New Zealand 2 will deal a massive blow to NZ rugby

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

As someone who has spent lots of time in South America including Argentina, most don't know what Ruby is and of the Argies that have heard of it or know of the Pumas, they don't really give a shit.

No one goes to watch the Pumas' games.

 

[The Great Dane]

The competitiveness has absolutely come from the drop off from Southern Hemisphere nations.

This is simply untrue.

Tonga has never made it past the pool stages of the RWC, and didn't even qualify in 91. Fiji has only made it past the pool stages twice, in 87 and 07. Samoa three times, in 91, 95, 99.

Put simply, the PI's have always been B and C tier nations at best in RU, and other larger and/or wealthier nations slowly but surely catching up to them, or surpassing them, hasn't been surprising. If anything it demonstrates RU's growth over the years, not it's weakness.

And no, filling your squad with Aussies, Kiwis, Tongans and South Africans and calling the team 'Japan' isn't that impressive. It's exactly what you criticise the Tongan and Samoan RL teams for, but at least those players are culturally Tongan and Samoan.

Of the 23 players in the Brave Blossoms squad for their last test (against France last November) 12 were born and raised in Japan. Koo Ji-won was born in South Korea, but moved to Japan at the age of 2, and Kotaro Matsushima was born to a Japanese mother and moved to Japan at the age of 5.

So that's at least 14/23 whom are about as Japanese as it gets, and that is already a significantly lower rate of heritage players (or players whom qualify under other dodgy eligibility rules) than most international RL teams. I didn't do a deep dive into the history of the other guys in the team either, so their could be more that I don't know about.

Their ratio of locally developed players has been strong for over a decade at this point, and is increasing with each new generation of players. They're not the only nation with a similar rate of growth in RU either.

 

[Te Kaha]

As someone who has spent lots of time in South America including Argentina, most don't know what Ruby is and of the Argies that have heard of it or know of the Pumas, they don't really give a shit.

Good for you, your anecdotes don't mean much. Here are some anecdotes that say perhaps you aren't being entirely truthful.

5 Popular Sports to Enjoy While Teaching in Argentina - Teaching Nomad

Teaching in Argentina will give you many opportunities to experience the culture - learn about some of the most popular sports there!

www.teachingnomad.com

Argentina: The land of rugby - Eurosport

The Pumas, who are one of France’s opponents in pool C of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

www.eurosport.com

How popular is rugby in Argentina?

Answer (1 of 9): The only massively popular sport here is football. It's the only one that has a complete and constant media coverage all year round. Other sports are popular only amongst their practitioners but they don't enjoy much publicity by mass media. That being said, the second distant p...

www.quora.com

The competitiveness has absolutely come from the drop off from Southern Hemisphere nations.

And no, filling your squad with Aussies, Kiwis, Tongans and South Africans and calling the team 'Japan' isn't that impressive. It's exactly what you criticise the Tongan and Samoan RL teams for, but at least those players are culturally Tongan and Samoan.

How out of date are you!!

The Japan squad for 2022\2023
Japan Keita INAGAKI
Japan Shuhei TAKEUCHI
Japan Yusuke KIZU Prop
Japan Atsushi SAKATE
Japan Kosuke HORIKOSHI
Japan Takeshi HINO
Japan Kotaro MATSUSHIMA
Japan Kanji SHIMOKAWA
Japan Kazuki HIMENO
Japan Naoto SAITO
Japan Yutaka NAGARE
Japan Hayata NAKAO
Japan Seungsin LEE
Japan Takuya YAMASAWA
Japan Ryohei YAMANAKA
Japan Ryoto NAKAMURA
Japan Shogo NAKANO
SK Jiwon KOO Japanese citizen moved to Japan at 2
NZ Michael LEITCH Moved to Japan at 15 is a Japanese citizen
NZ Warner DEARNS Moved to Japan at 14
NZ Craig MILLAR
SA Gerhard VAN DEN HEEVER
SA Lappies LABUSCHAGNÉ
SA Wimpie VAN DER WALT
Aus Jack CORNELSEN
Aus Dylan RILEY
Tonga Lua MAKISI
Tonga Tevita TATAFU
Tonga Siosaia FIFITA

17/29 Born in Japan
3 moved to Japan at school age or younger
9 moved to play Rugby and qualified by residency.

To put it in to perspective, in the last League World Cup final only 3 of 19 named to play for one of the finalists was born in their country.
Once again you show yourself to be out of touch.

 

[Gobsmacked]

This is simply untrue.

