IMPORT DUTY
With the Six Nations reeling from ‘flag of convenience’ scandals, the onus is on World Rugby to take action
MOURITZ BOTHA played his last match for Saracens a few weeks ago and was chaired around the pitch afterwards before appreciative supporters. After five-and-a-half seasons with the London club, the second row was heading back to his home town of Durban and a Super 15 contract with the Sharks.
‘Botha deserves this send-off,’ said ex-England prop-turned-TV analyst David Flatman, ‘he’s been a great servant to Saracens, won his England caps, earned a nice bit of sterling and he’s off home. Job done.’
Flatman’s synopsis depicted standard practice in modern rugby – the southern hemisphere mercenary doing time in Europe for financial gain before returning whence he came – but whether these sojourns should incorporate international rugby has become a major issue.
Botha’s story is typical of the genre. With his distinctive name and blond mane (right), he could never be anything other than South African, nor did he pretend to be. But the man from Vryfeld in Natal still won 10 caps for England even though they represented merely a handy (and lucrative) career bonus rather than the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to wear the red rose.
The issue of what constitutes nationality in rugby is a complex one – particularly with increased recessioninduced emigration – but there is growing opposition to this ‘flag of convenience’ phenomenon.
LAST month Gareth Anscombe – a former New Zealand Under 20 star – was selected in the Wales squad having played just nine games for Cardiff, having qualified through his Welsh mother (who moved to New Zealand as a teen).
If that caused a stir, it was trumped by the outrage at the inclusion of Hugh Blake, another Kiwi U20, in Scotland’s Six Nations squad. Blake, who qualified for Scotland on the granny rule, had not even played a match for his new club, Edinburgh.
However, Wales and Scotland are not alone here and the Six Nations squad lists are packed with so many imported players it is possible to pick a match-day 23 (see panel) with plenty left over.
Ireland have embraced the policy as readily as anyone, introducing the ‘special project’ plan a few years ago aimed at targeting players for residency qualification. Jared Payne, Isaac Boss, Richardt Strauss, Robbie Diack, Michael Bent, Rob Herring and Nathan White all moved here having l earnt the game in the southern hemisphere.
There is a pragmatic theme running through this practice: imports generally only try their hand with a different country upon realising they are unlikely to ever be good enough to play international rugby for their own. With the rules as they stand, players cannot be blamed for coming to this conclusion and acting upon it, nor can coaches be held to task for selecting available talent.
However, there is increasing pressure on the game’s governing body to make country-swapping a more difficult process, with three key areas ripe for adjustment.
The granny rule: A consistent source of controversy. A couple of years ago, Kiwi No 8 Thomas Waldrom decided to try his luck with England just because his mother found a birth cert confirming his grandmother had been born in England. There was also the infamous Welsh Grannygate scandal at the turn of the century, when it was discovered Kiwis Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson had been capped in error as it emerged their grandpar- ents were not born in Wales as first thought. The growing belief is that the grandparent rule is too far removed for identification and should be narrowed to parents only.
Second level/Under 20s: A convoluted area for World Rugby, whose rules state each country has a designated ‘second level’ side that ties a player to that nation. For most countries the second level is the ‘A’ team (Irish Wolfhounds, England Saxons etc) but Wales, for example, do not field an ‘A’ team and their U20s are the nominated second level team. The suggestion is for a rule to decree that once a player plays for the U20s, he is committed to that nation.
Three-year residency: The suggestion is that qualification should be extended to at least five years to demonstrate proper commitment, especially with the trend of players like Dan Parks, Nathan Hines and Riki Flutey doing their residency in one country and switching to clubs in another once they qualify.
Those three suggestions – parent rule, U20s lockdown, five-year residency – would go a long way to addressing an increasingly contentious issue. However, World Rugby does not see a crisis as yet, judging by chief executive Brett Gosper’s deflecting of the debate when it was raised on the Down The Blindside podcast recently.
‘We have a three-year residency rule for uncaptured players, which was looked at a few years ago. There does not seem to be a groundswell of opinion to re-examine this,’ said Gosper, adding, ‘and it’s up to each country to decide what their second level is, what it thinks is best.’
THE counter argument would be that it should not be up to individual unions to determine second level teams – that should be World Rugby’s call: clarity comes from the top down. Secondly, if the CEO does not hear the clamour for residency-rule change now, he will be unable to block his ears in a few months.
World Cups are agents of change in rugby, a four-yearly opportunity for root and branch reassessment, and with England 2015 set to feature swathes of players operating under flags of convenience, the governing body may well be forced to meet this controversy head on.
Gosper did suggest the issue will be looked at post-World Cup and, if the upshot is players having more genuine links to the international jersey they are wearing, World Rugby will be entitled to their own ‘job done’ lap of honour.