6 Domestic players my arse

[East Coast Tiger]

Tonga and Samoa don't have the 6 domestic players I thought they were required to have to play in the WC. Fiji certainly have and the Cooks possibly do as well. WTF is going on? Do the RLIF actually have any control over the WC at all? This was the rule they set out from the start and now they're not enforcing it. Great sign for the tournament proper.:roll: This on top of the Georgia situation.

 

[colonel_123]

Tonga and Samoa don't have the 6 domestic players I thought they were required to have to play in the WC. Fiji certainly have and the Cooks possibly do as well. WTF is going on? Do the RLIF actually have any control over the WC at all? This was the rule they set out from the start and now they're not enforcing it. Great sign for the tournament proper.:roll: This on top of the Georgia situation.

Will we see this rule ignored for the qualifiers then enforced during the world cup finals?

 

[parrawentyfan]

I heard that the 6 players required only need to be in the '25 man squad' and not actually chosen on game-day, which is a bit of a cop out, especially for countries like Fiji. It will advantage teams like Samoa a lot. Could be wrong though, but that's just what i heard.

 

[hitman51]

Oh f**k who cares man their f**ken samoans in those f**ken teams some of you f**ken numb nuts act like they arent samoan well f**ken check their family backgrounds and ask them what they are they'll say there f**ken samoans. Dont give a flying f**k if they didnt pick any players from samoa last time i checked the manu samoa rugby team were made up of samoan players playing in different national professional competitions from all over the world. This comp is lucky the samoan team didnt go all out an just picked a super samoan squad at least this team they've picked kept things at even level its wasnt like the samoans thrashed fiji 50 nil which they couldve easily have done with their strongest squad. Dont take what i've said personally peeps i just think its great that we can have so many teams to boost rugby league it can only be good for the game i know theirs alot of work done in samoa to ressurect the game the reason it died was because of corruption an poor handling of the game. Its been like 3 yaers now but hopefully rugby league will be alive and kicking in samoa in 2008.

 

[jvujosevic]

I heard that the 6 players required only need to be in the '25 man squad' and not actually chosen on game-day, which is a bit of a cop out, especially for countries like Fiji. It will advantage teams like Samoa a lot. Could be wrong though, but that's just what i heard.

No it's in team of 20 man squad, that means that you need just 3 in 17 man squad for game.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Oh f**k who cares man their f**ken samoans in those f**ken teams some of you f**ken numb nuts act like they arent samoan well f**ken check their family backgrounds and ask them what they are they'll say there f**ken samoans. Dont give a flying f**k if they didnt pick any players from samoa last time i checked the manu samoa rugby team were made up of samoan players playing in different national professional competitions from all over the world. This comp is lucky the samoan team didnt go all out an just picked a super samoan squad at least this team they've picked kept things at even level its wasnt like the samoans thrashed fiji 50 nil which they couldve easily have done with their strongest squad. Dont take what i've said personally peeps i just think its great that we can have so many teams to boost rugby league it can only be good for the game i know theirs alot of work done in samoa to ressurect the game the reason it died was because of corruption an poor handling of the game. Its been like 3 yaers now but hopefully rugby league will be alive and kicking in samoa in 2008.

Samoans that will play for New Zealand if picked. It can't be that good if a team like Fiji works so hard to get its domestic players to Sydney only to be beaten by a side that can't even abide by the quote/unquote "rules" and include six domestic players. Even the Netherlands included a team made up mostly of domestic players and they don't have a club comp yet. I hope Samoan RL kicks off again in big way in 2008 too, but what's more important is that it's still going in 2009 and 2010 and any money they do get doesn't disappear this time leaving the SRL broke and asking for handouts to keep the game going.

 

[bender]

Samoans that will play for New Zealand if picked. It can't be that good if a team like Fiji works so hard to get its domestic players to Sydney only to be beaten by a side that can't even abide by the quote/unquote "rules" and include six domestic players. Even the Netherlands included a team made up mostly of domestic players and they don't have a club comp yet. I hope Samoan RL kicks off again in big way in 2008 too, but what's more important is that it's still going in 2009 and 2010 and any money they do get doesn't disappear this time leaving the SRL broke and asking for handouts to keep the game going.

What do you mean it cant be good?

A team from a country just tried their heart out to get an automatic qualifying spot and were gutted to miss out by two points. How keen will they now be to try to upset Tonga or if they fail there to beat the Cook Islands and win the repecharge. Samoa have beaten Fiji, end of story. Unless you have a blatant forward pass, a missed knock on, or can point to Bill Harrigan as being the special guest referee, it is only good that Samoa have beaten Fiji, because the Samoan players deserved it. Incidentally, if you compare the results from the last world cup (or 2 world cups), Fiji have improved out of sight, and they are probably the biggest improvers of the last 15-20 years (France included) on results. Surely that shows that domestic work will only improve their chances of qualifying for the world cup finals, which thanks to the GP Rule among other things is actually an extremely difficult and rewarding task. If Fiji continue improving, they will get stronger from not qualifying (assuming they dont which is far from a certainty) than they would from strolling in against a Samoan side who werent allowed to play their best players because of some ridiculous residency rule which is not used in any other serious sport.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Fiji winning would be better.

