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Australian rugby league players Jarryd Hayne (left) and Nathan Hindmarsh take part in a team training session in Sydney on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009. The Kangaroos will compete in the four nations tournament with their first match against world champions New Zealand in London on October 24. AAP Image/Paul Miller
With Akila Uate out to play for Australia and Israel Folau trying to get a farewell match for Tonga, international rugby league is at a point where big decisions need to made.
It’s hard not to empathise with Uate, a Fijian, who wants to play for Australia as he is the main bread-winner for his family in Fiji and this will allow more money to go back to them.
In the case of Folau, I don’t see why he should be granted his wish.
Considering he is moving to the AFL, rugby league owes him nothing and he has already been capped numerous times by both Queensland and Australia.
For the past few years, little by little, international rugby league has been getting better. The 2008 World Cup was a wonderful tournament, boosted by many players with Samoan heritage who had represented New Zealand going on to play for Samoa, and the likes of Jarryd Hayne playing for Fiji.
Anyone who watched the Four Nations tournament last year would agree that international league is moving in the right direction. New Zealand have been growing and developing for many years, the 2005 Tri-Nations title and the 2008 World Cup trophy examples of their emergence as a truly world-class team. And England seem to be also moving in the right direction.
Both Sam Burgess and Gareth Ellis are great players and more English stars are getting experience in the NRL, which is crucial. The flood of NRL players moving to England in the prime of their careers, instead of the twilight like in the past, means the English Super League competition is also improving.
And so we have come to a point where international rugby league needs to make a choice. Rugby league is never going to have a vibrant world scene like rugby union enjoys.
But it can have an entertaining but small competition that includes countries such as England, France, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.
But changes need to made on player eligibility for individual countries. Unlike in the past, we need to encourage league players to play for their home countries. We need to make it so that the likes of Fiji and Samoa are not short-changed. Another reason Uate wants to play for Australia is the reported shabby treatment he received from the Fijian rugby league hierarchy. This practice must be fixed.
We need to make sure that Australia and New Zealand do not stock up on all the good players, capping some for just one or two games, ensuring that they cannot play for their home countries.
More money needs to go to the Tongas and Papua New Gunieas so that they can improve their representative programs and pay their national players more, encouraging future generations. We need stricter rules on player eligibility so that the playing pool is fairer and more balanced for all the national teams involved.
If changes can be made we can ensure that international rugby league is viable in the future and not just a flash-in-the-pan real contest every ten years or so when the Kangaroos get beaten.
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