Tonga has never made it past the pool stages of the RWC, and didn't even qualify in 91. Fiji has only made it past the pool stages twice, in 87 and 07. Samoa three times, in 91, 95, 99.

Put simply, the PI's have always been B and C tier nations at best in RU, and other larger and/or wealthier nations slowly but surely catching up to them, or surpassing them, hasn't been surprising. If anything it demonstrates RU's growth over the years, not it's weakness.

Of the 23 players in the Brave Blossoms squad for their last test (against France last November) 12 were born and raised in Japan. Koo Ji-won was born in South Korea, but moved to Japan at the age of 2, and Kotaro Matsushima was born to a Japanese mother and moved to Japan at the age of 5.

So that's at least 14/23 whom are about as Japanese as it gets, and that is already a significantly lower rate of heritage players (or players whom qualify under other dodgy eligibility rules) than most international RL teams. I didn't do a deep dive into the history of the other guys in the team either, so their could be more that I don't know about.

Their ratio of locally developed players has been strong for over a decade at this point, and is increasing with each new generation of players. They're not the only nation with a similar rate of growth in RU either.

Wow ! I think you're on the wrong forum

 

[Wb1234]

The competitiveness has absolutely come from the drop off from Southern Hemisphere nations.

And no, filling your squad with Aussies, Kiwis, Tongans and South Africans and calling the team 'Japan' isn't that impressive. It's exactly what you criticise the Tongan and Samoan RL teams for, but at least those players are culturally Tongan and Samoan.

Good point about Japan

 

[Matua]

Hence why I said sorry if it had been posted. I gave up a while ago trying to read all of this painful thread.

I was just letting you know ...

 

[Wb1234]

I was just letting you know ...

TikTok - Make Your Day

vt.tiktok.com

Just came up on my tok tik

 

[Matua]

URL unfurl="true"]https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS8CVhdhs/[/URL]

Just came up on my tok tik

I'm genuinely not sure that you're not in fact a marketer for tik tok due to the frequency of posting links on here.

Never heard of this "renowned NRL personality" but agree with his comments (although Hughes must be on the borderline of eligibility as he moved to Oz when he was 13/14) Luai is an interesting example for him to use, as he's also a NZer as well as a Samoan who has captained the Junior Kiwis.

 

[Wb1234]

I'm genuinely not sure that you're not in fact a marketer for tik tok due to the frequency of posting links on here.

Never heard of this "renowned NRL personality" but agree with his comments (although Hughes must be on the borderline of eligibility as he moved to Oz when he was 13/14) Luai is an interesting example for him to use, as he's also a NZer as well as a Samoan who has captained the Junior Kiwis.

I’m on there for the boobs but nrl content keeps coming up

 

[Matua]

I’m on there for the boobs but nrl content keeps coming up

There's boobs on tik tok?

Damn, I'm the wrong generation.

 

[Wb1234]

There's boobs on tik tok?

Damn, I'm the wrong generation.

TikTok - Make Your Day

vt.tiktok.com

Standard thot

 

[Colk]

TikTok - Make Your Day

vt.tiktok.com

Standard thot

That’s hilarious

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Good for you, your anecdotes don't mean much. Here are some anecdotes that say perhaps you aren't being entirely truthful.

5 Popular Sports to Enjoy While Teaching in Argentina - Teaching Nomad

Teaching in Argentina will give you many opportunities to experience the culture - learn about some of the most popular sports there!

www.teachingnomad.com

Argentina: The land of rugby - Eurosport

The Pumas, who are one of France’s opponents in pool C of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

www.eurosport.com

How popular is rugby in Argentina?

Answer (1 of 9): The only massively popular sport here is football. It's the only one that has a complete and constant media coverage all year round. Other sports are popular only amongst their practitioners but they don't enjoy much publicity by mass media. That being said, the second distant p...

www.quora.com

How out of date are you!!


