Rugby - Pacific Islanders

Looking at the amount of people of Tongan, Fijian and Samoan origin in the more successful teams it's unfair on these countries that they can't compete on the field while producing all of these good players. The reason they can't is purely finance.

Surely the RFU should be supporting these poor countries to keep their best players?
 


Looking at the amount of people of Tongan, Fijian and Samoan origin in the more successful teams it's unfair on these countries that they can't compete on the field while producing all of these good players. The reason they can't is purely finance.

Surely the RFU should be supporting these poor countries to keep their best players?
Should only be allowed to represent the country of your birth (exemptions for the forces) in any sport
 
Should only be allowed to represent the country of your birth (exemptions for the forces) in any sport
Country of residency maybe. If my parents were on holiday in Kenya when I was born and I spend all my life in England I shouldn’t have to represent Kenya lol
 
I'm happy if both parents are from there, or one parent is from a country and they have lived there. None of this grandparent shit
What about someone like me? I was born in England to English parents but have lived all but the first 18 months of my life in Scotland.

As it happens I support England in sport (mainly because it pisses all my mates off), but I do generally consider myself Scottish for the vast majority of non- sporting matters. Surely I should be allowed to represent Scotland at sport?

I like the gentleman’s agreement the home nation FAs have for those situations where 5 years of education in that country is required before the age of 19 to play for that country.
You don't even necessarily need a grandparent, it's three continuous years living in the country in order to represent them IIRC.
The grandparents thing is part of the home nations gentleman’s agreement for football IIRC as technically under FIFA rules anyone with a British passport could play for any of the home nations (hence Eduardo playing for Croatia etc).
 
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What about someone like me? I was born in England to English parents but have lived all but the first 18 months of my life in Scotland.

As it happens I support England in sport (mainly because it pisses all my mates off), but I do generally consider myself Scottish for the vast majority of non- sporting matters. Surely I should be allowed to represent Scotland at sport?

I like the gentleman’s agreement the home nation FAs have for those situations where 5 years of education in that country is required before the age of 19 to play for that country.
Face it you're English. If you said you weren't, the lads around here would say you were choochter anyway :lol:.
 
Country of residency maybe. If my parents were on holiday in Kenya when I was born and I spend all my life in England I shouldn’t have to represent Kenya lol
Yes you should. Blame your mother for going on holiday when she was heavily pregnant ... unless it was a 39 week holiday :eek: ;).
 
What about someone like me? I was born in England to English parents but have lived all but the first 18 months of my life in Scotland.

As it happens I support England in sport (mainly because it pisses all my mates off), but I do generally consider myself Scottish for the vast majority of non- sporting matters. Surely I should be allowed to represent Scotland at sport?

I like the gentleman’s agreement the home nation FAs have for those situations where 5 years of education in that country is required before the age of 19 to play for that country.

The grandparents thing is part of the home nations gentleman’s agreement for football IIRC as technically under FIFA rules anyone with a British passport could play for any of the home nations (hence Eduardo playing for Croatia etc).

Despite his strong Mancunian accent and living in Salford from a very young age Ryan Giggs was never eligible to play for England.
 
Despite his strong Mancunian accent and living in Salford from a very young age Ryan Giggs was never eligible to play for England.

He would if he was breaking through now.

That education rule I referred to earlier only came in in 2008 (I thought it was earlier - effectively I would have been 24 before I could play for Scotland so my decision to support England is definitely the correct one) and it was amended from “schooling” to “education” the following year so that Andy Driver could play for Scotland.

This is a good read, mentions things like the David Johnson scenario and stuff
 
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Quite a lot of the Pacific islanders were either born in or moved to the countries they represent at a young age. But i do agree it falsely strengthens the richer nations and weakens the others, i like the idea mooted of internationals being able to play for one of the tier 2 nations if they arent selected for their tier 1 nation for a number of years (say the vunipolas werent picked for england for x years then they.could be eligible for Tonga).
 

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