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England is the latest on board wanting to change the player eligibility law to 5 years. The contentious ruling from World Rugby’s Regulation 8 enables uncapped players to represent another after completing three consecutive years living in that country.
Regulation 8.1 (C) has directly contributed to the targeting and nationalizing of talent. The extent to which this is occurring was highly evident at Rugby World Cup 2015. At that tournament Argentina was the only country with no players born abroad. Quarter Finalists Australia, France, Ireland and Scotland had between 7 and 12 foreign born players each, many of whom qualified via residency.
Scotland’s roster, named yesterday, for the upcoming Six Nations implied that rugby is at crisis point. Of the 37 players 19 of them were born abroad. Cornell Du Preez became the latest South African forward on the Scottish roster. He joins Alex Allan, Allan Dell, WP Nel and Josh Strauss.
Du Preez qualified in 2016. The year also saw Nathan Hughes, Dries van Schalkwyk, Braam Steyn and CJ Stander debuting for England, Italy and Ireland. The likes of Lopeti Timani, Seta Tamanivalu and Sefanaia Naivalu did so for Australia and New Zealand in the 2016 Rugby Championship.
Both Nel and Hughes turned down playing for their native countries. Hughes even went on record admitting to have done do for the money. With him now captured by England it appears he is to be the last player qualifying on three-year residency.
RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie has backed the push from World Rugby Vice Chairman Agustín Pichot to extend eligibility to five years. Richie declared “absolutely the route to go down. There are other countries who will take a different view on that I think, and that’s up to them. We’ll see how that goes.”
It follows confirmation from France that the FFR will back Pichot. World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont asked FFR President Bernard Laporte for his support in pushing through the change from 3 to 5 years. Laporte replied “You have no worries about France, it’s finished that. There will be no more foreigners playing for France. For me, it’s forbidden.”France will also require all players to carry a French passport.
Other countries are likely to follow the growing push for change. Earlier today former 104 time capped Welsh flanker Martyn Williams supported the RFU tweeting “it should be 5 years at the very least.”
