We're living in a world where nationality is an increasingly fluid concept, particularly in sport.

Rugby league and England in particular aren't unique - look at the number of residency or grandparent qualified players representing England at cricket or rugby union, or for that matter representing any of the minor rugby union nations like Japan, Fiji, Tonga etc.

The Pacific Islands in particular are always going to have players who qualify through heritage but were born elsewhere, simply because of the large amounts of migration from these countries to the likes of Australia and New Zealand and the lack of a professional structure within their domestic sporting environment.

France would have qualified for the comp i feel if the top players bothered to make themselves available

they have shot themselves and international rugby in the foot big time, they actually get good crowds in france too

Neither it seems do you, perhaps in Wakefield, a young French kid might have a better chance of picking up some proper English after all?

If you knew anything about the dispute in question you would know that the body in my avatar is NOT the one that denied the American players, it is the group that represents the American players and was trying to oust the Australian-based group that took all the heritage players to the World Cup (and has now ousted them BTW).

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's probably a duck.
The Samoan team look Samoan, they sound Samoan and qualify to play for Samoa. That's good enough for me.

Samoa have shown there are more than 3 decent teams in internation RL.

was surprised to see how many samoan fans were in the crowd for the recent two games!

more on scotland here, coach would like to see a double header at wembley

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-league/news/article/480/9552619/rugby-league-scotland-coach-steve-mccormack-hopes-to-play-at-wembley-in-the-2016-four-nations[/url

I can't be bothered searching for the exact numbers, but from memory, RLWC 2013 featured 1 Scot, 2 Americans, an Italian, not a single Irishman, 8 Samoans, 12 Fijians, 9 Tongans, 2 Cook Islanders, 11 Welshman. From the 24 man squads of these 9 teams...21% home grown, 79% heritage.

Yes, other sports also have "heritage" players...Ireland's soccer team of the late 80's is a prime example of heritage players making the national side competitive, but at least Ireland has a semi-professional Soccer set up. The game is played in schools there too.
The Point about Samoa is other than a bit of flag waving from ex-pat Samoans here in NZ and in Aussie, this Heritage Samoan team and its competitiveness will not do anything to raise the games profile "back home".
[url=http://rugbyleaguesamoa.com/rls-teams/samoa/samoa-domestic-teamsHere's a list of the current Samoan Domestic teams from the Samoan RL web-site.[/url
There needs to be a heritage cap (in all sports BTW) in league, or all we get is Australia, New Zealand and England fielding 87% of the teams at a RLWC excluding PNG and France, who lat time out were as competitive as London Broncos 2014.....




And this comparison with a "species" underlines what? 23 of the current 25 man squad representing Samoa were actually born in either New Zealand or Australia......when Scotland run out in 2016 against the Big 3, how many Scottish born players will be involved?
Live on the BBC.....scotland (sic) getting absolutely trounced by one of the big 3, in Warrington with Danny Brough interviewed at the end [uIS NOT GOOD FOR THE SPORT.[/u

This is the point I was trying to make gutters I'm not against expansion but I don't see the point of manufacturing a side for a World Cup there should be a World Cup and an emerging nations World Cup running alongside it with a cap on heritage players

I just had a picture of gutterfax interrupting the Samoan haka to tell them they shouldn't be doing it cos they ain't 'real Samoans'. It would be a fine - if painful - way to end his trolling career

I agree to a point with gutters in that a manufactured side like the current Samoa one isn't sustainable for international RL.

We should be concentrating on nations with domestic clubs & leagues that could, in time & with help, consistently produce their own players. The nations that spring to mind are Wales, France, PNG, Fiji, USA & Canada.

Having said all that. At this point in time, a competitive 4th nation in international RL is exactly what the sport needs right now and I don't particularly care how it's brought about so long as it's not at the expense of helping those nations with long term potential.

agan, France didnt help themselves, after England they are the strongest side in the northern hemisphere.. but shot themselves in the foot by the players pulling out of this recent comp!!!

I agree entirely, there are big issues such as the pathetic amount of money and attention going to International RL which means the comps aren't taken seriously, but the way the French national team has been run has been, at best, amateurish.