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Last season’s Championship Finalists New York and Seattle will have the benefit of an extra import player in 2023 thanks to a bizarre ruling on eligibility by Major League Rugby. Ironworkers forward Brad Tucker and Seawolves scrumhalf JP Smith have been granted ‘exemptions’ that will see them considered domestic players this season, despite neither being eligible for the Eagles.
MLR defines domestic players as those eligible for either Canada or the USA under World Rugby standards. There are strict limits on those who do not meet that criteria. Each team is granted 10 import ‘cards’ at the beginning of the season, which allows them to pick 10 such players in their match day 23. Teams are also allowed to trade those cards, which sees three teams with less than 10 cards this year and four teams with greater than 10.
When asked why the two players were given exemptions, an MLR representative said it was granted on the basis that the two players “would have qualified under the three year rule if it remained, and USA Rugby had attempted to capture them.”
The three-year rule referred to is World Rugby’s former residency qualification period, which changed to five years effective January 1, 2022. It meant that anybody who qualified under the old rule had to have played international rugby for their adopted nation prior to the cut-off date in order for that eligibility to carry over. Otherwise, those who had been temporarily qualified were again ineligible until they fulfilled five years of consecutive residency.
England Rugby recently sought clarification on the rule, which falls under Regulation 8, in an attempt to select former Namibia under-20 prop Patrick Schickerling under the premise that he had lived in England for three years prior to the cut-off date. World Rugby upheld the prior clarification from its Executive Committee and Schickerling was then withdrawn from the England squad.
Both Tucker, from New Zealand, and Smith, from South Africa, arrived in Seattle in December of 2018, and were therefore eligible to be selected by the Eagles for a short window prior to the January 1, 2022, cut-off date. Had USA Rugby arranged an international between its ‘second senior’ side, now known as the Falcons, against another equivalent team in late December of 2021 they could have ‘captured’ the two players. Italy notably played Romania ‘A’ on December 18 of that year to ensure that Toa Halafihi was able to debut for the Azzurri in the 2022 Six Nations.
As it stands, Tucker and Smith will not be eligible to represent the Eagles until December of this year. Under MLR’s normal standard, they should therefore be considered ‘imports’ until the 2024 season, as they were in 2022. The decision to grant the exemption to the two players in 2023 is thus even more confusing as nothing has changed in terms of what is required for Tucker and Smith to meet World Rugby’s criteria in the months since the 2022 season ended.
A source from an MLR franchise confirmed that the league had offered the exemption to other teams, but only two players qualified under the entirely arbitrary decision. Others who might have otherwise met this ‘exemption standard’ – Chicago’s Luke Beauchamp and ATL pair Tiaan Erasmus and Will Leonard for example – had evidently spent too long abroad to maintain their consecutive residency status, and will not qualify under the five-year criteria in 2023.
When asked to comment on why this decision had been made – despite the fact that it appears to be in direct contradiction to MLR’s existing policy, and had not been applied last season – the MLR representative offered no explanation. One does wonder how much of an impact this had on recruitment efforts for New York and Seattle during the off-season, knowing that they had – in effect – an extra import slot to play with in their match day rosters.
Why MLR made no effort to reveal this decision to the public is another mystery. The league’s approach to communications has been roundly criticised following the controversial disqualification of Austin and LA from last season’s playoffs, and in the months leading up to their eventual disbandment. Once again MLR has chosen to operate in the dark, leaving both media members and fans to wonder why Seattle were seemingly able to field more than their allotted import quota in their home opener against New York.
The decision is also sure to be used as fuel for those who already contend that there are too many non-domestic players on MLR rosters. To be sure, it makes little sense. Tucker and Smith would have been classed as domestic players next season, and whichever team holds their contract – presumably New York and Seattle – would therefore be rewarded for investing in them now. Those teams are already among the league’s strongest squads, and will now have extra firepower at their disposal.
In real terms it means the Seawolves will be able to carry both James Malcolm and AJ Alatimu – who each started last year’s Final – on their bench against New York, instead of selecting far less experienced but US-eligible Alex Glover or Shane Barry. New York are within their 11-player limit, even with Tucker, for the season opener. Going forward, however, they can stack another of their overseas signings into the lineup at the expense of a genuinely qualified American player.
Once again the decisions of MLR leadership are called into question, and one also wonders why MLR Board members – or other General Managers – did not challenge or veto the exception. Fans are left scratching their heads as to why the league would choose to make such an illogical move to the benefit of exactly two teams who needed no such advantage in the first place.
