Lima Sopoaga would 'love' to play international rugby for Samoa

[Lwasp]

Who decides who is Tier 1 and who is Tier 2? How long do countries stay on this Tier 2 list? Is Japan, comfortably a top 10 team now, still Tier 2? And when an Italy or Scotland plunge down to 15th in the world can they claim to be Tier 2 and bring in a bunch of players who have already represented Ireland or England due to Scottish/Italian grandparents?

It sounds like one of those easy to throw out there suggestions to fix something that will inevitably create more problems than it solves once the detail is considered. The Pacific Islands teams will not suddenly be competitive trying to round up a bunch of ex-All Blacks to play for them. Wasps last season has taught us that!

[Hymenoptera]

Tier is terminology and I wouldn't get hung up on it, understanding the meaning is important.

Its a bit of a weak argument saying Scotland will become 15th in the world but what if they did pick up players that weren't good enough to now represent their country and havent for 4 years. who is the loser? Is it any more wrong than selecting a player that is as English as a chinaman, taking the place of developing an English alternative in that position?

Would it create more problems than exist now? I doubt it.

[wasps]

You could see a possible problem if tier 2 was deemed to to be outside the top 10.
A 10tg placed team could potentially lose /forfeit a couple of games to drop to p.11, and then bring in a couple of ex-superstars from other nations.

May not be realistic, but in that scenario everyone is a loser

[Hymenoptera]

Forfeit...seriously? As the thread develops so does the wild imagination of the potentials....

Then we continue with a system that doesn't work through fear of upsetting the applecart through change.

Yet another world cup where the pool stages are barely watchable given the disparity of teams and predictability of the results. We continue to hear people moan endlessly about how wrong the pacific nations are treated.

Boredom through monopoly continues while talent remains sidelined though fear and bureaucracy.  Its almost as tedious as Saracens being allowed to continue with financial doping hiding in plain sight.

[Shugs]

There are plenty who will agree with you Hymoneptera. The idea that talent is sidelined by the current structure I don't agree with. Top talent will play at the top as long as they can and then invariably look for a pay day at club level. The notion of this sounds like it would solve the problem but for me the likely impact would be negligible.

[Hymenoptera]

Except for CP, LS and SL to name just a few of course...without going down the Ms Nonu's of this world

[westwaleswasp]

I agree with Hymenoptera's point on guys like Heinz, and on the fact that what he proposes is better than the current system. What I want is for the system to work better than that too, though.
No grandparents, no importing from a young age on rugby scholarships from a young age unless the nationality stays the same. Your parents move at the age of five, fine. You take a scholarship aged fifteen? Still the same nationality, you want to qualify for your new country, wait five years... from age 18. The theft and corruption needs to be rooted out so that  Samoa pays as much as the ABs. Maybe it is time for all internationals to be paid the same per match from centrally pooled funds?

[Lwasp]

I agree entirely with tightening up eligibility rules to ensure national teams are reflective of their nation not someone else's. Extending the qualifying time is an excellent start and maybe needs to be longer, but still allows a route for those who moved to a new country who feel so inclined to represent that new country, so arrivals as young teenagers.

What I do not like is the idea Rugby should constantly tinker with things because outcomes aren't deemed "desirable" by the marketing folk. Law changes in a desperate attempt to counter better defences and score more tries for example. And yes, I would include allowing players to represent more than 1 country at International level. Piutau and Sopoaga made their choice and decided to represent New Zealand. Why should they get to play for someone else just because NZ has now found better players or they moved away for more money somewhere else/life experience/family reasons? Who from Tonga, Samoa or Fiji (select as appropriate) should not have been selected and allowed to represent their country because some former All Blacks/Aussies/Englanders etc. decided they'd rather go instead?

I think we'd all like to see a truly more competitive competition, I just don't think it can be gerrymandered in this way. 1 or 2 former star players aren't gonna make the other 29 squad members instantly competitive. CP and LS would make more of an impact for the long term if they go back to their "native" nations after hanging up their top flight playing boots as either players or coaches and pass on the benefit of their All Black pedigrees.

If you give players 2 bites of the cheery isn't there a risk that more Islanders will try out for Tier 1 nations knowing they can always go back? Might do more harm than good.