The Japan squad for 2022\2023
Japan Keita INAGAKI
Japan Shuhei TAKEUCHI
Japan Yusuke KIZU Prop
Japan Atsushi SAKATE
Japan Kosuke HORIKOSHI
Japan Takeshi HINO
Japan Kotaro MATSUSHIMA
Japan Kanji SHIMOKAWA
Japan Kazuki HIMENO
Japan Naoto SAITO
Japan Yutaka NAGARE
Japan Hayata NAKAO
Japan Seungsin LEE
Japan Takuya YAMASAWA
Japan Ryohei YAMANAKA
Japan Ryoto NAKAMURA
Japan Shogo NAKANO
SK Jiwon KOO Japanese citizen moved to Japan at 2
NZ Michael LEITCH Moved to Japan at 15 is a Japanese citizen
NZ Warner DEARNS Moved to Japan at 14
NZ Craig MILLAR
SA Gerhard VAN DEN HEEVER
SA Lappies LABUSCHAGNÉ
SA Wimpie VAN DER WALT
Aus Jack CORNELSEN
Aus Dylan RILEY
Tonga Lua MAKISI
Tonga Tevita TATAFU
Tonga Siosaia FIFITA

17/29 Born in Japan
3 moved to Japan at school age or younger
9 moved to play Rugby and qualified by residency.

To put it in to perspective, in the last League World Cup final only 3 of 19 named to play for one of the finalists was born in their country.
Once again you show yourself to be out of touch.

Ok mate, no one gives a shit about Union in Argentina, I'm just telling you.

Secondly, there are a shit tonne of non-Japanese in that side.

 

[Te Kaha]

Ok mate, no one gives a shit about Union in Argentina, I'm just telling you.

Secondly, there are a shit tonne of non-Japanese in that side.

Seems like people in Buenos Aires disagree with you. Seems like people in other places in Argentina disagree with you.

70% of the team are Japanese CItizens, by birth or decree, so 30% is hardly "shit tonnes". And the point you were arguing about the improvement and growth of Japan is clearly wrong.

Next mistake you want to make?

 

[titoelcolombiano]

This is simply untrue.

Tonga has never made it past the pool stages of the RWC, and didn't even qualify in 91. Fiji has only made it past the pool stages twice, in 87 and 07. Samoa three times, in 91, 95, 99.

Put simply, the PI's have always been B and C tier nations at best in RU, and other larger and/or wealthier nations slowly but surely catching up to them, or surpassing them, hasn't been surprising. If anything it demonstrates RU's growth over the years, not it's weakness.

Of the 23 players in the Brave Blossoms squad for their last test (against France last November) 12 were born and raised in Japan. Koo Ji-won was born in South Korea, but moved to Japan at the age of 2, and Kotaro Matsushima was born to a Japanese mother and moved to Japan at the age of 5.

So that's at least 14/23 whom are about as Japanese as it gets, and that is already a significantly lower rate of heritage players (or players whom qualify under other dodgy eligibility rules) than most international RL teams. I didn't do a deep dive into the history of the other guys in the team either, so their could be more that I don't know about.

Their ratio of locally developed players has been strong for over a decade at this point, and is increasing with each new generation of players. They're not the only nation with a similar rate of growth in RU either.

Australia and New Zealand are the two major southern hemesphere nations that I'm talking about obviously.

14/23 impressive mate, that's almost a full team of Japanese out of a whole squad - lol. Soon we might actually be able to call them Japan. It is joke mate and it's exactly what you criticise international RL teams of.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Seems like people in Buenos Aires disagree with you. Seems like people in other places in Argentina disagree with you.

70% of the team are Japanese CItizens, by birth or decree, so 30% is hardly "shit tonnes". And the point you were arguing about the improvement and growth of Japan is clearly wrong.

Next mistake you want to make?

Have you been to Argentina? I've spent a lot of time there and no one gives a shit, don't read the hype.

The Japanese team is a joke, they are propped up by foreigners

 

[Perth Red]

Australia and New Zealand are the two major southern hemesphere nations that I'm talking about obviously.

14/23 impressive mate, that's almost a full team of Japanese out of a whole squad - lol. Soon we might actually be able to call them Japan. It is joke mate and it's exactly what you criticise international RL teams of.

They’ve probably at least visited Japan, which is a step up from most of our ’samoan and tongan‘ players lol

 

[Wb1234]

They’ve probably at least visited Japan, which is a step up from most of our ’samoan and tongan‘ players lol

Guess you missed all the videos of the Samoan and Tongan teams visiting and getting a street parade

 

[Perth Red]

Guess you missed all the videos of the Samoan and Tongan teams visiting and getting a street parade

had they ever been BEFORE they palyed for them? Lol didn’t half the Samoan team not bother going?

 

[Wb1234]

had they ever been BEFORE they palyed for them? Lol didn’t half the Samoan team not bother going?

Keep shifting the goal posts when you’ve been shown to be wrong

the king of Tonga literally was in the crowd at Auckland to watch his team at the World Cup

you don’t see the king of England wanting to watch rugby league games do you