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Eligibilty thread

SBD82

Coach
Messages
17,050
For the record, I do want the islands involved in international RL. But if the clowns in this thread still want to push the "pick 1 nation for career" agenda, and the "NZ HAS BEEN RAIDING ISLAND TALENT FOR GENERATIONS" crap, then we deserve to keep our depth players and have them only be available for NZ.

But anyway, bigger issues are now at hand people. As a great orator once said, we let them on the scene to back up the first team. And this is how their fans repay us?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...e-fans-appear-to-clash-in-video-shared-online


Calls for calm as tensions rise among Tongan and Samoan rugby league fans

Samoan and Tongan rugby league fans have been caught on camera in a mass brawl that blocked a South Auckland street.

Simmering tension between the rival fans has led to Samoan boxing legend David Tua making a public plea for peace ahead of the two countries squaring off in the Rugby League World Cup in Hamilton this Sunday.

Video footage has emerged on social media showing groups of young Tongan and Samoan supporters arguing and fighting in the street on the corner of Great South Rd and Avenue Rd, Otahuhu.

The footage comes after a photo was posted and widely circulated on Facebook showing a young man burning a Samoan flag.

Members of both communities have been quick to call for calm - particularly among young people - saying the actions of one person should not ruin the relationship between Pacific nations and friends.

Danny "Brotha D'' Leaosavai'i, of record label Dawn Raid Entertainment, told his followers:
"Don't let the action of a minion corrupt the harmony of millions. Alofa still means ofa [love].''

Former heavyweight boxer Tua also spoke on Auckland-based Radio Samoa 1593 this morning, urging young people to disregard hateful comments being said on social media and promote peace between the two groups.

"We are all family,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the father of the young man involved in burning the flag has publicly apologised.

"My family are of Samoan/ Tongan descent. Please find it in your hearts to forgive my son for his stupidity.''

A woman who works in the area where the brawl took place said the celebrations had been mainly positive for the past few days.

However, the constant horns beeping and increasingly dangerous behaviour had reached a limit.

"They've been people standing on the top of their cars and people running across the street when the lights are green.

"They're just laying on the horns. It's just got a bit stupid and kind of dangerous.''

She said businesses had had to deal with loud music and horns beeping loudly for the past two days, in particular.

There had been some police in the area and at least one road was blocked off by police yesterday afternoon.

"The music was so loud I couldn't hear my customers - we had to close the doors,'' she said.

"It's absolutely insane.''

The woman, who is of Pacific descent, did not see any fights between groups, but said the arguments were silly.

"We're all Pacific Islanders. We should be supporting each other.''

Police had confirmed they have received calls regarding "celebrations'' in parts of Auckland, particularly in Otahuhu, where vehicles decked out in national flags have been lining the streets and beeping horns continuously.

Groups of supporters have also turned out in force on a daily basis.

Following Mate Ma'a Tonga's thrilling win against Scotland on Sunday, legions of fans and supporters turned out to the streets of Otahuhu to celebrate.

Former Warriors star and Tongan wing Manu Vatuvei took to social media today to ask fans to keep their cool amid all of the excitement surrounding the tournament.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11939262



It's the Tongan Bloods Vs the Samoan Crips on the streets of South Auckland right now. Hopefully there's no mass gang war at the game.

Sounds like a bit of a slow news day. Ha.

Bloods and crips playing music too loud, beeping horns, standing on cars and crossing against green lights.

Send in the national guard.
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
Genius.

Plenty of people are interested in watching Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Italy and Lebanon play. They just aren't in Townsville or Canberra.

By your logic everyone should be turning up to watch France and the USA. Heritage teams aren't the problem and neither is switching. Tonga has both and has created more publicity/interest in the tournament than any other team by far.

hahahaha
delusion , look it up , theres a pic of you under it
its the sole problem

how can a game between 2 minnow union teams in their world cup draw 19K in canberra
& the same teams in ours ... with australians pretending to be fijians & italians to bolster the quality of the match .. draw 3K
no one wants to watch that , not in Canberra , Townsville or anywhere else , why should they
& I'll back the RL version to be a better sporting spectacle , but one has cred ,one doesn't
one is legit , one isn't
 

hutch

First Grade
Messages
6,810
hahahaha
delusion , look it up , theres a pic of you under it
its the sole problem

how can a game between 2 minnow union teams in their world cup draw 19K in canberra
& the same teams in ours ... with australians pretending to be fijians & italians to bolster the quality of the match .. draw 3K
no one wants to watch that , not in Canberra , Townsville or anywhere else , why should they
& I'll back the RL version to be a better sporting spectacle , but one has cred ,one doesn't
one is legit , one isn't

I understand what you’re saying, I used to think switching nations was the ultimate way to discredit us as an international sport.
But the reality is that it is the only way for us to grow as long as there is a plan to keep developing rugby League in these countries (which there is no guarantee is going to happen).

