And I assume if you're born in Fiji, you are Fijian...and if you're born in Tonga, you are Tongan...if you're born in New Zealand, Greece, etc, etc...??

I'll leave it to you to explain to the likes of Lote Tuqiri, Petero Civoniceva, Karmichael Hunt, Antonio Kaufusi, Tonie Carroll, Willie Mason, Hazem El Masri, John Hopoate, shall I? Oh, and don't forget to tell Bob Fulton and Benny Elias they were never really Aussies.

Really? How many of the current national rugby union squads werent actually born in the country they represent. < 1%?
How many of the current football squads werent actually born in the country they represent. <1%?
How many of the current cricket squads werent actually born in the country they represent. <1%?

While we are at it, why dont we get a load of random aussies to represent Spain and bring them into the euro cup?

The international game is running before it can walk!!!

Interesting case study is this one. I was at the Wales v Bulgaria game on Friday in football and in Glasgow on Sunday for Scotland v Wales. In the football, Wales had an 18-man squad, 8 of whom were born in Wales, in the rugby league it was 7 out of 17 born in Wales. About level really apart from the fact that the rugby league lot are more passionate. In the football, just 2 played for Welsh clubs, in the rugby league it was 8, almost half of the squad, with a further 4 being former Crusaders players and one played for Rhyl Coasters in the past (Rhys Williams).

This to me shows the passion in the Wales Rugby League side. The fact that 7 were born in the country, 8 currently play the domestic game in the country (and not all 7 are in that 8 as Rhys is with Warrington) and a further 5 have played club RL in Wales shows how well the game is progressing in Wales and we can finally produce our own players for full international level.

Pretty strange argument. Ireland has certainly had football teams representing them with no Irish-born players.

England Cricket team regularly took the field in 80s and 90s with only 1 or 2 out of 11 born in England. Right now, they have Pietersen, Trott, Kieswetter, Michael Lumb, Matt Prior (SA), Ed Joyce, Eoin Morgan (Ireland), Owais Shah (Pakistan). Strauss was also born in South Africa, Mascarenhas grew up in Australia but was born here.

10 people in my office at work. Every single one of us could represent more than one country in sport, or has kids who could do. And this is leafy villages in Cambridgeshire, not central London.

It was Scotland v Wales , a competitive international just like when we play them in every other sport. It mattered just the same to the fans watching in the stands like me and the players on the pitch that they were representing THEIR country. I certainly got that from the Scottish fans that were there, just a shame the match wasn't further publicised really, it was hard enough trying to find the ground as even most locals didnt know where it is.

Back to the representation arguement, how many South Sea Islanders have been 'naturalised' through Australian and NZ citizenship to play for their resepctive Union/League sides , and we have a far smaller population of 5m (Scotland) and < 3m (Wales) from which to pick players from , if you want to see an entirely Welsh RL side, do come down to Neath and watch the South Wales Scorpions as we can realistically achieve that now.As for Scotland historically its harder for them to do so than us do to the development of the sport in the country, I think they are a few years off what we have now in Wales but an Edinburgh Eagles/et al Championship 1 side in a couple of years is possible. Atleast this tournament is competitive and which actually have one instead of going years without an international match ,that cannot be allowed toi happen again.

the above are all australian, im not sure what there is to explain.

great game by the welsh, will be a cracking game v the french!

That's fantastic and, if anything, far more noise needs to be made about such facts.

The lesson you have learned from this post and the following one's from JonM and Cardiff Cymru is that when you use statistics to add gravitas to your argument you should ensure that the stats actually support your case and not the other way around

Of course they are

To be fair, the poster brought that up due to the original quote about players should only play for the country where they were born.

RL fans seem obsessed with this, when no other sport is.

Excellent post mate.

Well said that man.

Indeed, they are as Welsh or Scottish as those "Aussie" players.