When Warren Gatland named his Wales squad on Tuesday for the upcoming Six Nations championship there were very few surprises. Eyebrows were probably raised at the omissions of Gloucester fly half, James Hook and Leicester’s on form number ten, Owen Williams and the selection of Cardiff Blues’ Gareth Anscombe.
Many would query whether Anscombe has the quality to make it as an international and even suggest that the other duo are superior in terms of fly half play with Hook enjoying the advantage of experience to the tune of 77 caps. However, the fact that Anscombe, son of former Ulster coach, Mark Anscombe, is in with a chance of pulling on the red jersey highlights a serious need for a change in rugby’s national eligibility laws.
The World Rugby eligibility laws state that “a player may only play for the senior fifteen-a-side National Representative Team of the Union of the country in which;
a) he was born; or
b) one parent or grandparent was born; or
c) he has completed thirty six consecutive months of Residence immediately preceding the time of playing.”
There is nothing wrong with Anscombe playing for Wales in a few weeks as he qualifies to represent Wales through statement ‘b’ due to his mother being born in Cardiff. However, should a player who has spent only a matter of months in a country be allowed to represent the national team?
An example where statement ‘b’ has been exploited to its full extent was the capping of Michael Bent for Ireland in 2012. New Zealand born Bent qualified for Ireland via a grandparent but he had never set foot on the island before he was signed by Leinster. Yet the Kiwi prop was parachuted into the Ireland squad for the November international series that year. Does contentious selections like this not make a mockery of the international game where the cream of each country clash with each other in order to find out who has the best rugby side in the world?
If the eligibility laws are scrutinised closely, statement ‘c’ makes the whole notion of international teams, full of home grown produce, a joke and results in the likes of Bundee Aki, Connacht’s centre, stating that he has ambitions of representing Ireland after his three year residency is served despite having no link or heritage from the Emerald Isle.
After three years of residency, a player can play for the national team yet is unable to apply for citizenship and this has caused problems in the past for some.
An example of this is former flanker Hendre Fourie. South African, Fourie, who was capped eight times for England, was threatened with deportation after injury forced him to retire, as he was in England on a work visa. This was made all the worse as he picked up the career ending injury playing for England. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Fourie was allowed to stay. But the question remains; if he was not considered “English” enough by the government to stay in the country how could World Rugby (known as the IRB at the time) consider him “English” enough to represent the national team?
The big problem with this short residency rule is that the richer countries in world rugby are able to poach young players from developing countries, naturalise them and play them for their national teams. France has academies in the South Pacific; Ireland has the special project programme with Jared Payne, Robbie Diack and Richardt Strauss beneficiaries of it and even New Zealand and Australia have been enticing Islander players for years with a better life. How are smaller nations supposed to improve and develop if their best youth players are being dangled the huge carrot of money to leave their homeland and represent another country? This creates a mercenary mentality. Riki Flutey could be regarded as an example of this as he went back to New Zealand after a few years playing a charade as an Englishman.
So what can be done to stop international teams masquerading as a club team?
A simple solution would be that you represent the nation of birth. However, this would be far too strict as the likes of Will Genia (Australia) would have to play for Papua New Guinea, French Captain, Thierry Dusautoir, would have to pull on the orange of the Ivory Coast and Jamie Heaslip would have to tog out for Israel. This remedy would be unfair especially to those who have spent most of their lives in another country, plus these players mentioned and many others would struggle to make a name for themselves in the game.
Personally, I believe that World Rugby should extend the residency rule to five years as a foreign player would then have the right to apply for citizenship and therefore would be able to say “I am Scottish” as opposed to “I am a representative of the Scottish rugby team”. And with regards to those who may be eligible via a parent or a grandparent, a period of two years spent living in the country to prove their commitment to the jersey.
But what it comes down to is who does the ordinary fan feel most comfortable supporting. Would you rather support your national team with 15 men born and bred in the country? Or are you satisfied watching a team packed full of foreign mercenaries ready to move to France or Japan when the next client wishes to avail of their services?
World Rugby allow Warren Gatland to pick Gareth Anscombe for the upcoming Six Nations and if the Auckland born standoff were to kick a winning drop goal in any game he would be the toast of Wales and no one in the Millennium Stadium would care where he is from. But it must be asked if that event did come to pass, would the New Zealander Anscombe prefer to be wearing red or be kitted out in All Black?
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