He has obviously been to Ireland before he played for them, a lot of his relatives still live there.

Ateotd it's not as if he's applied for an Irish passport when he's arrived at Wigan and got it through some tenuous link. He's had a joint-nationality all his life and has every right to claim thats he's Irish Australian.

It's his parents.

PROVE IT!

Taken from wikipedia itself

Fair enough, genuinely thought it was his parents.

Thats makes everything i've said Bollocks then. Oops. ha.

[size1-1 now.....ha.[/size

If you have an Irish parent you are an Irish citizen regardless of where you born, live or if you apply for an Irish passport or not

I actually watched his superman episode last night. (great for all this info)

He said his parents were irish. so that is right
His sister was born in ireland but he wasn't. I see his sister being Irish and not him. He imo is Australian.
Also he never menteioned spending any time in Ireland. (He well might have)

but he played ametuer footie in Australia. Then signed for an Australian team. also was born there and raised there. Nothing to do with ireland but his parents. If he played for Warrington i would like to think I would be saying the same.

I hink the rules should be more simplistic.
I can bet that some players in super league will be looking for a welsh relative or link to be in the 4 nations next time round.

It would be easier if it was where you were born. or where you were raised or where your parents are from. but the way it is there are a million ways you can apply to any team.

But no-ones saying he's completely Irish, he's Irish Australian. He's definitely Irish enough to play for Ireland at least.

but if i held a gun to your head and said is Pat richard Australian OR Irish. He can only be one. Which one is it?

even then its a matter of oppinion, as inside man may say hes irish, where you holding the gun think hes australian, so you could shoot him for giving his honest answer.

doesnt work does it?

the rules are the same in all sports though, and its not gonna stop people changing between countries, pat never represented australia, the boy has irish relatives, and is therefore under almost every sporting rule in the world, eligible to play for ireland should he so wish.

end of!

but the point is you can't just pick your nationality. It wouldn't be fair for foster and lomax and marsh etc to declare themselves russian so they can play in the russian rugby league side.

I wouldn't have shot him for giving a differnet answer to me but there has to be a single answer and i think the evidence for him being australian is far heavier than irish and then he should be forced to be Australian.

but he is within the rules and those rules arne't going to change. I think it would clear up a lot of silliness where you can have australians in other countries teams cause they can't make it as a kangaroo

So if your parents were abroad on holiday and they had you, would you be English or (for example) Canadian? As you would instantly have dual nationality as that is exactly what happened to one of my friends.

Your parents have more of a bearing on the matter than where you live IMO.

But I also wouldn't say you had to choose, I'd say he an Irish Australian.

you are completely misunderstanding this whole situation,

for example, i hold a BRITISH passport, i consider myself english, however my grandparents are very much irish, and if i ever played sport, and was overlooked by england, and asked to play for ireland, i am well within my rights to, and would jump at the oppurtunity, as would most people. foster, lomax and marsh, have no russian connections(as far as im aware) and in that sense them playing for russia would be wrong.

however the rules are that if you have family, parents/grandparents etc, that are from another country, you are eligible for that country!