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World Rugby to vote on easing rules on player Test team switches

Dan Kelly is Irish said:


Under the new proposals, players will be able to represent the country of their or their ancestors' birth after a three-year stand-down period.
Personally I would say 4 year so miss a RWC cycle and have it so it's maximum parents country of origin.
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Agreed - to me, any switch HAS to be a minimum of 4 years. The sort of situation I really don't want to see is something like Pietersen in cricket. "Snubbed" by his favoured country for a world cup, so he plays the next one for someone else.
I've always been fine with grandparents though (but go through phases of thinking it should be 2 grandparents; or something like a points system - so standard of 6 years residency, each parent knocks off 2 years, each grandparent knocks of 1 year, birth knocks off 4 years)
 
Which Tyler said:
Agreed - to me, any switch HAS to be a minimum of 4 years. The sort of situation I really don't want to see is something like Pietersen in cricket. "Snubbed" by his favoured country for a world cup, so he plays the next one for someone else.
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Pietersen is actually more fine than most people give it credit for, although he's never been shy of saying he felt he had to leave the SA system to get to international level at the time it was only self belief he was good enough. The England players at the time remember him coming up to him and them just thinking he was nowhere near good enough as he was a fairly average spin bowler. But he went on the play three years of domestic Cricket in England (with an English mother) before being selected for England. Its in those years he came into his own as a batsman. He never played for SA at age grade or any form of international level.

I think there have been plenty of other players who have qualified under similar circumstances in other sports but aren't as open to why they 'changed sides'.
 
4 would be better but I think it also depends on how the cap(s) came about.

For example, the Tongan prop who hasn't been able to play yet because he played a few minutes for Hong Kong years ago is an entirely different scenario to someone like Fekitoa.

I also don't think 7s caps should a) tie you to that country or b) provide a loophole to change. It might be related, but it's a different sport with entirely different competitions.

Someone like Fritz Lee could have been a big player for Samoa had he not played 7s for NZ.
 
Four should be bare bare minimum - I'd go even further if they have to do this though (for me it shouldn't be on the cards at all)


Short sighted, too - this could benefit Tier 1 nations massively
IRFU could've tapped up AJ MacGinty after Tokyo 2019, said sit out from USA contention for a couple seasons and play for Ireland at the next World Cup

There's bound to be a ton of SH players with an English/British granny playing in the North Hemisphere leagues who would be able to make the switch
Jean-Luc du Preez would be eligible to play for England lol
 
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Further thoughts - of course, I'm not a fan of anyone switching once capped at all. But if that is to be allowed, then it should only be for those with few caps, and there should be some mechnism to only allow the switch to a nation further down the rankings - but I don't have any answers on how to make that practicable and fair (probably needs to be a sliding scale).

I'd also be far happier with switches if the intention to switch was announced in advance; so "I wish to retired from English international rugby, as I prefer to represent Samoa" and then wait (3) years; rather than "Well, England have obviously cast me aside, but Samoa are interested"
 
Yes - some kind of 'notice of intent' would be good.

What about if there was a cap limit too? In other words, the rule only applies to players with 10 caps or less, 4yrs of 'stand down' and the notice of what they're doing.
 
Yeah, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of. Maybe different durations of stand-down depending on how you were captured.
So 1 year if captured by non-senior XVs rugby.
2 year stand-down if fewer than 5 caps.
3 years stand-down if 5-10 caps.
4 year stand down for everyone else.


Equally, some mechanism for only dropping down the rankings table - though that's in much greater flux. An announcement could help here "at the time of announcement, the new team must be at least (5) places further down the ranking table"
 
Would be interesting to see what players make the switch.

I know both Vunipola brother are against it.

Nathan Hughes for fiji
Denny Solomona for Samoa
kvesic could play for Germany
Hepburn could try to play for Aus
Mercer could try to play for NZ
Armand Zimbabwe
Lozowski Italy
All players that would be able to play straight away with that rule from England
 
I think it really depends upon the situation.

