I think we are getting in to very strange territory. I would hope we have moved on from Anglo-saxon Is Hargreaves in the current England squad?
I thought he was a Canadian that maybe qualified for Germany on residency but was called up by England as a player better than they could develop through their junior system? (but his Dad was from the old Dart)

Wait, are we talking about League or Union?

Harmichael comes to mind!!

I assume you are talking about karmichael hunt, who emigrated to Australia with his family aged 11, took up rugby league with a local club and moved through the ranks to nrl, qld and Australia? How is that poaching?

Good point made about the 2 tier structure. I'm not sure if it would help or hinder the Tier 2 nations though, as their players could be seen as 'cast offs' from tier one nations.

I'd go along with it though. If say Brough, McIllorum, Chris Bridge et al don't get picked for England it would be good if they could then play for Ireland, Scotland or Wales to give those nations a boost, give those players some international game time and make the Tier 2 nation's games more appealing.

It works both ways in regards to SoO and such. Australia take their pick of all South Sea/Australasian talent, New Zealand pick those Australian/South Sea players who don't get picked for Australia and qualify for them. So it's swings and roundabouts really.

Australia picks players that are either born in Australia or have moved to the country for economic reasons and end up playing the dominant Sport in two of the big States.


Other Countries look for players that were born or live or have lived in Australia and have been developed in the NRL that have connections with their Nation so they can be selected for their Test Team.

It does not really matter in the end, I just get ed off with hypocrisy and people that live in Glass Houses.

yes.

Yes, some are.
But they will pick the big 3 nations, regardless of what a player may feel, or what he may think his heritage makes him, or whether he feels Fijian, Tongan, Samoan, Papuan, Scottish, Irish, or Welsh, he is going to choose to play for NZ or England for the opportunity to play in the top tier internationals and Australian for the chance to play in the top tier internationals and SoO

Its more than $0

Akuila Uate was Fijian when he lived in Fiji, his dad was Fijian when he played for Fiji, Akuila Uate was Fijian in 2008 when he played for Fiji. When SoO came calling, he for some reason became a born and bread, died in the wool, sheep shearing, tinny drinking, reincarnation of crocodile dundee apparently.

because mostly they are half d mid-season Anzac tests with a kiwi b team playing because of a lot of convenient injuries. In actual, competitive tests the Kiwis are.......competitive. If they are competitive with the best 17 players Australia can put out, they are likely better than a team with only half of the best players Australia can put out.

I am not going through it all.
Uate came to Australia as a 16 year old youngster and moved to the NSW Central coast and represented Australian Schoolboys in 2005 as any School kid can regardless of Nationality.
He represented Fiji at the last World Cup so did Jarryd Hayne and Ashton Sims Born in Australia and around 60 other Australian born players for other World Cup teams to bolster that Tournaments smaller teams and make them competitive to a point, they knew by doing that it would not affect their chances of being selected for Australia, or NZ or England in the future.

So the Kiwis have played 20 recent Test matches against Oz and could not give a toss about 17 of them or even pick a strong squad? they had a master plan to win the games that count and plan to lose some games on the way to the finals to pounce in the big games?

I wonder why Australia bothers playing Test matches at all if that is the way the Kiwis approach Test games based on your Kiwi theory and England are a walk in the park most games.
Makes a mockery of the game at Test level if you are correct.

England have selected Kiwis, Islanders and Scottish and Welsh players in the past under exactly the same circumstances or worse, England has taken players built and developed elsewhere unlike Australia.

Two Australian born players were in the Kiwis World Cup winning Team including their Captain.

Im not so quick to decide, on behalf of Uate, that he only decided to represent the country of his birth and where he spend his childhood purely ‘to make them competitive’ in the world cup. Im not so quick to decide on behalf of Akuila Uate that his being a born and bread Fijian is secondary to his economic migration to Australia. You are.

For some reason you cant see that given a straight choice some of those who have chosen to play for Australia via birth or residency ahead of their nations of birth or heritage, that all things being equal, some of them may have chosen to stick with their nations of heritage or birth.

I don’t know whether Akuila Uate would have stuck with Fiji if it meant he could play SoO and in top tier internationals. But I think that is what we should be finding out.



Maybe the Kiwis would like to pick a strong squad, but there seems to be an awful lot of convenient injuries to Kiwi players in mid-season tests. A lot of minor surgery seems to be arranged for that time of year.
THey probably wont in the near future. The Anzac test will probably be gone pretty soon.
And i have no problem with any of them choosing to do so. Whether they choose to play for England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand is fine with me. It is however wrong that a player would lose so much by choosing to play for Fiji over Australia.

Ok done Smokey.
I would have no issues if one day a player that learnt his craft in England turned around an said my parents are Australians I want to play for them. That is never going to happen though.

The NRL builds players from all nations many times through Government Grants and School Scholarships and if they play for Australia its theft of a player, if like Benji Marshall ex Oz Schoolboy its developing other Nations players I guess.

Im not saying anything like that at all, however much you seem to be wishing I was.

Im simply saying that if a player wants to play SoO and top tier internationals he shouldn’t be forced to choose Australia/England/NZ.

If Akuila Uate wants to play for Australia fine, good luck to him. But he should do that because he wants to play for Australia not because if he chooses Fiji he misses out on Origin and top tier internationals.