he missed the point! The reason the Kiwis are now so competitive is because there are NZ eligible players in every NRL club and plenty of SL clubs, they don;t just rely on the NZ Warriors to supply talent. Better jnr programmes in France along with Toulouse in SL and better scouting by SL and NRL clubs to identify and bring through French players would lead to a much much stronger French national side.

Good point that JB, it will take a while for the Catalans to start getting players through and into other clubs, we have seen a few and Casty is off. The quality of some of their French youth players is supposed to be superb, Escare being the first youth player to break into the side.

If ever anyone asks why RL will never grow as a truly international sport, feel free to just cut and post this ^

Excluding a very average FRANCE, 7 countries and only 30 players representing them born in that country?
4 a pop on average?


Makes the English cricket team look positively...er....English

There's 28 countries listed in the RLIF Nov 2012 World Rankings, so I'd suggest that there is a significant international base.

Its probably worth noting that many of these countries have no professional leagues, hence for an international tournament their best representative players aren't those who were necessariliy born there, but those that meet RLIF representative criteria.

However this does not mean that there is no RL being played outside the UK and Australisia, just that its profile isn't as high as other sports, something that the RLWC will improve.

as an amateur sport, I agree 100%....but RL is a professional sport and 75% of the players at RLWC XIV will be born in England, NZ and Australia.

RL is not a professional sport. It is a sport made up of amateur and professional players, clubs and competitions.

Yes your right they will be, and will continue to be until we see professional competitions with full time players in those other countries.

Png will have a lot of home grown players in their squad that have not been listed as will some other nations like Fiji I hope.

Translation:


Killer stuff. No, really.

Although it might not seem right it does make it a more competitive competition no massively one sided games that can only be a good thing

Besides the above criticism of the quite frankly arbitrary selection criteria (which I know I baited by highlighting it!)...

How on Earth does the present state of affairs, that rugby league is not played professionally outside of 4 countries in the world, make any difference to the future growth prospects in the future? You just can't claim that something will never happen because it hasn't already happened - that's just plain moronic.

And I hate the double standard of some people (I'm not including you in this, because you haven't shown yourself to be one), who on the one hand will balk at a player turning out for their nation of heritage because they weren't born there; and on the other will deny that people born in a country are of that country - as a random example, I don't know a child born in France to Columbian migrants who then grows up there, and is called Columbian, and not French - rather than both.

I presume someone like Dan Sarginson should never be allowed to play for England if he is good enough? Or would you really complain if... Anthony Milford decided to play for Samoa, as both his parents are Samoan?


Plus those guys aren't all going to play for the country listed, just either can or have already done... plus it only includes the people currently in the NRL/SL...not full squads...

If you think a RL world Cup featuring Australia a, b, c, d, e and f, together with England a, b, c, d and New Zealand a, b, and France & PNG is a good thing, then god help you!
65% or more of the players on show at the RLWC will have been born in 3 countries......that's only 2 more than the AFL world cup

Again, what does it matter where the players were born? You do realise that it's the 21st century right?

Not much different to the rugby union world cup really

Do i think that a world cup where good players are available to play for lesser nations based on internationally agreed availability criteria rather than a "country of birth" criteria is a good thing? Yes i do.

Would i rather those names listed were playing for Scotland, Fiji, Tonga et al, than sat at home watching a bunch of amateurs on TV? Yes i would.

It might not be perfect, but at least it provides a stronger and more competitive competition than we are likely to have seen before. And as a paying spectator who is taking "new" fans to some of the games, i welcome this.

And who knows, the strong competition and a strong showing might just help further development in these nations.

The arguements over eligibility are pointless - it happens in all sports nowadays. And as FarsleySteve has pointed out, making the so called 'lesser nations' stronger by allowing 'heritage' players to represent will make the whole tournament much stronger.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the group , there should be some great battles. Additionally, I really hope that the games are refereed sensibly, using the State of Origin method of allowing a little extra aggression (although after this years series there is some debate about whether that still happens). I dont mean letting head shots go unpunished and allowing the game to turn into all in brawls, but just allowing the teams to have a real crack at each other.

totally different actually....as well you are aware.

Soooo what your saying is that when you watch international RL you don't want to see players picked on where they are from..... Like Club RL ???

In what way seeing as England Scotland Wales Italy Australia new Zealand USA Samoa Tonga Fiji Japan Canada all had players playing for them that wasn't born in that country the other might have had but there just the ones I know for definite so explain how it's not the same

Of the 20 nations below, how many had squads that where the majority of their players were foreigners?
England
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
France
Italy
Romania
Russia
Georgia
Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
Tonga
Samoa
Fiji
Namibia
USA
Canada
Argentina

the answer is none....in reality, less than 5% of the players at RWC were playing for the country that wasn't their birth country.

Same question here..2013 RLWC.

Australia
New Zealand
England
Ireland
Scotland
WalesFrance
USAJamaica
Tonga
Samoa
Cook Islands
ItalyPNG

Answer is 8 if not more.

