Kane Bentley - France and Boston 13s

[LeagueXIII]

http://www.kiwileaguecentral.com/features/bentley-in-blue/

 

[langpark]

An interesting article, but I hate how he can go from saying this:

“Kane for me was as passionate as Charles de Gaulle,” Goulding says.
“He loves the French culture, he’s fluent in the language and is as French as a Frenchman; simple.
“It meant the world to him putting on that jersey.”

to this...

“I have been in contact with Scotland along with my brother and they wanted to know a bit more about our heritage to see if we are eligible to play for them.
“We are eligible because my mum has a British passport.
“I said to them ‘if you guys take us on, man we are keen to represent our heritage and our blood on the Scottish side.’

 

[deal.with.it]

Again highlights the farce that is nation swapping.

It's not just origin, the lure of more matches or bigger pay cheques.

We need to follow the lead of other sports if we want to be taken seriously.

The counter argument from scotland, italy etc will be "why shouldn't we be able to select the strongest team possible?"

The response should be: "develop domestically, get your players playing in pro/semi pro leagues around the world, and build your team from the ground up!"

Teams complain about the big 3 taking their players. Well if they jump ship so easily, maybe they aren't the right player to represent your nation.

 

[latingringo101]

Again highlights the farce that is nation swapping.

It's not just origin, the lure of more matches or bigger pay cheques.

We need to follow the lead of other sports if we want to be taken seriously.

The counter argument from scotland, italy etc will be "why shouldn't we be able to select the strongest team possible?"

The response should be: "develop domestically, get your players playing in pro/semi pro leagues around the world, and build your team from the ground up!"

Teams complain about the big 3 taking their players. Well if they jump ship so easily, maybe they aren't the right player to represent your nation.

It's a very tricky situation because countries like Lebanon, Malta, Greece, Italy, Philippines, Vanuatu etc started from players from countries like Australia & the UK playing for them and then helping to build awareness back in their home nation.

The Republic of Ireland soccer team had a situation in the 80s where they just weren't performing so the coach went and picked a team full of heritage players and eventually Ireland started performing. Now a days Ireland has produced MANY homegrown players like Roy Keane, Robbie Keane and John o'Shea and most of their quality players come from the Emerald Isle instead of overseas.

We need players to stick with their national team for life because that's the only way it will bring legitimacy and long term development of homegrown players for these nations.

 

[flamin]

Whether your local or heritage - it's been a said a million times on this forum - it should be one nation for life.

 

[roughyedspud]

His mum having a british passport mean jack shit...

So his mum is half moari-half scottish but she was born in NZ...which means kane better get digging into his family history and prove which on of his mums parents was born in scotland..

Cos his current reasoning,mum having a british passport,isn't part of the criteria

 

[LeagueXIII]

It's a very tricky situation because countries like Lebanon, Malta, Greece, Italy, Philippines, Vanuatu etc started from players from countries like Australia & the UK playing for them and then helping to build awareness back in their home nation.

The Republic of Ireland soccer team had a situation in the 80s where they just weren't performing so the coach went and picked a team full of heritage players and eventually Ireland started performing. Now a days Ireland has produced MANY homegrown players like Roy Keane, Robbie Keane and John o'Shea and most of their quality players come from the Emerald Isle instead of overseas.

We need players to stick with their national team for life because that's the only way it will bring legitimacy and long term development of homegrown players for these nations.

True, but I think it is different in say Italy rugby league's case, where there is very little youth league and kids in Italy don't identify with these players as opposed to the soccer example where there was a history and a structured set up of soccer within Ireland, so the success gave these people who followed the game something to aspire to. Whilst I would love league to be like that in Italy and these other nations it's really apples and oranges once you dig beneath the surface.

 

[latingringo101]

True, but I think it is different in say Italy rugby league's case, where there is very little youth league and kids in Italy don't identify with these players as opposed to the soccer example where there was a history and a structured set up of soccer within Ireland, so the success gave these people who followed the game something to aspire to. Whilst I would love league to be like that in Italy and these other nations it's really apples and oranges once you dig beneath the surface.

True but i believe that if you have players who stick to Italy, visit Italy each year and play games there and go out and encourage 5 and 6 year olds to play the game (hopefully in Italian) then those players can lay the seeds to the youth of Italy to play the sport.

Then in 10-15 years you'll see teams such as Wales, France and Serbia being predominately domestic based players.