The players are still eligible for these nations under the rules of most sports on earth. The Fiji team are all Fijian, Lebanon team are all Lebanese, Tongan team are all Tongan etc. Most of them just have allegiances to more than the country they are currently playing for. It’s not ideal, it’s just necessary at the moment.
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
If you support the tournament then why sink to bagging it the same way Union fans and other haters do?

The eligibility rules are the way the are for a reason. They give the game the best chance to grow quickly. Teams like Lebanon and Tonga having NRL players is hugely beneficial for interest in their games. Its a multicultural sport played in multicultural countries and the rules reflect that.

Cutting out teams that aren't fully professional doesn't help, if you think the number of people interested in this world cup is low then a 'minnow world cup' would be attracting crowds of 10s instead of 1000. The best way to bring other nations up a level is to let them play at that level.

The world cup is not going backwards and throwing the toys out of the cot won't achieve anything
because im not blinded by my loyalty to my game
the eligibility rules also make our world cup a farce , the union world cup is full of fat oxygen thieves who are quite simply not worth walking across the road to watch
but people do , why is that you think ?
because in the main they aren't nationals of other countries pretending to represent them
ours to be taken seriously needs to do the same & stop putting aussies in to bolster the quality of the world cup . union is only played professionally in a few more countries then RL & even under this model we're still getting flogings
so its not going to be that much different , except .. it will be legit.
 

Pommy

Coach
Messages
14,657
because im not blinded by my loyalty to my game
the eligibility rules also make our world cup a farce , the union world cup is full of fat oxygen thieves who are quite simply not worth walking across the road to watch
but people do , why is that you think ?
because in the main they aren't nationals of other countries pretending to represent them
ours to be taken seriously needs to do the same & stop putting aussies in to bolster the quality of the world cup . union is only played professionally in a few more countries then RL & even under this model we're still getting flogings
so its not going to be that much different , except .. it will be legit.

I don’t know much about union but Ben T’eo just toured NZ with the lions so it sure happens.

I used to share your opinion but in reality we just don’t have enough people to hold a legit tournament. The best we can hope for is that the big three don’t poach players from the smaller nations even if the rules do allow it, no more Semis.

Do you not think the rugby union World Cup is a bigger event because there’s more than one team who can realistically win it. In the last 20 years they have had 4 different winners, we have had two and normally it’s almost a dead rubber from kick off.
 

mike11

Juniors
Messages
14
New eligibility rules has killed the last hopes of the France team. after the defeat against lebanon, many newspapers and people on social networks laugh at seeing our team being beaten by such a country.

We are one of the few nations that really work for the development of rugby and that's how we are thanked ... The logic would be that we get back a lot of TV rights because we were sacrificed to artificially increase the level of this world Cup.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,967
I attended last Sunday
& will attend this Friday & hey wot the hell , the following saturday too dickhead
I also attended the last RLWC game played here in 2008
& every Raiders home game played for the last 4 years , plus every weekend I attended a local game played down here for the last 4 years at least as well
so don't lecture me about true support for our game, if its RL in my town ... Im there !!
anyone
anyone who thinks our eligibility rules aren't a mockery are seriously living in an alternate reality

If we can only find 8 nations legit without padding the rest with NRL players , Australian NRL players
then so be it
2 groups of 4 , semi's & a final
also play a minnows world cup with another 8 nations with the finalists in that playing the 7th & 8th placed teams in the tier 1 world cup in a 2 game home & away series to qualify for the next tier 1 world cup.

we need to do something
we're going backwards as a world cup .... its as simple as that

What don't you like? Grandparent rule - pretty much the same in every sport
Residency rule - 5 years. I agree I don't like this and think you should have to be a citizen for residency rule to count

Neither are outrageous eligibility criteria so what don't you like about it? The fact we don't have enough home grown players in some countries is the big issue and not one that is quickly or easily solved.
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
I understand what you’re saying, I used to think switching nations was the ultimate way to discredit us as an international sport.
But the reality is that it is the only way for us to grow as long as there is a plan to keep developing rugby League in these countries (which there is no guarantee is going to happen).

