Birthright is not optional – it’s what makes sport real

BRAD SHIELDS could play his first game for England in Johannesburg on Saturday and, according to the rules, that is fine. It doesn’t matter that Shields was born in New Zealand, came through their youth system, played for the All Blacks age-group teams and for the Hurricanes in Wellington for many seasons. It doesn’t matter that, at the age of 27, he has not represented England at any level or played for an English club — his contract with Wasps starts next season — because nationality rules in rugby are looser than one of Martin Johnson’s old polo necks. Shields has English parents, so the rest of it counts for nought. ‘Emotive twaddle’ was how one correspondent described the idea that international sport should at least be on nodding acquaintance with nationality. We are all citizens of the world these days, it seems — or at least when it suits us. Austin Healey, a former England international, even anticipated a time when Eddie Jones selects a starting XV in which home-born players were the minority. He seems very relaxed about this, now his own career is over. ‘A few years ago, I would have been uncomfortable with it,’ Healey wrote. ‘Now I just want Jones to pick the best team he can.’ Great. Do away with it all then. Forget England, forget the All Blacks, forget the Wallabies and the Springboks. Forget the World Cup and the Six Nations, forget Twickenham and Ellis Park on Saturday. If it’s just about having the best XV, what is the point of international sport at all? Let Hurricanes play Wasps, let Saracens play Crusaders, with no restrictions on movement, no encouraged paths of progress for young players, just one giant mish-mash where everyone goes where they want for the money, and we’ll see who the best are. Take nationality away and national sport is just a hybrid version of the club game. Yet while there is a national shirt, a national team, and a national anthem, then nationality is and should be important. It should be the crux of it all, in fact — the best of ours versus the best of yours. And it is those who would sacrifice this, those who would render it irrelevant just to have a winning team, who are peddling the real emotive twaddle. Because it shouldn’t matter so much that England win or lose; but it matters that they’re England.