British And Irish Lions Tour Opener
My first ever rugby international I attended was the British And Irish Lions vs South Africa in 1989 at Newlands in Cape Town. I have a t shirt in a can kicking around somewhere (box in the garage) which was a souvenir from a street seller on the day. These British and Irish Lions tours are special events that rugby fans and especially the players look forward to every 4 years.
Tonight the British And Irish lions rugby team start their tour of Australia with a match in Dublin against the Argentinians. Quite frankly I think this is a great idea allowing fans access to Lions matches in their country without having to travel half way around the world. With the sport struggling financially why cannot 2 matches be played at home with that revenue generated going to the sport being the clubs and not the Unions. Reports suggest they could have sold out the home game 5 x over.
The British and Irish Lions are selected and go on tour either to New Zealand, South Africa or Australia every 4 years so if you are extremely lucky you may as a player manage 3 tours, but most likely 2 if you are lucky.
This week there has been some criticism raised with the team, squad selection and I feel it is unjustified. There are 38 players in total that will embark on the 9 weeks tour with 9 of those selected having been born elsewhere and are not "native" to the UK. Other sports do this like cricket and football and if you are good enough and qualify then why not select the best players available.
Via grandparents is what was commonly deemed "legit" as that is qualifying through ancestory plus you would have played for the national team of either Scotland, Ireland, Wales or England. The other method is what many have been questioning and that is through residency and then qualifying after having resided in that country for 4 years or longer. You have served your time even if you were not born there and sacrificed playing for the country of your birth by adopting anew country.
The strange thing is nothing has been said before when "foreigners" qualify for your own national team and that is obviously considered alright unless they are selected for the Lions.
The one person who came out criticizing the selection was England's scrum half Danny Care who has been a Lion 3 times before and had aspirations of a 4th only to be replaced by Jamison Gibson-Park. Gibson-Park who happens to hail from New Zealand, but has been capped by Ireland 43 times deserves his selection on merit and Care is sounding like he is a bit miffed on losing out.
The British and Irish Lions this time around are benefitting from a profit sharing scheme between themselves and Australia with each player reportedly earning £100,000 each whether they play or not. Players who missed out on selection should in all honesty keep quiet as the chances are replacements will be required and if you make waves before the tour is even underway then you will be over looked.
This is nothing new selecting players who have qualified for national teams and then being selected for the British and Irish lions as what about the Vunipola brothers, Mike Catt and Matt Stevens. This is just a few off the top of my head and if I dig deeper there will be many others. Why was nothing raised back then and is it now the number of 9 in one squad being a high percentage?
The reality is the sport of rugby turned professional in 1995 and players move around far more than they did back then. Every international team has players born from other countries, but have waited patiently to earn their qualification status which is 4 years. If I was good enough back in the day i could have qualified for England, Ireland and South Africa through residency, birth right or ancestral. Again if I had moved to France and played for 4 years I would also be eligible to play for the French. The 4 years is actually a big thing considering how short a professional rugby players career is. The honor and pride of representing another country is no different and why this is a non discussion.
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The question of who should be able to qualify for national teams is a bit of a tricky one. I think it is cool that you can qualify for some of these teams based on a grandparent's ancestry, especially considering all of the British and Irish born abroad. Generally speaking, going off of residency does invite the opportunity for bad actors to potentially bring people in, although that might hardly be worth the hassle in this particular case.
If the player has played in a certain country for 4 years earning him the right to citizenship then he has to be good enough. Players who get work permits for professional sports at least are given the option because most countries will not select you unless you are playing in their country leagues. I know SA will not select a player outside the borders unless he has proven himself locally first.
I think that makes total sense in this case. I would imagine that choosing players that have been playing locally for awhile is also better for the fans, as they should already have some built up admiration for the players, and can better connect with the team.
Wish Rugby is taken seriously as a sport here in Nigeria