The players are still eligible for these nations under the rules of most sports on earth. The Fiji team are all Fijian, Lebanon team are all Lebanese, Tongan team are all Tongan etc. Most of them just have allegiances to more than the country they are currently playing for. It’s not ideal, it’s just necessary at the moment.

no Im sorry
Jarrad Hayne is not Fijian
Mitch Moses & Robbie Farrah are not Lebanese
they're all Australian & more importantly everyone knows it

it just gives fuel to haters to laugh at us & its hard to convince people to turn up & support these games when there is some validity to the mockery so we shouldn't be surprised no one is turning up.
Fiji didn't need those aussies to beat the USA
Lebanon might have beat France without their aussies

our WC needs some credibility
aussies NRL players in Italian & Fijian jumpers aint it
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,967
because im not blinded by my loyalty to my game
the eligibility rules also make our world cup a farce , the union world cup is full of fat oxygen thieves who are quite simply not worth walking across the road to watch
but people do , why is that you think ?
because in the main they aren't nationals of other countries pretending to represent them
ours to be taken seriously needs to do the same & stop putting aussies in to bolster the quality of the world cup . union is only played professionally in a few more countries then RL & even under this model we're still getting flogings
so its not going to be that much different , except .. it will be legit.

BS, people aren't interested in game of union between Japan and Argentina because of where the players were born. They have hype, positive media and people running the sport that know how to get people interested. We have a far superior product but a terrible administration. They also spend vast sums on the tournament hoping it will make a positive return, which it doesn't always do. Union is part of the establishment, League is still a backwater sport followed by a few in not many paces. The public awareness and interest in league just isn't there. Not because its a terrible game but because of the poor way the sport is run and its parochial mentality.
Then throw in the half arsed fans the game has got that wont go to games and you have a recipe for 5000 world cup crowds
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,967
no Im sorry
Jarrad Hayne is not Fijian
Mitch Moses & Robbie Farrah are not Lebanese
they're all Australian & more importantly everyone knows it

it just gives fuel to haters to laugh at us & its hard to convince people to turn up & support these games when there is some validity to the mockery so we shouldn't be surprised no one is turning up.
Fiji didn't need those aussies to beat the USA
Lebanon might have beat France without their aussies

our WC needs some credibility
aussies NRL players in Italian & Fijian jumpers aint it

That well known Japanese guy Karne Heskteh! The fact this Kiwi played 3 seasons for a Japanese club then became eligible for the cherry blossoms doesn't seem to harm the credibility of their WC?

kosei-ono-karne-hesketh-japan-rugby-world-cup_3353428.jpg
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
What don't you like? Grandparent rule - pretty much the same in every sport
Residency rule - 5 years. I agree I don't like this and think you should have to be a citizen for residency rule to count

Neither are outrageous eligibility criteria so what don't you like about it? The fact we don't have enough home grown players in some countries is the big issue and not one that is quickly or easily solved.

the rules fool no one
Robbie Farrah has lebanese heritage , but is an Australian
spin it any other way you want with rules , the crowds at games in week one & probs througout the tournament suggest no one is buying it
if this is a quick fix , then we can't complain about crowds
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
That well known Japanese guy Karne Heskteh! The fact this Kiwi played 3 seasons for a Japanese club then became eligible for the cherry blossoms doesn't seem to harm the credibility of their WC?

kosei-ono-karne-hesketh-japan-rugby-world-cup_3353428.jpg

awesome
you've found one player in union
theres probably a few more too

its rife in our world cup , it isn't in theirs
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,967
awesome
you've found one player in union
theres probably a few more too

its rife in our world cup , it isn't in theirs

ah so its the number now rather than the rules? Sweet, so what is the magic number, Japan looks to have about 6 or 7 blow ins. Is that ok or too many?
 

Raiderdave

First Grade
Messages
7,990
ah so its the number now rather than the rules? Sweet, so what is the magic number, Japan looks to have about 6 or 7 blow ins. Is that ok or too many?

the word i used is rife

Paul Vaughan ... an Italian ?

yeah
that'll get em rolling in
I'll watch it , most won't .. I can't argue the toss though
& no one else should either
we reap what we sow
 
Messages
3,191
It's half assed tbh.

It's like saying such and such can't be indigenous because they 'look white'. Racist basically.

Just accept that more and more you will get players with, for eg, a Samoan parent and a Tongan parent, born in Auckland and who grew up in Australia. Accordingly, 4 eligible teams.

It is because of ease of travel and global connectivity.

Switching is a separate subject but eligibility should follow from a period of say 5 years residency...
 
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