Not Ready To Commit To Wales

First topic message reminder :

highly rated English based duo , Bristol fly half  callum sheedy and Gloucester back row Rory bartle, have pulled out in joining the Welsh under 20s obviously looking for a possible cap by England . personally if you Welsh I would want to play for my country. can't see why would they delay that unless they half Japanese and they would have  a pretty good chance getting capped there

Griff wrote:That's a very good point 2nd, and perhpas the strongest reason for the IRB to change their rules regarding 2nd teams being age grade. I would say, however, that players are being capped younger and younger at international level now. And not just to tie a player to a country. George North, as I mentioned before, was calpped at 18 because he was in good form. This tied him at a very young age. Only his continual good form has made it a happy ending. If he'd then turned rubbish (happens to a lot of one season wonders) then he would fall into the category of unattractive, tied down player that you mention above.

But North was not going to any other country to play rugby.

rainbow-warrior wrote:

Griff wrote:That's a very good point 2nd, and perhpas the strongest reason for the IRB to change their rules regarding 2nd teams being age grade. I would say, however, that players are being capped younger and younger at international level now. And not just to tie a player to a country. George North, as I mentioned before, was calpped at 18 because he was in good form. This tied him at a very young age. Only his continual good form has made it a happy ending. If he'd then turned rubbish (happens to a lot of one season wonders) then he would fall into the category of unattractive, tied down player that you mention above.

But North was not going to any other country to play rugby.

Griff,

Prydie falls into that category to a degree, he was capped at what 17 but hasn't really kicked on, he's been involved in a few squads but not really broken through permanently.

rainbow-warrior wrote:

Griff wrote:That's a very good point 2nd, and perhpas the strongest reason for the IRB to change their rules regarding 2nd teams being age grade. I would say, however, that players are being capped younger and younger at international level now. And not just to tie a player to a country. George North, as I mentioned before, was calpped at 18 because he was in good form. This tied him at a very young age. Only his continual good form has made it a happy ending. If he'd then turned rubbish (happens to a lot of one season wonders) then he would fall into the category of unattractive, tied down player that you mention above.

But North was not going to any other country to play rugby.

Pretty sure North could of chosen to play for England as well had he wanted to.

2ndtimeround wrote:

rainbow-warrior wrote:

Griff wrote:That's a very good point 2nd, and perhpas the strongest reason for the IRB to change their rules regarding 2nd teams being age grade. I would say, however, that players are being capped younger and younger at international level now. And not just to tie a player to a country. George North, as I mentioned before, was calpped at 18 because he was in good form. This tied him at a very young age. Only his continual good form has made it a happy ending. If he'd then turned rubbish (happens to a lot of one season wonders) then he would fall into the category of unattractive, tied down player that you mention above.

But North was not going to any other country to play rugby.

Pretty sure North could of chosen to play for England as well had he wanted to.

Could have yes, but he is a Welshman through and through, speaks Welsh and has live in Ynys Mon all his life ... well from the age of 4 or 5. On occasions there ain't no argument on who wants to play for which country. Jarrod Payne, had he been given the chance would still be in NZ playing fort he AB's if he had been given the chance that is a certainty. Was a great player at the Mighty Taniwha (Northland) but was overlooked. This silliness regarding players playing for other countries is daft to a certain degree. The players who do play for countries through residency are the ones to blame.... I see many playing for Italy and Japan.

Allowing players to represent on residency is a double edged sword really, nations like Wales (my own) shouldn't really need to do this and therefore I don't think we should be allowed to unless its a case where the individual in question has spent considerably more than 3 years here, ie if they have grown up in Wales from a school age they should be allowed to play for Wales, situations were already professional players join a Region in their twenties and become Welsh qualified within 3 years does devalue the specific National identity of the team IMHO, purely as these players have not learnt their trade in Wales (as an example).
However for nations were the sport is starting to grow there should be an allowance made as helping to make these nations more competitive can only help to grow the game internationally by raising interest in these nations, but I guess the question is where would we draw the line between an established and an emerging nation.