Why does the rugby world rely on New Zealand to fill their teams?

First topic message reminder :

Australia have Digby, Quade and Mike Harris.
England have Thomas Waldrom and in recent years regularly used Shontayne and Flutey
at the last RWC it was revealed that half the Samoan squad were New Zealanders
Japan constantly have a steady stream of New Zealanders in their team

And then there's the coaching. Dingo in Aus. Warren with Wales in the Lions. Before him both Sir Ted and Shag coached Wales. Warren has spent time with Ireland too. Sir JK coached Italy and Japan. Canada have Kieran Crowley. And at assistant levels there are lots of Kiwis like Greg Feek with the Irish.


It's beyond a joke. The rest of the world looks at the All Blacks, see a few PI looking players and say that New Zealand is raping the Pacific Islands, yet the majority of those players are actually New Zealanders with PI heritage. And at the same time as they say it, their team and coaching staff is flooded with New Zealanders.

And it's just not at the elite level. Japan, France, UK, Australia. They all rely on top New Zealand talent to fill their professional teams


Thoughts?

I belive they get to choose. Banahans from Jersey.

No 7&1/2 wrote:I belive they get to choose. Banahans from Jersey.

You also get a choice if you have a Channel Islands grandparent, which is how Budge Pountney ended up playing for Scotland.

How do they 'choose'? Forgive my ignorance.

Its just up to the player to decide who they would rather represent.

Do they have the same 3 year eligibility rules to qualify for any of the Home Nations?

I suppose there must be special rules for them. just like the ones which allow some people to stash their money in special accounts and not pay tax?????

It's quite an interesting one isn't it.

The Channel Islands could offer a birthing service so rugby mad UK parents can hedge their bets for their child's future rugby career.

doctor_grey wrote:Do they have the same 3 year eligibility rules to qualify for any of the Home Nations?    

No Doc. they are UK citizens with no birth link to any of the "countries" as recognised by World Rugby. Thus they count as being eligible for all 4 "nation teams".

Guess it is the same for the Isle of Man