Two nation bid would harm, not help, the Islanders

YOU cannot blame Tim Nanai Williams for wanting a change in the World Cup eligibility rules to allow players qualified through Pacific Island origin to be given dispensation to play for two countries.

However, while it might provide quick-fix competitiveness, it will only make the Pacific Island player drain worse, as well as discourage home-grown players – and that’s why World Rugby should kick it into touch.

Samoan fly-half NanaiWilliams wants World Rugby to allow Samoans, Fijians and Tongans who have voted to play for other countries to be allowed to return to their nation of origin when their careers with New Zealand, Australia, France, England, Ireland, USA, Romania etc., are over.

This would allow players such as his cousin, the veteran All Black centre Sonny Bill Williams, who will be 34 by the 2019 World Cup, to prolong his international career by having the option of switching.

The policy already exists in the Rugby League World Cup, and it has allowed Samoa and Tonga to flesh out the desperately thin numbers of competitive sides in the tournament currently underway in Australia. That does not make it the right option for Rugby Union.

Nanai-Williams’ proposal is an even thinner end of the wedge than the meagre £650 Samoan match fee. If Pacific Island players know they have a two-nation option more youngsters will sign for European and Japanese academies so that – even under the five year eligibility rule – they will have adopted-nation qualification in their early 20s.

Meanwhile, homegrown players face the dispiriting prospect of being shunted out of the squad for World Cups by returning overseas veterans. The solution is for World Rugby to discourage the poaching of players like Waisake Naholo and Manu Tuilagi in the first place through an equitable Test match fee structure which they administer.