that NZ often poach the Island talent
I never said that NZ poached. I was very careful with my wording and said, "poached by a rich nation". You, not me, said NZ.
Let me be clear. This is not a NZ problem. This is a WR problem.
This is kinda equivalent to not allowing immigrants to vote, don't you think? They can come to your country but they can't call it their country, if they migrated after 18.
Gonna need a couple of lines.
I understand what you are saying but i disagree. For several reasons. First, it happens already in other sports and you dont see people crying foul. It's one of the few things that, though far from perfect, you see way less often in footie. George Weah played for Liberia, Drogba for Ivory Coast, George Best for Northern Ireland, Teofilo Cubillas for Peru, Bale for Wales.
You look at the any, ANY top 20 ranking of players in the history of the sport and you will only find tier 1 players. Only tier 1. See where i'm getting at?
Second, regarding your equivalence, i dont think that's the right one. The right equivalence would be being a member of two countries governments. Would you like your national security advisor to be last year's "INSERT COUNTRY HERE" security advisor?
I wouldn't.
Third, there is quite a big difference between being unable to call a country your own and being unable to play for the national rugby team.
Do you sincerely think say, CJ Stander would be playing for Ireland had he been a 1st pick in the springboks? I dont. Not for a second.
Sure, after that he probably liked the country, fell in love with the poeple, etc etc. But this is not "1st country rejects team". It's the national team.
To prove my argument is harsh but fair, I dont have the slightest problem with Jordi Murphy playing for Ireland (he wasnt born there). Perfectly fine with me.
Let me repeat myself: you have/had players from Country A on a student visa on country B, representing country B at a national level. And i am not talking about Jamaica vs Mexico. I am talking Tier 1 nations.
I'll try to boil it down to a very crystal clear example. Say the next rugby genius is born and raised in Tonga. He's got Lomu's strength and power, Habana's speed, Cullen's intuition, the complete package.
By the time he is 16 there are youtube videos going viral in every corner of the world. Every Union is aware of him.
If money weren't on the table, he wouldn't even consider representing a rugby union other than Tonga's.
The question is, what do you think are the odds of him representing Tonga and no other team.
I think they are zero and i think that is a tragedy.
I know some will say "let him chose, his call". My answer would have 2 parts.
a) I dont want it to be a choice at all, for anyone, but i can understand how practically is very difficult to implement so at least i want to reduce the choices.
b) The minute money was on the table there was no real choice. And the evidence for this is overwhelming. You dont see Aus/Tongan/NZ/RSA/Samoan/Fijian players playing for Peru, Cambodia or Chad. They play for Japan.
Again,
for me, the idea of having nations play against each other means for them to play with the hand that was deal with them. This is, for me but i think i wouldn't be wrong if i say for us, a fundamental aspect of the game. That is why even thou i disagree with Pichot's extremeness, i understand where he is coming from. I think he is precisely wrong but directionally correct.
And again, we put our money where our mouth is. We dont poach. We dont do it in rugby, we dont do it on footie, we dont do it (there is probably an obscure example to prove me wrong but i hope you get the gist).
For us this is very important.
It's like family. You dont get to pick your family, but you have to stick with it and do your best. Sometimes it sucks.
If you want to watch the best rugby teams money can buy, well, there's club rugby for that.
To recap, my arguments are two. One philosophical and one practical.
-The first is about what the competition between nations is supposed to be about.
-The second is that the system as it stands benefits richer nations at the expense of poorer ones.