rancid makes a bloody good point. Everyone seemingly raves about Origin, but turns a blind eye to the plain fact that it isn't the same game that we watch week in week out. As people the world over do seem to love that version of league, how come it exists without demur, rather with glowing approval, yet anyone wanting to play the same game in our normal comps would be shot down in flames?

You and me too but I reckon most people's priorities are with their local team.



Perhaps that's more a question of culture and civilisation than it is of RL identity. You only have to go back a year or two to read about the horrendous culture that's bred around the NRL and its players to get some idea of that.

What horrendous culture? The culture in the NRL is the same as in every professional sport

Did you used to go to the proper Int's back in the 90's when we could raw 60k to Wembley for test matches? You can;t tell me there wasn;t passion and feeling in the fans for those games.

I'm not paparazzi follower but the stories emanating from Australia over the past decade of things like gang rape, Greg Bird, Matty Johns don't appear to be as prevalent amongst UK players. I'm not saying they're angels over here because they're not but it is the national sport in Australia and thus there will be a connection to society because that's how these things work.



I never said there wasn't any feeling or passion in them because there still is now but you know, as well as I do, that the feeling and passion is stronger when you're watching your team versus your closest rivals. More people travel to France to watch their own team than do to watch England when they play there.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6404910925

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6404910925

The only difference in culture is that League there is high profile, it isn't here.

As for the 2 incidents you reference, one was a gangbang, which is not rape and whether you agree with the concept of a gangbang or not they happen in all professional sports and life. The incident with Bird is also sketchy. I believe he was found innocent and the media misreported it, but I can't say because I didn't follow it

There are finally signs that people within the Australian RL community are starting to take this issue a bit more seriously. The Sam Kasiano 'case' could be one which makes everybody stop and think, because many people are uncomfortable that a guy who moved to Australia at 16, and has previously committed in writing to playing for NZ, may be considered for Origin and therefore lost to NZ.

There are no easy solutions to the problem though. Removing money from the equation (which John Grant has signalled could be made possible by increasing payments for internationals) will help a little, but won't stop young players being swayed by a phone call from a desperate Ricky Stuart during an Origin campaign on the promise of immediate selection.

Mark geyer was giving it to Ricky Stuart on tv the other night. He was basically calling them mercenaries and only wanting to play origin for the money and cheapening the whole thing. It was very amusing!

Ps it is easy. Ether
A) soo isn't linked to playing for Australia so any nationality can play
B) you declare your allegiance to the country you want to represent at 18 and you can not change for 5 years. At 23 you get a chance to change if you are a citizen of your new choice and that is it for your career.

Not hard really.

Why five years? Why not three? Ten? Fifteen?

Because at 18 you can play academy and U20's for that country, 23 you are making 1st grade plus at 18 you are young and impetus where as by 23 if you are breaking into 1st grade you hopefully are a bit more mature and can make a decision based on where you see your future being in terms of the country you live in and the nationality you want to represent.

Only criteria I would add is you must be a citizen and hold a passport for the country you are representing.

Won't that just give Australia more time to cherry pick the best non-Australians they want i.e. after they've seen them play first grade for 2-3 years those that make it are courted by Australia there and then? Besides if you're old enough to get married, have sex, bring up a family and vote you are old enough to choose your international team. All this later swapping and changing is not done for the good of the game, it's done to satisfy egos, gloryhunting, increase chances of winning and make money i.e. greed, and I'm not sure we should be prioritising that. It's a way of trying to create a better spectacle for Origin (or Australia) at the expense of the game's infrastructure. I think we should try and have a bit more integrity than that (some may say I'm about to contradict that in the next para).

I don't have an issue with residency rules if you haven't been selected before to represent another country at any level prior. That should be a given because you can become a citizen of said country. If you have prior selection for a country (Up to U18s) I can see a case for changing being allowed but if you have played above U18s I don't think changing should be allowed (although I understand the case for supporting emerging nations and I would back an initiative that facilitated that). Going from NZ to Australia, England to Australia, Australia to England etc though is unacceptable.

Reality is then that kids at 18 will just sign for Australia as they won't put that SOO pay cheque potential at risk. At least this way the other countries get a chance to bring them into their fold and convince them to remain with them.

ALso Australia is somewhat unique in that many of these kids actually move over when they are young kids at 14 or 15 to futher their RL career chances. You would decimate NZ imo if you made a kid choose at 18 and made him stick with it.

ps why is it ok to play for PNG/Fiji/Samoa etc one year and Australia the next? That in many ways is even more farcical than a kid born in NZ but RL groomed in Australia representing Australia.

ps Feliti Mateo is the latest to jump ship with him abandoning his Tonga representation in the hope of playing for NSW.