Foreign Legion Sure To Be In Thick Of It
Sun Herald
Sunday July 4, 2004
TWO of the Wallabies' best players last weekend against England were a South African and a Fijian. Playing for England was Sydney's St Joseph's College product Michael Lipman.
The week before, the Wallabies faced a Scotland attack based around Daniel Parks, who spent years plying his trade at Sydney club Southern Districts. Wallabies Radike Samo and Lote Tuqiri were born in Fiji. So, too, was 21-year-old fringe Wallaby Jone Tawake. Look back a bit further and the names Willie Ofahengaue, Patricio Noriega and Tiaan Strauss fall into similar categories. The list is long.With the Pacific Islander team's inaugural Test against the Wallabies having been played last night, The Sun-Herald investigated and compared the eligibility rules across the three international football codes. Point 8.1 in the regulations section of the International Rugby Board's website, headed "Eligibility to play for national representative teams", explains: "... a player may only play for the 15-a-side national representative team of the country in which A. he was born, B. one parent or grandparent was born, or C. he has completed 36 consecutive months of residence immediately preceding the time of playing." An explanation of the philosophy behind the guidelines says it is to ensure that players who represent a country "... have a close, credible and established national link with the country of the union for which they have been selected". The code was updated in April and now specifies that if a player represents one country at senior level, even if he satisfies the three-year residency criterion or parent/grandparent rule, he will be ineligible to represent another country. ARU high-performance manager Brett Robinson, who has dealt with the issue of player eligibility for the Wallabies, said the updated code would negate the possibility of instances such as Noriega's representing the Australia, as he had played 25 Tests for Argentina before becoming a Wallaby in 1998. "Once you've played for a country you're obliged to play for that country for the rest of your days," he said. But if they had not played for a senior national team, he added, "it gives people flexibility because if they're living in a country for long time, they're not restrained by not being allowed to play for that country". "Guys like Willie O. or Jone Tawake could have played for their country of birth, but if they fit the criteria set out by the IRB it's a matter for the players to decide which country they want to play for." The eligibility rules in soccer have been changed significantly, too. On January 1 a FIFA statute came into effect which allowed a player to change countries if he had not yet played an A international. Previously, a player was bound to a national team if he had represented that country at any level. An example was the situation of Tim Cahill, who couldn't play for Australia until this year because he represented Western Samoa when he was 14. Conversely, many soccer fans are glad Harry Kewell was picked for the Socceroos in 1996 when he was a teenager because it ended any chance of Kewell, whose father is English, playing for England. Many players have had to choose whether to play for the Socceroos. For example, Mark Viduka chose Australia over Croatia. Ante Seric went the other way. In rugby league the situation is different again, with specific allowances having been made for world cups. Anthony Minichiello played for Italy at the cup and Luke Ricketson for Ireland, yet that did not prevent their selection for the Kangaroos.Radike Samo played for Fiji under 19s but missed selection for Fiji at the World Cup last year. He had said he wanted to play for both his birthplace and the Wallabies. He was initially selected for the Islanders' tour but later pledged allegiance to the Wallabies when selected to play against Scotland last month.Australia approached Clyde Rathbone two years ago and he signed with the Brumbies after he had played with the Sharks in South Africa. He captained South Africa's under 21 team which won the 2002 junior World Cup. But as he had an Australian-born grandmother, he was qualified to play for both countries.
© 2004 Sun Herald