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So Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita. How about that?
A couple of NRL superstars choosing to play for the Kingdom of Tonga over rugby league power-countries New Zealand and Australia respectively in this upcoming rugby league World Cup? It’s bit interesting, isn’t it?
And you sort of wonder why more don’t do it. And then you think, ‘Oh yeah; money’.
And then you think, ‘It’s a shame isn’t it? For wouldn’t it be good for the greater planet rugby league and the code’s affectations to international notability if anyone eligible to play rugby league for two or more countries, if they had to give the lower-ranked country first refusal?’.
Wouldn’t that be good?
Rather than James Tedesco being picked for Italy only after he was not selected for Australia (Mal! Are you mad?), wouldn’t it better for the greater game if Italy had first call?
Why should Italy have to wait for Tedesco to not be picked (Mal! It’s madness!) for Australia?
And same for anyone who has a grandparent with citizenship in the United States or Scotland or the greater archipelago of Fiji.
Rather than waiting for him not to be picked, why wouldn’t Samoa get first dibs on Anthony Milford?
Josh McGuire was picked for Australia. Give Samoa first shot at him.
And are you telling us that there’s not a Scottish or Irish grandparent in an Aussie team full of surnames like Slater, Dugan, Munster, Morgan, Maloney, McLean, Cordner, Gillett and Hunt?
(Image: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Look at Tonga. On top of Taumalolo and Fifita, the mighty Mate Ma’a boasts Will Hopoate, Konrad Hurrell Michael Jennings, Solomone Kata, Sio Siua Taukeiaho, Sika Manu, the hardman that is Manu Ma’u, David Fusitu’a, Joe Ofahengaue, Daniel Tupou and Manu ‘The Beast’ Vatuvei.
How about for a line-up? Pretty good, no?
Throw in Melbourne Storm star and Kangaroos bolter Felise Kaufusi, who’s already played for Tonga, and the Mate Ma’a would be a tasty burger indeed.
Hell, Tonga would assume a spot nudging the second line of betting.
And why shouldn’t they? Why should big brassy Australia and New Zealand get first dibs on these people?
Josh Mansour would’ve been bopping about for Lebanon and was as good as picked for the Cedars before Darius Boyd broke down, and Mal (Mal! Respect and all, but what the hell?) didn’t pick Tedesco but picked Mansour instead.
And thus Mansour will not run out with Mitchell Moses, Tim Mannah and Robbie Farah, and the rag-tag bunch of renegades representing Lebanon out of the Sydney and Beirut metropolitan rugby league competitions.
Now, sure, if you identify as Australian, as Josh Mansour most certainly does, or Kiwi, as Kiwis do, and it’s been your life’s ambition to represent that country, then having a grandparent born in Beirut or Ballybunion who emigrated out here in 1942 mightn’t really wash in terms of who you’d rather play for.
But in this brave new planet rugby league, that would be bad luck. Because for the big picture, for rugby league to claim that its World Cup has more than one – or two at a pinch – countries with a realistic chance to actually up and win the thing, then, well, sorry Josh Mansour, it’s the لبنان الرجبي الوطني فريق في الدوري (Lebanon national rugby league team) for you.
And sure, again, the fluidity of one’s nationality doesn’t sit right with many folks. Claiming more than one nationality is fraught. There are those who would say a man declares allegiance, and that’s it. Game over.
But this is rugby league. It’s not really an international game. And when it has a World Cup, the battle lines need to be redrawn, existing paradigms rejigged, and thoughts germinated outside squares.
(Image: NRL Photos/Grant Trouville)
Let’s go further left afield and consider the league and union divide. If Italy and Fiji and Ireland and the United States can recruit rugby union players – and they’re good enough to represent their countries, and their rugby union clubs and, um, unions are okay with them playing league for eight weeks every four years – then why not get ‘em over?
Yes, rich French Rah-rahs do now own Semi Radradra, but if he’d known he could play for Fiji in the World Cup before heading to Toulon, he might have requested such a caveat in his contract. Everyone has caveats in their contract, it’s the new black.
Maybe Semi’s a bad example, but were he bopping about for the Bati with Jarryd Hayne, Suliasi Vunivalu, Api Koroisau and Corbin, Tariq and Ashton Sims, I mean … y’know. Gives Fiji a sniff. Creates interest in games. Rugby league is the winner.
How many Vunivalus who are bopping about in Fiji rugby would welcome a shot at greatest game of all rugby league?
Is the time of the independent contractor who flits from sport to sport, country to country, coming?
Look at Sonny Bill Williams. Look at Brad Thorne. Thorne played for Australia and New Zealand and Queensland and Canterbury (Crusaders), and he did it seamlessly. No-one had a crack at him. He was just one of those blokes who played forever, this giant hard man, tradesman and man’s man, and we didn’t give him any gip for it. Another story.
But rugby league, as all sports must, has to consider its place in an increasingly globalised world. And all power – and money – to Fifita and Taumalolo and anyone else who’d represent David against Goliath on the world stage.