Interesting piece by Mascord.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/g-20151105-gkrlcx.html
International World All Stars should not qualify for Australian team
The new World All Stars team to play an Indigenous side in February raises an interesting and important debate. If you are Australian for the purposes of Test football, then you should not be Tongan or Samoan or Fijian just for the sake of this game.
The idea - which pits a composite side made up of four Australians, four Englishmen, four New Zealanders and a bunch of other nationalities against the Indigenous side - is a positive development in terms of the NRL's increased interaction with the rest of the rugby league-playing world.
But it's not a statesman-like gesture.
Players continue to be forced to commit themselves to the Australia team as a condition of playing State of Origin, a convention that allows the green-and-golds to use the huge match payments on offer in that arena to stockpile players.
There is fierce resistance to that changing, even though Origin has been protected by a rule requiring players to have lived in either NSW or Queensland before the age of 13.
There may be a belief among NRL types that given they have not been able to separate Origin from Test football, this new concept is some kind of consolation for Origin players wanting to represent their country of heritage.
But if that's their objective, it's a cop out.
Allowing Michael Jennings to play in this game as a Tongan, or James McManus as a Scotsman, or Akuila Uate as a Fijian when they are all unable to represent those countries after declaring themselves Australian only further shores up Australia's stockpile and hurts the international game.
Like the Aussies, Kiwis and Englishmen involved in the World All Stars, the Welshmen, Cook Islanders and Samoans must be eligible to play for those countries and NOT Australia. This is absolutely imperative if we are going to create an incentive for NRL players to commit to developing nations.
