‘How can you be a Lion if you were brought up hoping to beat them?’
WARREN Gatland’s selection of as many New Zealanders as Scots in his Lions squad has come in for heavy flak... from his homeland, writes Simon Thomas.
Head coach Gatland has included the Bay of Plenty-born Jared Payne and the Auckland-born Ben Te’o in his 41-strong tour party, along with the South African, CJ Stander.
In contrast, he has picked just two Scots in Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour, despite Vern Cotter’s men winning three of their five Six Nations matches.
This has provoked outrage north of the border, especially as Gatland has picked 12 players from Wales, who lost to Scotland in the Championship.
Now the issue has been taken up Down Under.
Respected Kiwi rugby writer Gregor Paul has penned a strongly-worded column, questioning the eligibility regulations that allow foreign-born and raised players to represent the Lions.
Payne and Stander both qualified to represent Ireland under the three -ear residency rule, while Worcester centre Te’o can play for England as his mother is a Londoner, even though he has represented his father’s homeland Samoa in rugby league.
Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Paul said: “The debate isn’t about whether Jared Payne, Ben Te’o and CJ Stander are good enough to be Lions.
“The question is deeper, more fundamental, which is how on earth do they end up playing for the Lions when all three of them, or certainly Payne and Stander, no doubt grew up dreaming about playing against them?
“And the answer is because rugby has a nonsense residency law that allows players to take a club contract and hey presto, three years later they are eligible for that nation’s national team.
“The nonsense part is that rugby executives are a little pompous and superior about rugby’s eligibility laws, claiming as they do that they are steeped in integrity and credibility.
“There’s a bit of a nod in the direction of rugby league when they say it, as if to point out that their neighbouring code’s garden is a shambles, a nasty eye sore that invites judgement.
“But rugby’s kidding itself if it thinks it’s in a position to judge. Just because they changed a few things after the Grannygate scandal in 2000 and outlawed players being able to represent two different nations in a career, doesn’t mean all is well.
“And the selection of the Lions squad brings to light the seriousness of the flaws in the current set up.”
Paul continued: “Take Payne as the example. He was pushing towards the edge of All Blacks’ selection in 2010 and 2011.
“He’d consistently impressed at both the Crusaders and Blues, either at wing, full-back or centre and he was probably only a couple of injuries away from making the World Cup squad.
“No-one is suggesting he was going to be a regular All Black, but the point is he was targeting that as his goal, right up until Ulster came calling with a swag of cash that saw him head to Northern Ireland.
“The story to this point has no twists – until it is realised that Ulster were supported financially by the Irish Rugby Union in making the payment because the latter could see that Payne would have served his required residency period at about the same time they expected the great Brian O’Driscoll to retire.
“They bought a New Zealander to fill a national jersey and while that is their business to square away with those domestic players trying to make it through the development pathways, it becomes a bigger problem when Payne and others who have converted as so-called project players, make the British and Irish Lions.”