 

[hitman51]

That just sucks for samoa was told that apart from carmont, leuluai and maiava the team that ran out against fiji was totally different from the team that john ackland had originally picked. This is the same thing that happened in last years game aganst tonga 2 days before the tonga match samoan players were force to pull out. It must've sucked for the players that were told again this time they cannot play hopefully when they go to england they could still get guys like Joe Vagana, David Vaealiki, Mark leafa, Willy Talau, Maurie Fasavalu to join the samoan squad.

 

[carlnz]

End of the day that 2 points could cost the Fijians a spot in the next world cup.....Looking at the Samoan team, i cant see one name from the local competition or played in the Pacific Cup at the Start of the year...

 

[Misanthrope]

Personally, I don't think much of the 'six domestic players' rule. It's basically weakening nations that need all the help they can get - since Australia, New Zealand, England, and France won't need to worry about it due to their involvement in the NRL and ESL. I'd rather see Samoa, Tonga, and the like all fielding the best possible sides. Not the best possible sides after you put in six guys who almost certainly aren't good enough to do the job.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

I wouldn't insist on the domestic player rule if the GP rule was scrapped. The rule was brought in (I assume) to give some of these teams (like Ireland, Lebanon etc) a fair dinkum link to the nations they represent. Tightening up the eliginility rules would also help do this. Enforcing a one nation for life rule wouldn't go astray either.

 

[bartman]

Emotive issue obviously. Can I just clarify, does the six domestic player rule mean that 6 players must be in the 20 man squad (for each game)? So in the match v Fiji, under those rules (at their strictest interpretation) Samoa need only have selected 3 domestic players in their 17 man side.

Did they breach that with their actual run-on side v Fiji?

 

[nadera78]

The Samoan team listed on the rlif website includes the following names that could be domestic players;Simon Gercs and Conrad Ta’amoekiafa. They are the only names of the 18 listed that i don't recognise, so they could be locals, then again it could be that i just have never heard of them.

The 2nd condition listed by the rlif was that players could be counted as locals if they had played for that country's recognised 2nd team. ie an 'A' team or a student side. Samoa don't have either of those so none of the players could qualify that way.

Personally, I think it's crap. If the rules are laid down in advance and everyone know about them then they should be enforced. teams failing to comply should have the res**t reversed. Otherwise it's a complete waste of time.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The Samoan team listed on the rlif website includes the following names that could be domestic players;Simon Gercs and Conrad Ta’amoekiafa. They are the only names of the 18 listed that i don't recognise, so they could be locals, then again it could be that i just have never heard of them.

The 2nd condition listed by the rlif was that players could be counted as locals if they had played for that country's recognised 2nd team. ie an 'A' team or a student side. Samoa don't have either of those so none of the players could qualify that way.

Personally, I think it's crap. If the rules are laid down in advance and everyone know about them then they should be enforced. teams failing to comply should have the res**t reversed. Otherwise it's a complete waste of time.

I think it should read Simon Geros who used to play in the Qld Cup.
In any case it's clear that if this rule does actually exist it hasn't been enforced, at least for the Pacific qualifiers. It would be nice to know why and what that means for the rest of the World Cup.

 

[girvie]

Conrad Ta'akimoeaka played for Belrose in the Jim Beam Cup. Manly brought him over from NZ. He is a second rower like the Conrad T listed for Samoa. I think it could be the same person.

 

[bender]

Maybe domestic player includes players who were actually born in that country. That would make sense and would take away the cocerns raised here, wouldnt it?

 

[hitman51]

Maybe domestic player includes players who were actually born in that country. That would make sense and would take away the cocerns raised here, wouldnt it?

could be right man cause peewee moke, malofou solomona, Albert talapeau, Frank winstertein, Lino salafai were all born in samoa thats 5 players dont know who else was born in samoa pretty sure chris afamasaga an chris vaefaga were born in samoa also.

 

[otag]

pee wee moke playin for samoa now. he used to play for fiji.

 

[The Observer]

IIRC Albert Talipeau was either born in Wellington or in the Hutt, North Island, New Zealand. He played for Toa Samoa in RLWC 2000. Hitman, the question about moke, winterstein, salafai is that while they were born in Samoa, for how long were they raised in Samoa? Are they products of RL or RU in Samoa?

The requirement for 6 domestic players is that players that are products of RL in Samoa itself should have opportunities to represent their country. It appears that rule has not been enforced. If that's the case, IMO Fiji Bati and Cook Islands should take the points for those games, Toa Samoa and Mate Ma'a Tonga should be awarded a forfeit.