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One thing that has struck me this year watching Super Rugby is the growing number of Pacific Island players now plying their trade within Australian sides.
Without getting into deep analysis of immigration trends and the like, what we are seeing in Australian rugby seems akin to what was witnessed within New Zealand rugby in the early to mid 1990s, where the proportion of Pacific Island players in top sides started to become far skewed from the true representation of the Pacific Island population in New Zealand.
The reason for this is simple, Pacific Islanders are born to play rugby.
The game of rugby as we see it today – fast, physical and explosive – owes so much to what Pacific Island players have brought to the game.
All Black rugby is littered with great Samoan, Tongan and Fijian players. Olo Brown, Va’aiga Tuigamala, Frank Bunce, Jonah Lomu, Jerome Kaino, Tana Umaga, Ma’a Nonu and Michael Jones are some of the greatest players to pull on the black jersey.
Australia, with the likes of Willie Ofahengaue and Toutai Kefu, have also been blessed with supremely talented Pacific Island players in the past. The number has however spiked greatly in recent years, with Israel Folau just one of a number of Pacific Island heritage players in the Wallaby squad.
What is most interesting is the huge increase in the number of Pacific Island players within Six Nations sides. For so long, the English media banged a boring drum about the All Blacks pilfering Pacific Island talent. Well in recent years that drumming seems to be drastically quietening.
England of course have the Vunipola brothers, Manu Tuilagi and most recently Semesa Rokoduguni, who played in the Test at the end of last year against the All Blacks. It wasn’t so long ago that England had the giant Lesley Vainikolo running down the wing for them either.
Wales have the talented Taulupe Faletau, but it is France where we are seeing the Pacific Island influence at its greatest. Noa Nakaitaci, Uini Atonio, Romain Taofifenua and Jocelino Suta were all part of the French squad in this year’s Six Nations. And there will be more, a quick glance through team sheets in the French Top 14 shows the tournament littered with players of Pacific Island heritage. In the most recent round of matches, five of Montpellier’s starting side were of Pacific background.
With the advent of professionalism, the number of players with Pacific Island blood lining up for national sides throughout Europe will naturally increase as players have careers in countries such as France and England, settle and have sons who then go on to represent their new nations. In fact we have started to see this already.
Of course there are negatives to the global spread of Pacific Island talent, the main one being that the national sides of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji would be so much stronger if they could choose from all the talent at their disposal.
All we can do is embrace what this group of small islands in the middle of the Pacific has given the game of rugby. By population they may be small, but by impact they have been the greatest of any by far.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.