to australia as a toddler and had the choice of representing aus or nz, but he should never had been allowed to play for both.

again though, this has nothing to do with england selecting willie manu so im not sure the relevance in mentioning carroll????

ben te'o could one day

Henry Paul.

auckland born Tonga international Willie Mason? Fijian Born fijian international Lote Tuqiri?

Karmichael Hunt was born in NZ and played amateur RL in NZ before representing Australia

Brad Thorn was born in NZ and represented NZ at Union

Brent Kite represented Tonga, and was named in the Tonga squad for the 2008 WC before the Aussies decided they wanted him.

all of these scenarios are completely different to willie manu. willie manu moved to england because of a sporting contract to play rugby league in his late 20's. the players you mention are australians with dual nationalities.

mason was born in auckland while his australian father and tonga mother lived there for a while before they returned to australia when he was aged 2. he is not a new zealander.

tuquri and family emigrated here when he was 3 or 4.

hunt and family emigrated here aged 10.

thorn emigrated here with family as a young child before moving through the ranks to play for qld and australia before switching to nz union.

kite was born in australia to an australian father and tongan mother and has played tests for both tonga and australia.


i understand your frustration with players playing for more than one country, i share your frustration. but as i said previously, australia has never had a player in willie manus or maurie faasavalu's situation with england play for them. as spud also said, this may change with ben teo, if it does ill be the first one to criticise the incompetent arl. i wont be surprised if it does happen as i believe the arl hold the international game back more than anyone, just not for the same reasons you do. the arl (who are basically the rlif) encourage players such as kite, mason, carroll, tuquri to play for other countries telling them it wont damage their future chances with origin and australia to try and make these countries more competitive so they dont have to put any real development work into these countries.

With this only being a train on squad things may change drastically later in the year. My thoughts are that we dont need Manu in the side. Yes a good player although the past couple of years I've felt he has a spell of two or three good games then he gets a bit quiet for a few more and if he's in his mediocre stage while playing for England when there are youngsters available it would seem a pointless exercise.

Obviously speaking as a Hull KR fan I would have been interested to see Liam Watts get a call up to the train on squad just for the experience of being around some top quality players and see if this could develop his game any further.

In 10 pages of posts I cant believe nobody has even questioned why this squad is left upto one mans decision. For many years the Aussies have had a selection panel and the coach is there to do just that, coach the set of players the selectors think will do the best job for their country. It hasn't let them down in a long long time so I dont see why the RFL shouldn't look into this too.

On the subject of Macnamara being England coach, the RFL were damned if they did and damned if they didnt. Most wanted an English coach but many would have only been happy for Kear to take the reigns. McDermott or Macnamara would have and are seen as poor choice of coach because they've not done too much at club level. Noble has been there and failed while Sharp is nowhere near the right level. So what were the RFL supposed to do?

Back to the poster that said "No" to Tom Briscoe. As a HKR fan I can honestly say Tom is the hottest prospect for a winger this country has had for a long time. He's very strong, confident and has plenty of growing left to do, this is without saying about his undoubted speed and defensive ability. Is good as Foxy is I dont actaully think he's a good choice for England, he is a confidence player who when he makes mistakes tends to make more and more until he does something good, in an England side that has been given their backsides by the Aussies many times before he might just lost that confidence and have a very poor series. Good back up player but Broscoe should be in IMO.

I just hope for the good of the English youngsters that Manu is ommited from the Tri-Nations squad and our youngsters are brought through in this competition giving them time to work on their game before the World Cup.

i think you are wrong. You are drawing in aribitrary line and deciding someone like Hunt, born in auckland to Tongan and Cook Islander parents before moving to Australia is Australian, but someone like Manu, born in Sydney to Tongan parents before moving to britain cant be british, Hunts Australian nationality is solely on residency, as is Masons, as is Civonicevas

Not forgetting the enquiries the ARL made re Fuifui Moimoi

The problem isnt the ARL encouraging these players to play for their nations, its them then demanding that they turn their back on their nations in order to play origin. The game as a whole would have been better for Kite, Mason, Hayne, Tuqiri, Hunt staying with their nations and still being allowed to play origin, like Adrian Lam.

fact is, given the opportunity any player worth his salt wants to test himself at the highest level, when its a choice between origin and the 4nation and the world cup with Australia or NZ, and basically a world cup for any of the other nations, the pacific islanders are choosing the Australia and NZ,

Petero himself has said he would have loved to represent Fiji but couldnt because of the origin rules.

i didnt decide hunt was australian, i have seen numerous interviews with him talking about his pride in representing australia and why he turned down nz. i didnt say he wasnt also a kiwi, or had connections to his parents countries which are samoa and the cook islands. as i said previously, mason was born in nz while hs australian father lived there for a couple of years before moving back to australia, and yes civonicevas australian nationality is based on residency which doesnt make him any less aussie than me. he is also a very proud fijian. manu moved to england for work purposes, surely you can see the difference here?



nothing more than a media beat up. a journo asked moi moi if he wanted to play origin, of course he said yes.



they did stay with their nation, their nation is australia. i can see why people think it would be a good idea to play origin and for another nation, it is probably a better system than what we have now but it is not the best way to develop international rugby league. it is a cheap fix which will put no development into developing countries. origin is a contest between 2 states of australia and a selection trial for the national team. what we need to do is give other countries the opportunity to also play meaningful rep or test rugby league during the same time as the aussies play origin mid season, to give players who have connections to more than one country a fairer choice on who they represent. once the decision is made there will be no switching, our current situation is a farce and holds the sport back so much.



the 'pacific islanders' you talk about are also australian though, they have every right to. also, there are many players who have turned down origin to play for other countries. the kiwis world cup winning captain nathan cayless was born and raised in australia, captained the aussie schoolboys but played test footy for new zealand which was great. the island teams are full of players born and/or raised in australia. if we gave these nations more meaningful tournaments and tests, perhaps more players will commit to them, but it is a commitment. you cant play in an australian origin series or switch to aus or nz in the future.



im sure petero would be proud to play for fiji. he also says the proudest thing he has done in rugby league is represent australia. he made his choice and has stuck with it!