Dilmah said:
Not everything is black and white...
representitive eligibility is very black and white
for state of origin, a player has to play for the state where he played his first competitive league game from the age of 16 up, although special circumstances do exist, in that if a member of the warratahs who grew up in sydney & played all his footy for the warratahs but was singed by a queensland team, he'd be given special permission to play for nsw
as for rules regarding international players, it follows the same eligibility guidelines as soccer, cricket & union
as for adrian lam, he was given special permission to play for queensland in 95 due to a lack of eligible queenslanders (since all the superleague players couldn't play in 95) but this did not extend to australia, even though he was offered it
the case for hazem elmasri is lebanon is not a full test nation member, so he can switch
tonnie carroll was allowed to switch because up to 2000 his allegance was declard to new zealand and until the next world cup it is australia
brad thorn played league for australia under our eligibility rules, but under union's he played for new zealand