But rugby has moved on and the nationality debate has changed
IN terms of opinion pieces, I’m sorry to say I’ve been here before.
A lockdown without rugby has allowed me to articulate thoughts and opinions I might not usually commit to print, were the distractions of regular rugby around to keep me preoccupied on more present matters.
And so, as rugby’s focus shifted onto wider issues with the lack of live action, I expressed my opinions on why nostaglia is often misplaced in rugby; so too the notion that players representing anyone other than their country of birth could be deemed as sinful was also, in my own mind, wide of the mark.
Well, live rugby is back and yet here I am, writing once again about these things.
The catalyst for doing so, and the very reason I was reminded of both of those opinion pieces mentioned above, was because of some views aired by Willie John Mcbride.
You don’t really need to be a rugby aficionado to know Mcbride’s legendary status within the sport.
The 80-year-old played 63 Tests for Ireland, eleven of which were as captain, and toured with the Lions five times – a record that gave him 17 Lions Test caps.
He also captained the Invincibles tour of South Africa in 1974 – when the Lions went through the entire trip undefeated.
His lofty place in the game is there for all to see.
Yet, this morning, an article was published on Rugbypass in which Mcbride savaged the modern game, criticising just about every facet of rugby as we know it in 2020.
The words were taken from a foreword for a book entitled ‘Saving Rugby Union’, which gives you a good idea of what angle Mcbride is coming from – with everything coming under fire.
For starters, he bemoans how the game itself has changed – describing it as an unedifying mix of rugby union, rugby league and American football.
A far cry from the sport he used to play, he adds.
Now, the talk about whether the game was better years ago is one I personally disagree with, but one I can, ultimately, take or leave. Everyone will have their own view.
Nostalgia is the most powerful of advertising tools, mind.
As the Harry Enfield sketch omedy character, Mr Cholmondley-warner, once said when faced with the prospect of footballers being paid to play in the 1930s: “How can one expect a professional paid to do nothing but play football all day reach the same level of fitness as a man who works in a chip shop all week and only plays on Saturdays?”
“Today’s amateurs will never be
bettered,” he added.
In rugby terms, you can hark back to the days of sidesteps and sideburns all you like, but, as Michael Aylwin pointed out in a recent piece for The XV, those matches of the 1970s tended to have more scrums and lineouts than tackles.
Hardly conducive to a better product, then. In my opinion, anyway.
Ultimately, those who bemoan what the sport has become are arguably the ones who have been left behind by change, not those at the forefront of where the game is going.
But the quotes from Mcbride that I found particularly galling are those concerning his thoughts on national allegiances and, in particular, what I feel is an unfair use of two Wales players to make the point.
“I also find it disturbing the ease with which players can just switch their national allegiance. It devalues international rugby,” he says.
“When Wales defeated Ireland 25-7 in the 2019 Six Nations, all the Welsh points were scored by two New Zealanders, Gareth Anscombe and Hadleigh Parkes. That can’t be right.
“If you play for Ireland, you should have Irish blood coursing through your veins. The residential qualification should be 10 years and that would end players playing for a country when they have no immediate family connection.”
So there’s a lot to unpack there, with Mcbride pointing to Anscombe and Parkes, each born in New Zealand but having represented Wales, as devaluing international rugby.
For starters, let’s just take Anscombe out of the argument right away.
The Ospreys fly-half through his Welsh mother.
Does Mcbride have an issue with Joey Carbery, a New Zealand-born player with an Irish mother, pulling on the Irish jersey? Presumably not. So to point to Anscombe as some example of what is wrong with modern-day rugby is simply wrong in itself, I feel.
Unlike Anscombe, Parkes did qualify on residency – yet I maintain that qualifies
shouldn’t be used as a stick to beat him with.
Nationality as a concept is more fluid than when Mcbride led the Lions by example. The idea someone can only feel a strong allegiance or bond for one nation is a overly simplistic one.
I’ve championed time and time again what Parkes did for Wales in his six years in this country.
He constantly ran through brick walls, injured himself who knows how many times for the red jersey and even welcomed his first child in this country.
You ask any fan who stood on the Parc y Scarlets terrace week after week, as the elements battered them on the sidelines, watching Parkes drive their side on with the same passion and commitment as any lad you’d find down in Trimsaran or Felinfoel.
Or the Wales supporters who watched in disbelief as he chased down Jacob Stockdale, reeling in the Ireland winger on the way to Grand Slam success.
There is no doubt in their mind what he did for Wales and the Scarlets and his Welsh credentials need not be qualified to them.
He did so much for the red jersey in his time here.
Now for some, that will never be enough. Fine. That’s their prerogative.
And you can debate the merits of the residency rule being longer and, sensibly done, that’s fine, too.
But to hold up these two players as an example of what is wrong with modern rugby is off the mark, in my opinion.
Even if you take that factual misstep over Anscombe qualifying for Wales through family, not residency, out of the equation, the argument still doesn’t hold much water with me.
Time stands for no man.
And if you don’t see how the concept of nationality has changed in the modern age, and how that should inform rugby moving forward, then, much like your views on the game as a whole, you’ll get left behind. It could be argued there are many facets of the game which need saving.
Bemoaning honest men giving their all for a country they have a strong affinity with that maybe doesn’t start with birth, but ultimately transcends it, isn’t one of them.
Does Mcbride have an issue with New Zealand-born Joey Carbery playing for Ireland?
still
- Ben James