Samoa v Tonga in RL in April saw of the 34 players on show actually born in the country they represented.....you are attempting to say that Japan fielding 5 non Japanese born players is the same? The 5 Non Japanese Union players are all naturalised and are playing in the Japanese league....the 29 Tongan/Samoan players are all born and bred Kiwi/Australians playing in the NRL.

If the game is to grow internationally, then the national teams need to have more nationals in them......Italy getting a decent result against Wales will have little positive effect on the game in Italy if most of the team are Australians

Much of what you say is sensible, but this is the point I disagree upon.

You need to take into account the vast range of immigration into Australia, which makes for a very diverse, but not culturally integrated society.

The Italian community is a very good exmplar of the situation.

You ask any italian immigrant, (first second third fourth generation)what is your nationality, and they will respond 'Italian Australian', the same goes for the Greek, Lebanese, Maltese, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian etc. The socialogical ties with their mother country is so strong that they genuinely see themselves as Italian, and through the generations have maintained links with their homeland culture and language. They have strong family links with their homelands and are also seen in their own country as Italians (who happen to live in Australia).

I have no problem with this and is often quite healthy. the key is that there is a league structure in the homeland upon which to build interest and involvement when the Italians beat Wales and a couple of others at the world cup. And it seems there have been some good foundations built in Italy to accomotade the interest that an Italian representative team will generate.

Back to the origional post... I think that the Tongan team is incredibly strong, talented and organised... they will be tough to beat, even for the top teams.

Much of what you say is sensible, but this is the point I disagree upon.

You need to take into account the vast range of immigration into Australia, which makes for a very diverse, but not culturally integrated society.

The Italian community is a very good exmplar of the situation.

You ask any italian immigrant, (first second third fourth generation)what is your nationality, and they will respond 'Italian Australian', the same goes for the Greek, Lebanese, Maltese, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian etc. The socialogical ties with their mother country is so strong that they genuinely see themselves as Italian, and through the generations have maintained links with their homeland culture and language. They have strong family links with their homelands and are also seen in their own country as Italians (who happen to live in Australia).

I have no problem with this and is often quite healthy. the key is that there is a league structure in the homeland upon which to build interest and involvement when the Italians beat Wales and a couple of others at the world cup. And it seems there have been some good foundations built in Italy to accomotade the interest that an Italian representative team will generate.

Back to the origional post... I think that the Tongan team is incredibly strong, talented and organised... they will be tough to beat, even for the top teams.

Much of what you say is sensible, but this is the point I disagree upon.

You need to take into account the vast range of immigration into Australia, which makes for a very diverse, but not culturally integrated society.

The Italian community is a very good exmplar of the situation.

You ask any italian immigrant, (first second third fourth generation)what is your nationality, and they will respond 'Italian Australian', the same goes for the Greek, Lebanese, Maltese, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian etc. The socialogical ties with their mother country is so strong that they genuinely see themselves as Italian, and through the generations have maintained links with their homeland culture and language. They have strong family links with their homelands and are also seen in their own country as Italians (who happen to live in Australia).

I have no problem with this and is often quite healthy. the key is that there is a league structure in the homeland upon which to build interest and involvement when the Italians beat Wales and a couple of others at the world cup. And it seems there have been some good foundations built in Italy to accomotade the interest that an Italian representative team will generate.

Back to the origional post... I think that the Tongan team is incredibly strong, talented and organised... they will be tough to beat, even for the top teams.

Much of what you say is sensible, but this is the point I disagree upon.

You need to take into account the vast range of immigration into Australia, which makes for a very diverse, but not culturally integrated society.

The Italian community is a very good exmplar of the situation.

You ask any italian immigrant, (first second third fourth generation)what is your nationality, and they will respond 'Italian Australian', the same goes for the Greek, Lebanese, Maltese, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian etc. The socialogical ties with their mother country is so strong that they genuinely see themselves as Italian, and through the generations have maintained links with their homeland culture and language. They have strong family links with their homelands and are also seen in their own country as Italians (who happen to live in Australia).

I have no problem with this and is often quite healthy. the key is that there is a league structure in the homeland upon which to build interest and involvement when the Italians beat Wales and a couple of others at the world cup. And it seems there have been some good foundations built in Italy to accomotade the interest that an Italian representative team will generate.

Back to the origional post... I think that the Tongan team is incredibly strong, talented and organised... they will be tough to beat, even for the top teams.

Gutterfax in a way I do agree with you as I've said before more countries play union and there international game is light years ahead as a short term fix it works were were going to have more competitive games at the world cup but how many of those Aussies are going to turn out for Italy when there playing Serbia in the European summer cup the answer is none that's were it's wrong

I'm turning out for Ireland, i had the same haircut as Colin Farrell once and apparently that qualifies me to play, i'm going to smash Gallen.

...I was going to text Gallen a warning, but he can't get to his phone tight now