Which highlights the problems/flaws with the rules.

Correct, but isn't it ridiculous that he can pick and choose his team for the world cup depending on whether the Aussies select him?

No, but it is ridiculous that once he's made his decision to play for a country, that he's allowed to switch later on. Eligibility isn't the problem, it's actually a good thing. It's what happens after that that's the problem.

Totally agree with this. I think that maybe people should perhaps be allowed to switch once in their career, maybe due to feeling more at home in a particular new country, but they should declare their alligiance to that country before the initial squads are announced. I suppose the danger in this is countries like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa won't then get access to players like Hayne, Jennings because they'll declare their intention to play for Aus rather than the smaller nations.

Am I correct in saying that State of Origin games will only feature players who'll play for Aus?

No, Adrian Lam played for Queensland and he only played for PNG. They also asked Adrian Morley to play, but he refused.

Its the best against the best, and I'm sure its the first place you live in Australia that represents who you can play for (for example, Morley settled in Sydney, therefore he could have been selected for New South Wales).

Where you played your first game of RL in OZ I thinkwhich is why they announce their junior rep side. Morley would have played for NSW due to playing for the Roosters which was his first Aussie club.

Peter Wallace for example is from Victoria, but moved to NSW at an early age and took up RL.

But there was something in the press recently about Fuifui Moimoi and the fact that Australia, NZ and Tonga all wanted him to represent them. Australia were trying to lure him by saying he would then qualify for SOO.

Wasn't Morley looking at Australian citizenship at the time too?

You do have to be eligible for Oz to play, but as with Lam you can refuse to (not sure they'd like it though)

EDITUnder State of Origin rules players are selected for the state in which they first played senior (or registered) rugby league.[19] Players must also be eligible to represent Australia at international level. This has proved controversial as players, such as Karmichael Hunt, who are eligible for more than one country have chosen to be available for Australia in order to play State of Origin.[20] Because State of Origin football is so highly esteemed, players eligible to represent Australia as well as another country often choose Australia, not only to play for the national side, but also to play State of Origin (as was the case with Tonie Carroll and Karmichael Hunt).

Another issue of contention has been the selection of players such as Ken Nagas, James McManus, Israel Folau and Greg Inglis. Inglis and Folau were born and raised in New South Wales but are eligible to play for Queensland as they played their first senior Rugby League match in Queensland. Ken Nagas was born and raised in Queensland but played for New South Wales, while McManus was born in Scotland and was raised in the Northern Territory, but has been ruled eligible to play for New South Wales in the 2009 series.


Anomalies

In 1995 and 1997 Super League players were made ineligible for the ARL state of origin selection. This included most of Queensland's usual team, who now played for the Super League affiliated Brisbane Broncos. The ARL hence decided to relax the rules in those years, allowing Queensland to select Adrian Lam who had previously played for Papua New Guinea.
During the 2000 World Cup a number of Australian players were granted dispensations to appear for other nations under the grandfather rule. The players affected were David Barnhill (NSW), Kevin Campion (Qld), Tonie Carroll (Qld), Graham Mackay (NSW), Willie Mason (NSW), Luke Ricketson (NSW), Kris Tassell (Qld), Lote Tuqiri (Qld) and Adrian Vowles (Qld), [21] [22] [/i

It sounds like the origin rules for secletion are just as confusing as the international rules. It happens in every sport, I suppose.

inglis is a nsw player falou grew up in sydney ripped off again

cmon u cockroaches