I still remember seeing a GB side with 4 loose forwards in it. Sculthorpe at stand off, Sinfield hooker, Farrell second row, and Forshaw actually at loose man.

Not the same argument (because he does get picked for his own nation's side), but I was equally against it when it was being mooted.

My personal stance is that if you go down the route of exploiting as many loopholes as possible it just essentially becomes another club. In that case we might as well stop pretending rugby league has an international game beyond NZ vs Australia and just wrap up the England team.

You're actually embarrassing.

There are plenty of them about at the minute

Feck me, the blokes got English blood in him. What have the other two got? Bet you still class Ryan Giggs as an Englishman?

How do you get English blood?

Well....with NZ being 2 Islands almost entirely populated by Maori and European settlers, it's is highly likely Rangi has some "English" blood too, especially given the fact that Chase is an English surname. Of course England itself has many different bloodlines including Scandanavian, French and Celtic. I think that's why we have to accept that nationality is a mindset, rather than a genealogical matter. If an English resident is here legally, and claims to be English - who are we to question that? The question should be "Is he good enough for England", and as the MOS, you'd have to say he is.

If chase were the organising scrum half we desperately need then there may have been a reason to consider picking him. As it is, widdop is a better option at stand off anyway.

reed was born here so I don't have an issue with him playing but has heightington ever even set foot in the UK?

With regarding 'born here' what if someones parents, let's say German, where in England when the wife gave birth. The very next day they drove back to Germany.

The child never sets foot in England again, can't speak English and doesn't consider himself to be English. Can he then play for our national side because of where he was born?

Depends how good he is







reed was born here as his family were English and emigrated. Same situation as widdop. chase is just a new zealander who has no chance of ever representing the country of his birth

If you go back far enough, most Aussies have 'English blood' in them.

My point wasn't that he doesn't have an English heritage in his ancestry, it's the fact that he doesn't appear to have ever been compelled to act on it before now. I can see it with Reed because he's picked England right off the bat, even with SOO interested, but Heighington is only doing it because he has tried and failed to get picked for SOO/Australia, the same as Chase with NZ.

And a better football analogy would be picked from Ireland's USA '94 squad (you have several to choose from).