My personal point is that I was born here yet according to hi de hi I am not English, I wouldn't qualify for England, and neither would my children or theirs etc. You'd need to ask hi de hi why. I have, but he doesn't seem keen to explain.

Olsi Krasniqi was born in Albania but lived nearly all his life over here. He doesn't have English parents. He proudly plays for his home town team. Will he ever be English, will he ever be English enough to represent probably the only country he has ever known?

John Barnes was English when he rapped on World in Motion.

Olsi Krasniqi is in the same boat as Rangi Chase. He should not be picked for England. So what if he plays for his home town team ?? He is Albanian end of story.

What if you have 2 English parents but are not born in this country?

That's easy. You can't play for your country of birth, as your parents were not from there, and you can't play for England, as you weren't born here.
I think you could commentate, though.

Even if you were born to English parents in say, Bermuda

i am too bored of this debate anyway...
chase is not going to move marshall,foran,fien, johnson, thus his english change.
how quick do australia throw out the SOO eligibility to try and tempt people - they even tried with morley to persuade him. WE should make challenege cup english eligibility only as it would be a carrot as they always talk about the comp as a draw.

what gets me is what kind of teams the pacific islands would have without the sharks of nz and aus cherry picking - fiji could have hayne, tuquri, civonaceva, uate and there could have others who just hope to be picked.
look at pritchard, solomona, vagana's etc they steal just as many.

Fair play to macca for trying to at least use the same rules as them.

Oh, absolutely, that would only make you a British Overseas Territory citizen, not "English". (Wouldn't be Bermudian, either, as at least one parent has to be Bermudian). So pursuant to the HiDeHi Act, your international prospects would be well and truly fscked, and you would have doomed your descendants forever never to qualify for any international team. (Except in Bermuda Triangular comps)

My brother in law is currently posted overseas, with his wife. Fighting for this country. They have had a child. I have already told them that one day he will lead us to an Ashes victory over the bread pinchers. Now I find my nephew shouldn't even be allowed to play for England. What should I tell them?

The only thing that riles me is that he has been playing consitently for NZ maori's which is his heritage and he obviously has prode in playing for what in essence is NZ reserves. His decision to play for England seems to be that of vested interest on his behalf as he see's it as a chance to play full international rugby. But none of us know his true intentions. But i have to wade in on the fact that he is not ethnically English via parentage or birth and has no connection to England bar residency. I do not consider him English but will cheer him when he plays for us. But i do not agree with these types of nationality switches.

I am happy to discuss it but i do have a living to earn as well as messing about on rugby forums!
If my parents were from for example Holland but i was born here and had a British passport i would be proud of my Dutch heritage and say i was Dutch but also a British citizen. I do not see that is a problem, everyone should be proud of their origins.
If a child was born in Holland to English parents then i would say that child was English because that is its heritage, and it would be fine for it to play for England. But i don't want to go down the route of confusing playing eligability and nationality.

1. So in example A, say you were Sam van der Tomkins, knew no other country or culture, had played all the way through junior and youth and senior rugby in England/SL and had reached the top of the UK game. Would you think it is fair that you could only play for Holland? Not only that, however many generations of your descendants there may be, none could ever play for England? Even if their great great great grandparents apart from you were all born in England?
2. In example B, what if that child lived all its life in Holland; had children who lived their lives in Holland; and they had children ditto. Yet they are all English and can all play for England, for all generations?
3. At what preceding generation level can someone have a foreign grandparent, yet still be English? Or, if there is no such level, how can anyone be English, since ultimately all apparently originated from Africa? Or if you only have to be "pure English" a limited number of generations back, how do you decide which generation suddenly acquires the right to be English, even though their parents had not on your scheme qualified? And why?
I'm not trying to be diffcult btw. I really, truly just don't get where you're coming from and these are genuine questions.

“Caller: I'm a Hearts fan and, fair enough, Stephen Pressley gets a game for Scotland but what I can't understand is why Vogts never picks Antii Niemi.

“Host (former footballer Arthur Albiston): Eh? Sorry?

“Caller: Why does he never pick Antii Niemi for Scotland?

“Host: It's because he's Finnish.

“Caller: What?

“Host: Antii Niemi is Finnish.

“By now enraged caller: He's not Finnish! He's only 28!”

The rules state that Chase is eligible to play for England.

The Aussies have been using these rules for years to allow non Australian born players to play for Australia like Mason, Tuqiri, Civoniceva, Thorn, Uate, Fulton etc. I don't see many Aussies jumping up and down saying this shouldn't happen.

Why shouldn't we get in on the act? To not do so is to give ourselves a handicap like Yorkshire Cricket used to do.

We fielded a all Yorkshire born side in the first game of the season. Made you proud to be a Tyke but we did get relegated

I rest my case!

So does it mean that all the Bulls need to do to cure our ills and woes is sack all the forriners, then we'll be top?

So what nationality am I. My parents were Mother South African, father Canadian I was born on a ship in international waters off the coast of the USA and have spent all my life in England.

You would be the nationality of the country of which gave you your birth certificate. OR i believe you would be given the nationality of your parents residents at the time.

which is England.

What nationality is my sister? Born in Wales to one Welsh and one English parent but married to an Irishman and living in Ireland. She has an Irish and a British passport.

It's too easy to say the place you are born is your nationality, your parent's nationality is your nationality these days. The world has changed, people are transient and move to other countries all the time. Why should they not be accepted?

If Rangi Chase changed his name to Ryan Collins would there still be an issue?

FWIW, my own opinion is that once you have represented a country at international level, that is who you have chosen to play for. You should then not be allowed to go on and represent another country at an international level. Hape playing RL for NZ and then union for England for example.
Chase has chosen England - good luck to him.

In HiDeHiLand, you are truly fecked, as you are not of the pure blood of any country, so can't play for any country. Your parents know him, and did it on purpose.

Welcome to England, mate. Any way the population of England is looked at we have to be one of the biggest sets of 'mongrels' anywhere on earth (invaded by Vikings, Norman French, Teutons, Angles, Saxons.....yawn) you fit right in!! . Can you [iplay[/i RL?

The idea of a 'true blooded Englishman is an oxymoron anyway so on the basis of no foreign blood in their veins I guess no-one is truly qualified to play for England.