Nathan 'wrecking ball' Hughes

Surprised not many are talking about this.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/20/wasps-gloucester-premiership-match-report

Outstanding signing for Wasps & has really impressed. I guess he may rightly represent his birth country Fiji in the WC. But whoever he chooses will benefit beit Fiji,Samoa or England.

Personally I hope he stays at Wasps as long as possible & keeps earning mom awards.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Surprised not many are talking about this.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/20/wasps-gloucester-premiership-match-report

Outstanding signing for Wasps & has really impressed. I guess he may rightly represent his birth country Fiji in the WC. But whoever he chooses will benefit beit Fiji,Samoa or England.

Personally I hope he stays at Wasps as long as possible & keeps earning mom awards.

May qualify for nz as well. School, Auckland, blues development means he spent time hear. This is why FIFA changed there eligibility rules. Good luck to him.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Surprised not many are talking about this.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/20/wasps-gloucester-premiership-match-report

Outstanding signing for Wasps & has really impressed. I guess he may rightly represent his birth country Fiji in the WC. But whoever he chooses will benefit beit Fiji,Samoa or England.

Personally I hope he stays at Wasps as long as possible & keeps earning mom awards.

May qualify for nz as well. School, Auckland, blues development means he spent time hear. This is why FIFA changed there eligibility rules. Good luck to him.

If he wasn't born there or his parent/grand parents born there then he won't qualify. He could have lived his entire life in New Zealand except the first and last years and he wouldn't qualify. Stupid rules.

He did qualify for NZ through residency but lost that when he left NZ.

It was only tongue in cheek really. Good luck to him.

Looks a wonderful player though he's not English and is different to the others who all came to the UK as children.

These residency rules are poo.

kingelderfield wrote:Looks a wonderful player though he's not English and is different to the others who all came to the UK as children.

These residency rules are poo.

Tell that to Italy, France, Scotland.........................Australia, New Zealand.

The English already know.

He's a good player,  but if he has to consider if he wants to play for England he probably shouldn't play for us.  

Besides, although I don't know the player, I have a hard time seeing him turn down a call from Fiji/Samoa and miss a crack at the World Cup next year.

I'm not sure. If he makes himself available for England and is selected it benefits the club. The RFU recompenses clubs for english players. It probably increases his value. Of course he has to be selected.

Fiji aren't an attractive prospect right now, but to start being competitive again they're going to need guys like Hughes to come home.

The Saint wrote:Fiji aren't an attractive prospect right now, but to start being competitive again they're going to need guys like Hughes to come home.

That's true Saint & I'm not surprised that England have made enquiries. Fiji could be England's first WC opponents if they beat Cook Islands?

Three mom awards in the last 4 games isn't to shabby & he's only 22!

Saw the rugby highlights last night, Dallagio who knows a thing or two about number 8 play commented that with with Hughes, "it looked like boys against men"

Two of those MOTMs were against Glaws, whose first up tackling was woeful; especially on Saturday.

Hughes also has a habit of making those breaks and getting isolated then pinged for holding on against better teams.

I'm a Wasps fan, and as good as it is to watch Hughes busting through defenders, he still has a lot to learn. Let's see how he is after another season in the Prem.

Play for your country in the World Cup you fool!

By all means earn your money in Europe...but represent your country Fiji!!!

Its crazy....aside form making a mockery of what already is bad laws for the sport.

Raise the residency time to 8 years. That would stop all this rubbish.

And it might also aid the likes of Fiji, Samoa to keep some of their big players.

He may be a huge asset for Fiji if he has a good season next term, assuming he aspires to play for them. Fijians naturally support the man with the ball, and if Hughes can regularly break the first line of defence Fiji have some class finishers.

The best way to stop this is to make turning out for Fiji, Samoa, Tonga etc more attractive. Give them a SR franchise, give them a spot in the RC to boot and we will see far less poaching and far less players pledging their colours to a foreign mast.

When the chips are down, when you're up against it on the scoreboard the last thing you want in your team is mercenaries.

If I had the choice of a top class player like Morgan and say a world class mercenary as my no8 in a situation like that I would want a chap like Morgan every time.

Give them a SR franchise

That is an interesting one FA. Would it be one team that represents all Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.

Where would it be based. Play matches alternatively on the islands...ie Samoa one game, tonga the next etc...or would it be based in NZ, or Australia in a permanennt venue?

Auckland perhaps?

Problem is it won't make financial sense so probably wouldn't happen.... also it could strip NZ of some of its talent as kids who were born in the islands but grew up in NZ may decide to play for the ancestral home.. so I imagine NZ wouldn't exactly be keen on it.

It's probably worth looking at entering a Pacific Island team into super rugby, containing players from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji (not even sure if the likes of PNG, Polynesia have a rugby union team). Hopefully they'd get a few players back who are already playing in NZ, Aus and Japan. That along with the guys they have in Europe would surely strengthen their national teams.

What about the Cook Islands aswell.

The whole PI region?

I think the first thing is to raise the residency rule to a longer time. That would have big (positive) implications straight away.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Play for your country in the World Cup you fool!

By all means earn your money in Europe...but represent your country Fiji!!!

Its crazy....aside form making a mockery of what already is bad laws for the sport.

Raise the residency time to 8 years. That would stop all this rubbish.

And it might also aid the likes of Fiji, Samoa to keep some of their big players.

That would be a bit harsh on a 20 year old who has been in the country since age 12 and is in line for a call up only to miss out because of an 8 year rule. Maybe 5 years would be ok.

Possibly a bit harsh but 5 years is still too short.

Unless the ruling is that if you are a certain age or under..ie 14 and under its a reduced time frame to avoid that...but it is increased at a certain age to stop the farce of the 3 year rules with seniors...

I said on another post that 10 years would be ideal for me, with any time under the age of 18 counting double.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Possibly a bit harsh but 5 years is still too short.

Unless the ruling is that if you are a certain age or under..ie 14 and under its a reduced time frame to avoid that...but it is increased at a certain age to stop the farce of the 3 year rules with seniors...

Isn't 5 years enough for citizenship? Why should playing rugby be more (obviously the citizenship thing is different in different countries)?

citizenship (for us anyway) is a UK wide thing, rather than country specific. However if someone spent 5 years qualifying, took UK citizenship (replacing not complementing original citizenship) well that feels like a serious commitment to a country.