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Just one vote stopped former internationals from switching Test allegiances

By Tom Vinicombe
Charles Piutau. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

The chairman of Pacific Rugby Players, Hale T-Pole, has revealed that one of rugby’s most discussed potential eligibility law changes was almost ratified at a recent World Rugby meeting.

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There has been much lobbying over the last decade to allow players to represent more than one nation at Test match level.

Under the current laws, once a player has been capped, he is no longer able to switch allegiances. This has resulted in a number of players – primarily of Pacific Island descent – earning a handful of caps for a tier-one nation and then spending the rest of their days restricted from taking part in international football.

Suggestions have been pushed forward that would allow players to play for a second nation, providing they meet all the other eligibility criteria and have only had a small stint with the Test team they were initially selected in.

World Rugby considered such a law but it didn’t quite make it off the ground.

Continue reading below…

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“We lost out by one vote last time,” T-Pole told Stuff News recently.

T-Pole believes that even if the law had been ratified, it would be just a “short-term fix”.

“From where we stand it’s a tricky one because we want to push for our players but the reality is they’ve played their best rugby trying to get to the All Blacks and if they don’t make it we get the second part of their career,” said T-Pole.

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New Zealand’s only eligibility laws mean that a player has to reside in the country in order to represent the All Blacks. That rule has resulted in countless players being forced to choose between the money on offer from representing clubs in Japan or Europe, or playing for the world’s most successful rugby nation.

For Pacific players, having the ability to send money home to the islands where funds available are considerably less plentiful than in the developed rugby world makes it tough to stay in New Zealand.

Clubs in Europe are especially happy to bring these types of players north because they won’t have to take time out from the domestic game in order to play Test rugby.

Allowing players to switch national allegiances would thus have a significant impact on the power-brokers in the Northern Hemisphere.

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There’s also a train of thought that representing New Zealand and also wanting to earn a living is for some reason an insult to the game.

“They say, ‘You can’t go and play for the All Blacks and make a name and a bit of money and then apply to change’,” T-Pole said. “I understand that.”

WATCH: Clubs fear RFU’s savage second-tier funding cut ‘will affect many people’s livelihoods’.

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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