what would your team look like if you could select anyone who qualified?

Just thinking about Maitland and Scotland. It got me thinking about what a team could look like if all players who could have qualified had been available for selection .By this I mean players who are disqualified because they have played for another country, play overseas, are injured, or have changed sports.

For reference the criteria are:
1) The player must be born in a country (e.g. Dylan Hartley could play for NZ)
2) A parent or Grandparent must be born in a country (e.g. O'Conner could play for NZ)
3) A player must have lived for 36 consecutive months in a country (e.g. Tonga'uiha could play for NZ)

Here's an example I've whipped up. Note you can pick players who have already represented other countries, are currently banned, injured, playing another sport, etc (Just imagine the restriction banning players who have already represented a country from playing for a country didn't exist).

Team that played last game vs my team
15 Dagg Dagg (Incumbent)
14 Jane Jane (Incumbent)
13 C Smith C Smith (Incumbent)
12 Nonu SBW (Playing rugby league)
11 Savea Savea (incumbent)
10 Carter Carter (Incumbent)
9 A Smith Paranara (Injured)
1 Woodcock Woodcock (Incumbent)
2 Mealamu Hore (Banned)
3 O Franks O Franks (Incumbent)
4 Retallick Retallick (incumbent)
5 Whitelock Whitelock (Incumbent)
6 Messam Kaino (Club rugby Japan)
7 McCaw (c) McCaw (C) (Incumbent)
8 Read Read (Incumbent)

16 Coles Mealamu (incumbent)
17 Crockett Tonga'uiha (Tonga - went to school and played NZ )
18 Faumuina Hayman (Plays for Toiulon in France)
19 Romano Thorne (retired international rugby & plays club rugby in Japan)
20 Vito Messam (incumbent)
21 Weepu Weepu (incumbent)
22 Cruden Evans (Plays club rugby for harliquins in England)
23 Smith O'Conner (Australia - Parent born in New Zealand)

So how would your team look? E.g. Would England look any different. There are a number of Home nations players who were born and lived in England, quite a few ex internationals who have played for English clubs for more than 3 years, and then there's the question of grandparents....

Assumed 1st squad- hard to call with Goode and Manu injured etc

15- Foden. Brown (played wing vs NZ)
14- Brown. JSD (too old and missed his chances)
13- Joseph. Manu (injured)
12- Barritt. Barritt
11- Ashton. North (born in England therefore qualifies, if JOC does for NZ)
10- Farrell. Burns (injured)
9- Youngs. Probably Youngs
8- Morgan. Easter (discarded)
7- Robshaw. Robshaw (others will say Armitage)
6- Wood. Wood
5- Launchbury. Launchbury
4- Parling. Parling
3- Cole. Cole
2- Hartley. Youngs
1- Marler. Corbisiero (injured)

16- Vunipola. Marler
17- Youngs. Hartley
18- ? ?
19- Palmer. Shaw (too old)
20- Haskell. Croft (injured)
21- Care. Care
22- Flood. Flood
23- ? ?

Oh we can pick ex internationals?

10- Evans

When you say Tonga'uiha...who do you mean? Are you aware that residency is only valid if you still live in that country?

Yes that's the point. i probably should have emphasized a bit more. Lets say Nick Evans qualified because there was no rule about prior representation. You can have any of the Saffers, Aussies, Irish, Kiwis, Argies, Islanders, etc who qualify through birth, heritage, or residency.

ChequeredJersey wrote:Oh we can pick ex internationals?

10- Evans

That was the point of the post. Imagine you can pick any player who would be available if it were for the prior representation issue in International rugby, or national selection policies prohibiting foriegn based players, bans etc. You can have Census Johnson, Any Argentinian, Saffer, Kiwi who lived in you country for 3 continuous years. If you are Scottish you could have Ali Williams, etc.

HammerofThunor wrote:When you say Tonga'uiha...who do you mean? Are you aware that residency is only valid if you still live in that country?

Then off the top of my head:

Brown
JSD
Tuilagi
Barritt
North
Evans
Youngs
Easter
Robshaw (c.)
Wood
Launchbury
Parling
Cole
Brits
Corbisiero

Castrogiovanni, Youngs, Marler, Shaw, Burger, Care, Burns, Murphy

Easier to tell you whom I would insert in the current Scotland team:

4. Nathan Hines (Australian/Scottish but retired from internationals )

7. Richie McCaw (All Blacks, Scottish grandparents)

9. Brendan McKibbin (Wallabies, born in Scotland)

10. Patrick Lambie (Springboks, Scottish parent)

Can't think of anybody now, but Josh Lewsey and Martin Corry would have been useful a few years back, both having Welsh mothers.

