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<blockquote data-quote="Shaggy" data-source="post: 452193" data-attributes="member: 43400">That&#039;s right, we haven&#039;t seen that (yet), and the reason is that the island nations lack the clout to do any damage if they carry through with the threat of boycotting on their own ... I won&#039;t be surprised if they do join the cause along with Australia and perhaps South Africa, because it&#039;s in their long term interests to do so ... that is, unless the IRB threaten to pull their funding, and then the island nations will tow the IRB line.... I heard plenty of complaining to the IRB right up to the Samoan prime minister, about players that had already represented another nation, not being allowed to play for Samoa, prior to the world cup, so please don&#039;t imply that New Zealand are the only ones to try and use heavy tactics (New Zealand and Australia supported the Island nations on that one by the way) ... I think the NZRU know exactly how much they lose on the ITM cup, but they also know that it&#039;s where all of the players are developed, and so, they have little choice but to play/pay for it, in some shape or form... and they also know where the money comes from to pay for the ITM cup/World cup participation, and it&#039;s from sponsorship, and test matches played by the All Blacks, so I think they are very in touch with reality</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shaggy, post: 452193, member: 43400"] That's right, we haven't seen that (yet), and the reason is that the island nations lack the clout to do any damage if they carry through with the threat of boycotting on their own ... I won't be surprised if they do join the cause along with Australia and perhaps South Africa, because it's in their long term interests to do so ... that is, unless the IRB threaten to pull their funding, and then the island nations will tow the IRB line. ... I heard plenty of complaining to the IRB right up to the Samoan prime minister, about players that had already represented another nation, not being allowed to play for Samoa, prior to the world cup, so please don't imply that New Zealand are the only ones to try and use heavy tactics (New Zealand and Australia supported the Island nations on that one by the way) ... I think the NZRU know exactly how much they lose on the ITM cup, but they also know that it's where all of the players are developed, and so, they have little choice but to play/pay for it, in some shape or form ... and they also know where the money comes from to pay for the ITM cup/World cup participation, and it's from sponsorship, and test matches played by the All Blacks, so I think they are very in touch with reality [/QUOTE]

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