Fiji RLWC squad

[Joker's Wild]

Spare me the personal experience tales mate, it means little on an anonymous internet forum. Id challenge you to find me one player who has refused selection in a big 3 team so they can represent a minor side

 

[welshmagpie]

Spare me the personal experience tales mate, it means little on an anonymous internet forum. Id challenge you to find me one player who has refused selection in a big 3 team so they can represent a minor side

Lee Briers.

 

[sean11evo11]

Lee Briers.

Not true. He's never had the chance to play for England. He didn't get picked all those years ago for Great Britain when the 'Briers for Britain' shouts were getting louder was because they didn't think he was good enough, mainly his defence to be fair.

 

[welshmagpie]

Not true. He's never had the chance to play for England. He didn't get picked all those years ago for Great Britain when the 'Briers for Britain' shouts were getting louder was because they didn't think he was good enough, mainly his defence to be fair.

I have it from a very good source that he was asked about his availability for the 2008 World Cup for England.

Also, Wes Naiqama turned down origin to play for Fiji.

 

[bender]

Adrian Lam is to obvious answer.

 

[Joker's Wild]

I have it from a very good source that he was asked about his availability for the 2008 World Cup for England.

Also, Wes Naiqama turned down origin to play for Fiji.

lol bullshit

Naiqama has never been within 1000 kms of an origin jersey

And I must have imagined Lam playing for qld too

Try harder fellas

 

[roughyedspud]

dale ferguson switched from scotland to england...played a game or 2 for the england knights then decided to switch back to scotland..

danny brough did the same...he decided months ago to give up trying to gain england selection...

 

[Bovrick]

Maybe Steve Matai this year?

Tough question though, quite simply you'd have to be very patriotic and/or very stupid to turn down a place in the big 3. I can't imagine the players' families would be too happy with them turning down the extra earning potential you get with the Big 3 either.

I've expressed my opinion on this matter before, I think the Salary caps in the NRL and ESL should recognise/effectively-subsidise players who formally ally themselves with lesser ranked nations.

 

[Old Time Tiger]

Fair points, lack of a strong governing body and meaningful schedule are definitely holding nations such as Fiji back, which I have said along.

Yes Hutch, a lack of a governing body is 1 problem.

Maybe we could see the annual ANZAC test played with curtain raiser of Fiji v Samoa or PNG v Tonga or Cook Islands v ? Or those nations invited to the Auckland 9's with each NRL club releasing 1 player to represent their island nation, something to help grow the game in the islands.

 

[bender]

lol bullshit

Naiqama has never been within 1000 kms of an origin jersey

And I must have imagined Lam playing for qld too

Try harder fellas

Adrian Lam played for Qld after he played for PNG. After this starring in the origin series, he earned selection for Australia but shocked the national selectors when he told them that he was a PNG player and he would not stop playing for them. He actually even took it one step further. As an ARL aligned player he actually took no notice of there directives not to play for the super league aligned PNG and he was the only player to actually play for Superleague and ARL International sides.

So far as ignoring politics and having passion, Lam was possibly the greatest international ever, imo.

 

[Joker's Wild]

The Lam scenario is exactly why SOO eligibility and Int'l eligibility need to be separated

Under the current rules what he did wouldnt have been allowed to happen and it would take a fairly deluded person to believe he would have forgone playing for Qld to keep his place in the PNG team. The SL war allowed him the best of both worlds and was therefore a fairly big anomaly

All the other "examples" that have been thrown up in here have been players who couldnt get into/back into a big 3 side and gave up

 

[paulmac]

Spare me the personal experience tales mate, it means little on an anonymous internet forum. Id challenge you to find me one player who has refused selection in a big 3 team so they can represent a minor side

Konrad Hurrell.and going back a bit I can remember Qld making enquiries about Noa Nadruku because he player his first RL in the Brisbane competition and Nadruku turned them down.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Yep, Hurrell would be the only genuine one in a very small minority

 

[hutch]

Iestyn Harris knocked back England for years to play for Wales.

 

[roughyedspud]

not sure thats entirely true mate...suppose i could ask him though.

 

[the kirwan kid]

Adrian Lam played for Qld after he played for PNG. After this starring in the origin series, he earned selection for Australia but shocked the national selectors when he told them that he was a PNG player and he would not stop playing for them. He actually even took it one step further. As an ARL aligned player he actually took no notice of there directives not to play for the super league aligned PNG and he was the only player to actually play for Superleague and ARL International sides.

So far as ignoring politics and having passion, Lam was possibly the greatest international ever, imo.

Adrian Lam, while born n PNG, grew up in QLD, had an Aussie accent and is 100% Australian and QLDer. He did agree to play for PNG in his early 20s while playing n the QLD cup, with Sydney rugby league, and therefore Origin, having passed him by.
Once he was committed to PNG he realized in the big picture he could do more good playing for them than he ever could playing for Australia, which is why he said no thanks. I'm sure it hurt but he needs to be applauded for giving back when most of us would have taken the selfish option.

 

[deal.with.it]

100% Australian? Really?
What does that even mean?

 

[stormbati]

John Sutton's pulled out due to an unknown/unnamed injury.

Ryan Millard takes his place. Big loss. I was really looking forward to him playing for Fiji.

 

[Evil Homer]

John Sutton's pulled out due to an unknown/unnamed injury.

Ryan Millard takes his place. Big loss. I was really looking forward to him playing for Fiji.

Definitely a loss but if he wasn't committed then f**k him.

 

[Misanthrope]

Disappointing withdrawal, that. Fiji have a solid enough pack and some stellar backs, but a playmaker was going to be a huge boost to them. Sutton's absence hurts them quite a bit.