Tony Ward: ‘Paddy-come-latelies’ benefiting from a flawed system
THE GLOBAL nature of the modern professional game has led to many positives for rugby, but also many negatives and the glut of inter-country transfers that we are witnessing nowadays is a blight on the sport.
A pre-match conversation with former Scotland and Lions No 8 Johnny Beattie in Edinburgh last weekend reinforced this view. Not that it is anything new to the Scots, any more than it would be to us, but Beattie pointed out that some 14 of the squad of 23 set for duty against Ireland by Gregor Townsend did not learn their rugby in Scotland.
Make of that what you will, but the bottom line is that this false patriotism (not in every case, I might add) is endemic in every nation in the northern hemisphere. To the best of my knowledge, it is not yet working in reverse, although there are splintered examples, with Londonborn full-back John Gallagher (of Irish parentage) central to the New Zealand World Cup-winning team of 1987.
I am sure there are others, but they are very few and far between as the southern hemisphere has been much more protective of the worth of homeproduced players.
Spotlight
Just last week, we had football under the spotlight, given the mad-hatter situation of a three-times-capped senior international footballer Declan Rice declaring for England, the land of his birth, after representing Ireland at almost every underage level. No doubt there are financiallydriven, agent-backed reasons for this switch now, but caps must be in FIFA competition before they really, really count. Have you ever heard such nonsense?
But before we point any fingers, a peak inside our own house would be well worth the exercise. I detest the current World Rugby system, which has been adopted to the letter by the IRFU and by the Irish team management, whereby players can choose to represent a country on the basis of residency.
They call them ‘project players’, but these are guys who are here on contract anyway and earning a damn good living irrespective of the added incentive of an Irish cap (if they so wish) being dangled in front of them.
Players like CJ Stander (and I don’t care how well he sings the anthem), Quinn Roux, Bundee Aki, Jared Payne and so on are all of the highest quality, but they are not Irish.
The IRFU, and by extension Joe Schmidt and his fellow selectors, are simply applying the rules, but the rules are wrong. Even a five-year incubation period has me ill at ease, but better that than the current threeyear country-of-convenience clause that is attached to most overseas contracts.
All those project players to have worn green are top quality, and I accept I might be in the minority on this one, but I wish no overseas players qualified for Ireland other than through blood line or lineage.
The principle of ‘Paddy-comelatelies’ from varying corners of the globe qualifying to wear green, while those born, bred and nurtured through the rugby system, and then overtaken by imports is wrong.
This is not a cut at individual players. Stander is an obvious example. I love his style and commitment, but that still doesn’t make him Irish and certainly doesn’t make the system right.
When team-mates, specifically at international level, are questioned as to the principle and legitimacy of project player selection, naturally they defend their playing peers against the nasty media, but they are wrong.
To add to the confused message being sent to young and developing indigenous Irish players, and I include genuine exiles in that, is the fact that should they step outside these shores in search of a crust, they are all but banned from international selection.
Agent
I am surprised that such a ruling (albeit unwritten) hasn’t yet been challenged in law by an overseasbased player or his agent.
I understand the rationale behind Irish management’s thinking, specifically when players they rate move beyond their control, but effectively banning them from Test selection smacks of Kangaroo Court syndrome.
In times past, players like Keith Wood, Johnny Sexton and Tommy Bowe have managed to combine playing abroad with an uninterrupted Test career here, and yet now we have the likes of Simon Zebo, Donnacha Ryan and Ian Madigan under the unofficial cloak of persona non grata.
Take it as read that somewhere down the road that unwritten rule will be abolished and ability allied to form, and not place of occupation, will determine selection. But for now, it is what it is.
In the opening two rounds of this year’s Six Nations, we have had specific issues at full-back and second-row, yet despite Zebo and Ryan offering clear alternatives, that door was firmly shut despite consistency of performance at a very high level in the Top 14 and Europe dictating that under normal circumstances, both would be in the mix.
Now with Seán O’Brien set to become the latest wild goose to fly, it will be interesting to see just how rigidly his future Test days are numbered.
Once Zebo announced well in advance that he would be moving, he was removed from the frame. Rest assured, and rightly so, that the Tullow Tank will see out this Six Nations series and the World Cup to follow. It smacks of inconsistency.
In terms of success, these are exciting times for Irish rugby, but I do have great difficulty with a system whereby players who did learn the game in this country are given their hat and shown the door, while a project player system has been put in place to attract players who wouldn’t have known where this island was when growing up, never mind that we have always played the game with intent and ambition.
It is difficult to argue against the IRFU aspiration to discourage an exodus of talent at the cost of the national team and that maybe a drip will become a flood.
It is neither black nor white and there should be shades of grey. But irrespective of recent success, I am uncomfortable with a system that favours non-Irish players over indigenous ones, particularly those who have come up through the ranks.
The three-year residency ruling ends at the end of next year and it can’t be banished quickly enough.