Embracing the rainbow nation

This article paraphrases or plagiarises, whatever your opinion, an article by Sarah Mockford, entitled England’s Double Standards, which appeared in Rugby World.

http://www.rugbyworld.com/blogs/englands-double-standards/

Ms Mockford claims that the English rugby selection policy is severely hypocritical – foreign based English players will not be selected after the world cup – however the national side will still be free to cap foreigners, who qualify for England under the three year residency rule.

This system demands that English born players are not lured, by higher wages, to foreign leagues, but at the same time offers foreigner players a better wage than they can earn at home, with the sinister aim of bolstering the national team.

Hence the side will be comprised of players born in England, who ply their trade in the domestic league and foreign players, who have been lured to the Guinness Premiership. It is a policy of selecting loyal Englishmen and disloyal foreigners.

The reason I chose to comment on this article is because of its relevance to the Irish national side and because of the simplicity of her argument – never once does she discount the impact of ‘foreign’ players or their potential in an England shirt.

 She has an objection to their participation, in that it reduces the opportunities for English players, who have been brought through the underage system or who have toiled persistently for their club, without the validation the national shirt brings.

After the world cup, Richardt Strauss, the Leinster hooker, will be eligible for Ireland. Jerry Flannery, who is constantly injured and an aging Rory Best will not be plying their trade come 2015. Hence Strauss is a ready-made replacement, fortunately he is a better player than Flannery and Best, to boot.

Happy days – once again the free market reigns supreme. During the boom ministers sourced workers from abroad to meet labour shortfalls and the same policy has now been extended to rugby’s national side. This project is definitely going to be expanded if Strauss successfully makes the step up to international rugby.

This article is not an anti-immigrant diatribe disguised as a sports blog. To be honest though, these players are only in the Northern Hemisphere for the hard cash, which is unavailable in the Southern Hemisphere game and fair play to them. How many of our own citizens are currently in foreign lands for economic reasons. But would any Irish person justifiably claim themselves as full blooded Australian, American or Kiwi after living there for just three years.

The true measure of whether these players truly feel English or Irish should be measured by where they choose to live once their playing careers have ended. Unless they receive lucrative commentary work or rugby related employment here they may head back to the ‘motherland’.

Unfortunately come retirement, it is too late to select them for the national side so intelligent choices must be made prior to this point. To be honest I have no idea of how this could be done.

Perhaps the argument is completely redundant because of the commitment given by Irish soccer players, who were born beyond these shores. Kevin Kilbane being the prime example, but there are endless others. In fact almost every foreign born player who put on the green jersey gave absolute commitment, ironically Tony Cascarino was especially devoted to the cause, despite a very tenuous Irish link.

I also have no moral objection to the Irish cricket team supplementing the squad with foreign born players, due in part to the fact that these players are not handsomely compensated for playing in Ireland. The mercenary tag just does not stick.

The residency rule for foreign players to my mind is only relevant in amateur sports (or lowly paid ones), as these individuals are not solely here to boost their bank account back home. It should be abolished for highly paid sports stars.

Connaught last season signed two Welsh players: James Loxton and Martin Jarvis, who have represented Wales at underage level, because they are eligible to play for Ireland. This will be the beginning of a trend. The province system is handicapped because they are restricted in how many overseas players they can have. Ireland has a limited player base. Hence the way to side step this IRFU directive is to nationalise foreign players or employee foreign players with Irish ancestry.

Mark my words in the future the Irish team will have a fixed number of non-Irish men wearing the green jersey. South Africa is at the moment the most fertile market, wages are low and whites players feel aggrieved at the extent of non-white participation in the side, believing that lesser non-whites have an unhealthy advantage in terms of being selected. This has not really pushed white players out of the Springbok side, but the perception exists that non-whites policies are being pursued at underage and provincial level (Earl Rose and apartheid opponent Luke Watson were believed to have been unfairly promoted to Springbok squads).

There does exist an even greater potential to poach South Sea Island players (Samoa, Tonga and Fiji), through the offer of a relatively large salary (all third world nations) and a better lifestyle in Ireland. Lifemi Mafi stated, despite being ineligible, that he would like to play for Ireland.

Players who represent the national side should have some allegiance to it – not just representing Ireland for the large quantities of money on offer. In industry companies scour the globe for the best talent, but this is not appropriate for a national team and representative bodies should recognise this.

M.C.