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Rugby

3x6, when it comes to sport do you think a person should only be allowed to represent the country they are born into?
 
ThreeSixes said:
Because The Vunipola's father was a Tongan rugby international
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My wife's parents are both irish, She was born and raised largely in the uk, but used to spend all her summers in ireland. Her parents now both live in ireland again and she and sees her self far more as irish than English. So she supports and always has supported ireland.

My eldest son was born in England, has lived in england his whole life. He spends half the summers away in ireland with the grandparents, loves the place, plays gaelic football and much to my dismay he now supports Ireland as his first team. If he was ever to be good enough to play internationally, id say he'd look to play for ireland first through his grandparents heritage. His nick name at rugby is even 'Paddy Power'.

My other son is a bit of a daddy's boy and loves to wind up my wife also, so thankfully supports England. It was a joy to behold him belting out swing low when we scored, as i feared he was going to follow his brother and support ireland also. He's a clear england fan.

If they both made it as rugby players we'd have two brothers supporting and playing for different international teams. How could it possibly be? Wouldnt be allowed in some people's eyes.

My old man explains how his dad was welsh and mum was english and he supported england and his brother supported wales. Likewise my mate is from Bristol and their family is split down the middle between wales and england because of the parents too. Its not uncommon.
 
When i ask my son who he'd play for england or ireland, and he says ireland, i tell him to have some ambition. i reckon he might not have to resort to playing for ireland. If he works harder he may be good enough to play for england!
 
alphabet_king said:
When i ask my son who he'd play for england or ireland, and he says ireland, i tell him to have some ambition. i reckon he might not have to resort to playing for ireland. If he works harder he may be good enough to play for england!
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Why not Tonga?
 
I think nearly every sporting nation in every sport from football to athletics, especially the “powerful” ones, have all got examples of this. I don’t see how NZ can criticise England or anyone, or vice versa. If the rules allow them to qualify, then they qualify. We had this argument when England won the Cricket World Cup. Germany won the Football World Cup with Boateng whilst his brother played for Ghana at the same competition. Spain won a Football World Cup with a load of players who want independence, and they now have a Brazilian centre forward. I don’t see the point in arguing, all the top teams have benefited from it.
 
NathanH_GFC said:
I think nearly every sporting nation in every sport from football to athletics, especially the “powerful” ones, have all got examples of this. I don’t see how NZ can criticise England or anyone, or vice versa. If the rules allow them to qualify, then they qualify. We had this argument when England won the Cricket World Cup. Germany won the Football World Cup with Boateng whilst his brother played for Ghana at the same competition. Spain won a Football World Cup with a load of players who want independence, and they now have a Brazilian centre forward. I don’t see the point in arguing, all the top teams have benefited from it.
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Kula is merely priming his excuses if the unthinkable happens and they lose to us next week. He has turned a perfectly nice thread congratulating the England team immediately into some political whine at world rugby, it would seem. Sad that they cant just enjoy good rugby. You'd have thought theyd be happy we put one over the aussies and that the next game now has the potential to be a top quality match for everyone.

Anyway, back to the OP, a good performance. Not incredible, but good, and we did what we needed to do fairly comfortably in the end, again. Neither us nor NZ have really been tested this world cup. Would love to have played SA or Wales before playing NZ. Both would have tested us, but i reckon we'd have enough to beat both. We could easily go out this weekend without really showing what we're capable of, if that makes sense. Looking forward to what should be a great match on saturday now though.
 
I'm not sure why I'm wading into this.
NZ school rugby is very strong. In many cases a schools reputation is gauged by the success of its first 15 rather than academic achievement. As a result many schools offer scolarships to kids in the islands who look like being good players. I like to think these kids get a better education here than at home.
Add to that, many islanders come to NZ for work. Most of south Auckland seems to be of Tongan extraction. For a lot of these kids and their families Rugby is the most atractive way to get out of poverty.
Quite a few make a living playing rugby league in the UK and Australia as well as NZ provincial rugby and regional rugby.
Anyone playing for the AB's will have NZ citizenship.
There are no maories of pure blood. You can call yourself a maori if you can claim you have maori ancestors however far back. Tnere are quite a few blue eyed blond maories wandering about.
As for eligability, our world is fluid, people are on the move all the time. The son of Samoan, Tongan parents growing up in New Zealand or Japan or wherever has choices.
Edit. AB's vs England would be my ideal final. Massive divided loyalties. I know i dont want the Springboks to win the tournament
 
Kura said:
No chance of any Northern hemisphere nation winning it.

Unfortunately we now have a week of England ands it's over hyped coach, imported players and one dimensional supporters going on and on about the All Blacks and their "cheating".
As we showed yesterday theirs our way of playing the game then theirs everyone else. Go the might AB's. (Now waits for posts of derision)
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Well that aged well.
 
Great win for England. Not really a rugby fan, but enjoyed that. We can win this world cup! :-)
 
Congratulations to England.
Great game plan, well executed and even with the referee helping us out we were really done by a terrific team performance.
The fixture next November will be well anticipated down here.
Hopefully you'll beat the Welsh and save yourselves from that indignity.
O ce again well done.
 
Kura said:
Great game plan
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Jones had a game plan right from the first game. Against Tonga, Jones said don't get involved and kick into space. The Tongans never had a chance to get physical and so it went on game by game.
 
Outstanding display by England. It's not often you see the AB's totally snuffed out the way England did tonight.
 
What a result. Admit I never saw that coming. Quality display. Pity I don’t know many Kiwis over here...
 
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