Scotland back row :-

Strauss Beattie Brown

As CJ says, Evans would be a great shout. Ayerza would be an option too. We have some good loose-heads, but Ayerza is up there with the best. Johnston has been at Quins for a few years now and, although he wouldn't displace Cole, he's a much better bench option than Wilson. Brits is another who's been in England for a few years now and would add something.

Jonathan Davies was born in England, he could come in and form an effective centre partnership with Tuilagi. North would be a good shout too.

So something like:

1. Ayerza
2. Brits
3. Cole
4. Launchbury
5. Parling
6. Wood
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan
9. Care
10. Evans
11. North
12. Davies
13. Tuilagi
14. Ashton
15. Foden

16. Hartley/T. Youngs
17. Corbisiero
18. Johnston
19. Lawes
20. Croft
21. Youngs
22. Flood
23. Goode

We were talking this at my club here in New Jersey the other day. With Alex Corbisiero, Ronan O'Gara, Samu Manoa, Chris Wyles (all US born) and Taku Ngwenya (Zim born, US by residency), the US would be one-third of the way to a pretty handy starting XV. Add in Paul Emrick (at Wasps) and the potential of the 7s sensation Carlin Isles (who may or may not ever translate his game to 15s - a long, long road to travel), and their future would be not too bad. Not sure who else is US born or qualified.

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Scotland back row :-

6. Strauss 8. Beattie Brown 7. McCaw

Helped you out there Schiz.

blackcanelion wrote:That was the point of the post. Imagine you can pick any player who would be available if it were for the prior representation issue in International rugby, or national selection policies prohibiting foriegn based players, bans etc. You can have Census Johnson, Any Argentinian, Saffer, Kiwi who lived in you country for 3 continuous years. If you are Scottish you could have Ali Williams, etc.

HammerofThunor wrote:When you say Tonga'uiha...who do you mean? Are you aware that residency is only valid if you still live in that country?

But you're point was that Tonga'uhia qualifies for New Zealand because he lived there for 3 years. If you talking about Soane then he doesn't qualify because he moved away, nothing to do with the fact he played for Tonga. If he has kiwi parents, etc then fine but residency only works if you still live there.

Schalk Brits?

Hammerofthunor - I think the idea is that it's anyone who at any point in time could have qualified

fantasy selection, so I assumed that a player could/might/would have been selected if he hadn't played for another country. Sorry if it wasn't clear. It was just a quick selection to give an idea. Tomololo (spelling?) (would have been a better choice from the current Tongan squad - at least 5 or 6 years in NZ)

doctor_grey wrote:We were talking this at my club here in New Jersey the other day. With Alex Corbisiero, Ronan O'Gara, Samu Manoa, Chris Wyles (all US born) and Taku Ngwenya (Zim born, US by residency), the US would be one-third of the way to a pretty handy starting XV. Add in Paul Emrick (at Wasps) and the potential of the 7s sensation Carlin Isles (who may or may not ever translate his game to 15s - a long, long road to travel), and their future would be not too bad. Not sure who else is US born or qualified.

What about Haden Smith - currently with the New York Jets Nfl team. It's a shame clubs effectively don't release players I think Samu's only played 1 game for the USA, and that was early on. I wonder how many players effectively can't play play because of club contracts. It's having a big effect when you look at the make up of the likes of Argentina in November.

Luke McAllister for England at 12 might be nice.

Norm Hadley was a resident of Japan for much longer than the qualifying period, although the last part of his three years probably includes a year or so of retirement. He moved into banking and stayed for several more years.

Nevertheless, a handy player to turn out for the Brave Blossoms given that lock is usually a weak position for them.

Not sure whether any top internationals have actually played over there for a full three seasons (and resided for 36 months). Since it's the choice of people at the end of their careers, one or two years seems the norm (hur hur) at the moment.

George Carlin wrote:

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Scotland back row :-

6. Strauss 8. Beattie Brown 7. McCaw

Helped you out there Schiz.

Cheers Dude