Arguably Solomona and Hughes should have been playing for Samoa and Fiji anyway is it's where they were born/started their rugby journeys. Same for Fekitoa, Piutau etc.

I'd feel very differently about Lozowski or Mercer (a stretch anyway) switching when it's clear that they're products of the English system. Whether you're in or out of favour shouldn't determine your international allegiance IMO.
 
BPM said:
Arguably Solomona and Hughes should have been playing for Samoa and Fiji anyway is it's where they were born/started their rugby journeys.
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Solomona is from Auckland then moved to Melbourne as a kid when he got scouted by a league academy playing union for his school
He's got one cap for Samoa rugby league but his rugby education was NZ/Aus
 
Paul Hill could also play for Germany.

Honestly not saying they would be Hill and Kvesic would be a big plus for Germany.
 
Haha I literally just created this in the International tab.

I would love to see some of those second tier teams getting the opportunity to play for their respective nations, in particular the pacific regions/countries.

The strength of teams such as Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Namibia, Kenya, Cook Islands etc could be hugely expanded by this. I would love to see a full strength Fiji, Samoa or Tonga etc play against some of the Tier 1 international teams and can only imagine it would improve the Drua/Pasifika teams and bring prosperity to those teams.

Imagine a full bore Fijian team (Nakarawa, Nadolo, Radradra, Volavola, Nayacalevu, Botia, Yato, Lomani, Murimurivalu, Matawalu, Tuisova, Ratuniyarawa, Tuisue, Mata, Matavesi (x2) plus players like Hughes, Raka, Speight etc

Would love to see it. Maybe it becomes a rule for only Tier 2 and below. I would have no issue in Kvesic and Hill for example playing for Germany, but i'd imagine it would add complexity to Prem Rugby clubs in international periods.
 
From 1 January, 2022, in order to transfer from one union to another under the revised Regulation 8 (eligibility), a player will need to achieve the below criteria:

  • The player must stand-down from international rugby for 36 months
  • The player must either be born in the country to which they wish to transfer or have a parent or grandparent born in that country
  • Under the revised Regulation 8 criteria, a player may only change union once and each case will be subject to approval by the World Rugby Regulations Committee to preserve integrity
After 1 January 2022, any player who meets the above criteria can apply immediately for a transfer.
 
TigsMan said:
From 1 January, 2022, in order to transfer from one union to another under the revised Regulation 8 (eligibility), a player will need to achieve the below criteria:

  • The player must stand-down from international rugby for 36 months
  • The player must either be born in the country to which they wish to transfer or have a parent or grandparent born in that country
  • Under the revised Regulation 8 criteria, a player may only change union once and each case will be subject to approval by the World Rugby Regulations Committee to preserve integrity
After 1 January 2022, any player who meets the above criteria can apply immediately for a transfer.
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No provision for the tiers then? Not surprising as it complicates things but could be a problem in the future. I guess the Committee could police it but I still don't know how I feel.

Say Varney for example - he could play for Wales now by the time he is 23 if offered a fat wedge of cash to leave Italy.

Or Sam matavesi (I'm not sure when he last played for Fiji) could play for England at the next world cup. Say the ABs have a huge back row crisis, Brad Shields could be right back in there. Redpath wants to bin off Scotland? England Squad here you come. LRZ wants to play with a not **** team and a load of cash? England here you come (this is a blatant @Welsh Exile bait)

This just seems like a can of worms tbh
 
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I assume stand-down means they have to declare the stand down, rather than be dropped and just hope for a call up in that time.

I don't like grandparents counting but also see a huge issue if a person can claim a nationality under that countries rules but can't play for that country if they've stood down for 3 years.

Reality is I think this will be niche.
 
ncurd said:
I assume stand-down means they have to declare the stand down, rather than be dropped and just hope for a call up in that time.

I don't like grandparents counting but also see a huge issue if a person can claim a nationality under that countries rules but can't play for that country if they've stood down for 3 years.

Reality is I think this will be niche.
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Doubt it - or else players wouldn't be available immediately come January as they haven't been formally stood down for three years
 

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