Most of those rules are there... they just aren't enforced.

People don't realise that these rules are in most sports... even soccer has them. Classic examples is before the 2002 FWC Poland did everything they could do get 3 NIgerian strikers to play for them. The president interveined finally and gave them citizenship in 3 days instead of the years that it takes.

uncle keith:

the biggest farce of all is the 3 year residential rule as it has been used by the kiwis to use australian warriors players such as webb and soon to be fein to play for that country.  I believe a samoan or kiwi just played for great britian under that rule as well.  It's a negative on the game.  Also the grand parent rule in both rugby codes should be scrapped for test playing nations.  As for emerging nations I think there should be a cap on how many ring ins they can use and over the years of that teams participation the number decreases until they can fully support themselves.  If Lebanon was not in the last world cup filled with mostly Australian Lebanese then a domestic competition in that country would never had started. 

that samoan was maurie faasavalu and he made his international rugby league debut for great britain in the recent test series

i agree with what you say about countries/players chosing ho they want to play for them/play for being wrong, once you play for a country thats it...no changes!!

but faasavalu first played league in GB, so in reality he has spent his entire rugby league career and life in GB, i think he is the exception to the rule

what australia and the kiwiws have done in the past is terrible

the tongan(s) who played for their country last year and are now in the NZ squad is an example of what we're really talking about...and it shouldn't be allowed

catalanc:

 

 

but faasavalu first played league in GB, so in reality he has spent his entire rugby league career and life in GB, i think he is the exception to the rule

what australia and the kiwiws have done in the past is terrible

 

if you are happy with faasavalu playing for gb, then how can what australia has done in the past be terrible. maurie was signed to move to the uk to play rugby league. he then made their national team in 3 years after becoming eligible. australia has only every picked australian juniors to play for the roos. we may have had players who were born elsewhere, but they are still australians who played all their junior rugby league in this country and made their way through the grades and onto the national team. they werent signed to move to australia to play rugby league. for the record, im not completely against maurie playing for gb, he doesnt break any rules. i think with a better international program for countries such as samoa, he wouldnt have chosen gb, but hopefully this can happen in the future. if and when it does though, maurie has made his decision and shouldnt be allowed to switch countries to samoa.

hutch:

catalanc:

but faasavalu first played league in GB, so in reality he has spent his entire rugby league career and life in GB, i think he is the exception to the rule.  what australia and the kiwiws have done in the past is terrible

 

if you are happy with faasavalu playing for gb, then how can what australia has done in the past be terrible. maurie was signed to move to the uk to play rugby league. he then made their national team in 3 years after becoming eligible. australia has only every picked australian juniors to play for the roos. we may have had players who were born elsewhere, but they are still australians who played all their junior rugby league in this country and made their way through the grades and onto the national team. they werent signed to move to australia to play rugby league. for the record, im not completely against maurie playing for gb, he doesnt break any rules. i think with a better international program for countries such as samoa, he wouldnt have chosen gb, but hopefully this can happen in the future. if and when it does though, maurie has made his decision and shouldnt be allowed to switch countries to samoa.

i agree that faasavalu shouldn't be allowed to play for anyone else

im pretty sure we're singing from the same songsheet in that players shouldn't be allowed to jump ship when it suits them

when i mentioned australia i was talking about the players rather than the selectors

the recent incident with robbie farrah was ridiculous 

Robbie Farrah is a completely different situation,he has played for Lebanon which is only an emerging country and i think we should encourage this.

Hunt should never have played for the Kangaroos but thats what origin do to most. 

Rambo:

Robbie Farrah is a completely different situation,he has played for Lebanon which is only an emerging country and i think we should encourage this.

Hunt should never have played for the Kangaroos but thats what origin do to most. 

what!?!

farrah has played for lebanon and so thats it in my opinion

i dont want to see players changing 'nationality' when a 'better offer' comes along

as for hunt i can see what you mean,but he moved to aussie when he was 11 (i think) and has never played for NZ

basically im just saying id like stronger and stricter rules 

Rambo:

 

Hunt should never have played for the Kangaroos but thats what origin do to most. 

he has every right to play for australia

hutch:

Rambo:

 

Hunt should never have played for the Kangaroos but thats what origin do to most. 

 

he has every right to play for australia

me personally, i would rather Maurie never played for us, not that samoa missed him, the ones we want to stop are people like Robbie Farah coming out with crap like............
“I really wanted to help Lebanon qualify. They have a young side and I have a lot of friends playing for them. But my priority is playing for NSW and Australia."

 yeah lebanon are in a position where all players are greatly recieved, especially those of Farahs quality but its about giving the internatinal game some credibility.

I also have no problem with K Hunt playing for Aus but if i were Australian i wouldnt be happy if i thought players were accepting our national jersey as lip-service to origin which is what they want most of all.

Look, this is a very hard topic to give a really good result, we all have some great comments and would love to see the best players playing for there countries, the vainakolo issue at the moment in union is a classic example, i was going to comment about this on a union site, then i thought, why bother,

But!  ,,  i will make a comment on here about players playing for there country of origin, if they want to play world cup games , then they need to start thinking about wheather they are from that country or not, say for interest;; if i was born here, in oz,  i would definately play for oz, now if i was born in lebanon, i would not hesatate to play for them, just common sense really,  no harm done, and my son, if he was born in australia, then he would play for australia. full stop. He would have no ties to lebanon. What makes it hard is the fact england and australia have so many immagrants, we cant change this.

One more thing, druzik, you know your my hero, but,,, the thing about the origin issue, i dont aggree with you there, yes it is the game that we all look forward to year in year out, but having said this you have to remember that we have not had a world cup for 8 years,  so what i am saying is this year they will use the state of origin as a pointer for players making the world cup side,    i am sure this will be on the back of most of the players minds, and yes, they did not take the tri-nations games as seriously as they should, but they always gave 100%  ,,, you cant dough that.??

Once the structure of the future world cups are sorted, i am sure they will take the playing for your country more serious, i think the build up to this years world cup is going to be intense on the whole lot of the players, here and overseas. Bring it on.

Ahhh look, Its a contentious issue, the plyer eligibility. I am not sure if the RL world is in a position to force people to choose only one country like say RU (I think they do this). The rules I think are OK in RL, its just they are not enforced by the higher powers. It should be that once a plyer chooses a country then they need to play for that country and no other.

The Vanikolo issue is no different to the Fassavalu one. They chose to play for England becasue its their new adopted home where they have only played that code there... beaut. If they will only play for them then I have no problems.

The Moi Moi issue was very different. He played about 3-4 tests for tonga against France, England, Fiji and Samoa. This you'd think would tie him into Tonga, but then the Kiwis less than 12 months later got a bunch of lawyers to argue a flimsy case in my opinion to get him into the kiwi side. He now wants after the tour last year to jump ship again, less than 12 months after playing for the kiwis to go and play for Tonga, I am surprised he hasn't out his hand up for Aus as he's been a resident there for 3 years now too.

RU, soccer do not have this they either have life choices for a country or have a very long period for not playing int footy to swap countries, Nuiciforra was a classic example. How long was it before he was eligible to go from playing in the Pumas to the Wallabies... Look I will call a spade a spade, where things are done good I'll say that. the RU system works well... you have to REALLY REALLY want to play for a new country and prove that before they let you in. Makes sense.