The story of Jerry Yanuyanutawa’s plight in potentially playing for Fiji in the World Cup has come to light from Rugby Heaven, with the issue likely to bring a club vs country debate into Australia Rugby Union headquaters.
The article reads: “The problem for Yanuyanutawa is that if he was to play for Fiji, he would forfeit the final year of his Brumbies contract because he will not meet the criteria of being eligible for the Wallabies.
“Even if Yanuyanutawa wanted to answer the plea of Fiji … Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan said the club could prevent him from doing so.”
I think Fagan might find himself a bit mistaken. Jerry Yanuyanutawa dosnt have to ask anyone to play for a country he is qualified for.
In fact, the IRB can place sanctions on any club prohibiting a player from playing for their country (although unfortunately this hardly ever happens).
Obviously, if Yanuyanutawa plays for Fiji, it may mean the Brumbies have more that one foreign qualified player which the ARU prohibits. It may also breach his contract. So the Brumbies could sack him.
But they cannot prevent him from playing to Fiji and he does not need to ask “permission”.
Bearing in mind that Yanuyanutawa has only played a handful of games for the Brumbies, and is not likely to ever feature in the Wallabies, I dont think he should be prevented from representing Fiji if he wishes to.
This raises the issue of the current foreign player quotas in Aussie Super Rugby sides. Apart from Melbourne who have a dispensation, sides can have one foreign qualified player, and one player not currently qualified but who can qualify for Australia in the future through residency.
While I believe the addition of Melbourne is good long term for Aussie rugby, I think this year has shown a bit of a lack of depth in our rugby.
Maybe we should allow one foriegn qualified player and an additional two Tier-2 country qualified players (Fiji, Japan, Tonga, Samoa, Argentina etc) per team.
With 5 Aussie Super sides, I think foreign players would help raise the quality of our teams, and wouldnt affect player depth as long as there was some process from the ARU to ensure that that foriegn players were not all in the same position.
Obviously teams wouldn’t have to sign foreign players, but they could have the flexibility to do so if they wished.
Yesterday it was announced that Freddy Michelak signed for the Sharks again, and in both New Zealand and South Africa, it is common to have foreign players playing Super Rugby. Carlos Spencer played for the Lions and then became their assistant coach.
Apart from strengthening our Super Rugby teams, I think our players can benefit from playing alongside experienced players from other nations, especially an up and coming players playing next to an experienced Northern Hemisphere international.
Many European players have expressed a desire to play in the Super Rugby and I am sure many island players based in Europe would love to play their rugby closer to home.
More foreign players in Australian Super Rugby teams would also provide more publicity and make our super teams a bit more glamourous.
While this shouldnt be a primary concern, in our saturated football market, a Johnny Wilkinson or Michelak would benefit rugby and perhaps increase crowd numbers.
Thoughts, Roarers?
Vhavnal
Roar Rookie
Yes but Yanuyanutawa has been with the brumbies side for well over 3 years now and they didn't really care much about him..and when Fiji decides to get his services, the brumbies/ARU now decide he will be in their "future wallaby plans" ..this is absurd..
CizzyRascal
Roar Guru
I'm not sure about the veracity of this, but Jerry Yanuyanutawa played a game for Australia A which would rule out any chance of playing for Fiji.
Ben S
Roar Guru
Good answer.
Sharminator
Roar Rookie
Hi Blue, there have actually been more foreign players playing for South African super sides than you would think. In Australia and New Zealand we perhaps dont hear about or see them as much as we dont see the South African teams on tv as often. Unlike Australia and New Zealand, the South Africans have never implemented a foreign player rule, whcih is why Andy Goode, Gregor Townsend, and Michalak, amongst others, have played for them. Michalak has actually played Super rugby. He played 9 games for the the Sharks in the Super 14 in 2008. He was also later key to their winning the Currie Cup in the same year. Two other Frenchaman, Thierry Lacroix and Olivier Roumat also previously played for the Sharks. Hernandez never started, but that was really due to injury. Obviously they didnt sign him not to play, but several other Argentinians have featured in South African Super teams including Federico Mendez and Eusebio Guinazu who played for the Stormers last year. Several Fijians have also been playing for South African Currie Cup and Super teams in recent years. Sireli Naqelevuki playerd for the Stormers in 2010. James Kamana, a New Zealander is playing for the Lions this year. There are then numerous Namibians and Zimbabweans that have played in South African Super teams, including those such as The Beast and Percy Montegormery, who went on to play for South Africa, but also others such as Jacques Burger, Skipper Badenhorst and Kees Lensing who all played for Namibia. I think the point is that when an opportunity for an experienced player comes up, like with Freddie Michalak, or when they are missing a player in a key position, the South Africans teams have the flexability to take it and seem to be keener to do so than Aussie sides.
Blue
Guest
"Yesterday it was announced that Freddy Michelak signed for the Sharks again, and in both New Zealand and South Africa, it is common to have foreign players playing Super Rugby. " Whilst the Kiwis have a lot of Islanders in their squads, SA teams have very few foreign players. It is by far an exception. Carlos, Tony Brown, "Combover" Pommie Guy for the Sharks, the Scottish pivot for the Sharks, the Yank back rower for the Lions. Hernandez never started for the Sharks. Michalak has not played Super Rugby - only Currie Cup. That's about it. Not a lot.
True Tah
Guest
Big Ratu was a big bloke, but played like a midget in the body of a giant.
allblackfan
Guest
Vhavnal, it's doubtful Yanuyanutawa will improve the Aussie scrum. If he was that good, he would have been snapped up by the Wallabies! Don't confuse size with scrummmaging
allblackfan
Guest
how about this? Why don't you develop your own players? If you're going to rely on imports to bolster your teams, the imperative to develop homegrown players lessens. We're seeing this at the moment in the EPL
Vhavnal
Roar Rookie
Australia has already lost most of its better players to League (as most kids in OZ prefer to play league or AFL than rugby), why is it having this foreign player rule which jeopardizes any players chance of representing their motherland?..when the Rebels were allocated more than one Marquee player rule, i was kinda excited hoping more players from pacific would get picked for the rebels and then atleast we will have players from our country playing in the biggest/best club rugby competition in the world, but that didn't happen........... they started getting players from other tier 1 countries, ignoring the Pacific Islands completely..the only reason NZ super rugby teams have been successful is because of its Pacific Islands influences..Irish/UK and French teams treat "PACIFIC ISLANDERS" as locals and thus are not regarded as marquee players and thats why many islanders now choose to go there..as u can get a better player for cheaper from the islands than a capped player from one of the southern hemisphere tier 1 teams @allblackfan, the only reason the Brumbies selected Speight is if he acknowledges his non-availability for fiji which he has already done..good on him..he is a winger, fiji has abundance of wingers but what we DO NOT have abundance of is props...having Yanuyanutawa play for us will strengthen our scrums, Fiji's Achilles heel..stopping Jerry from representing us in a slap on our faces..if there is a way the PI teams can become stronger and better, who are Australia to say NO?
Spencer
Guest
Yawn. Do actually have anything constructive to add?
mikeylives
Guest
Bahahaha....
allblackfan
Guest
Leiafano brought Speight back from Waikato last year to play for the Brumbies; Speight does not qualify a marquee player because he's stated his aim to make the Wallabies. Speight was originally supposed to play for Fiji after learning how to play the game in the Land of Rugby. So much for allowing an PI development player to play in Aust yet allow him to play for his homeland!! The fact is, if the Aust sides sign up a developing PI player who is THAT good, they will poach him. Radike Samo is a very good example of this: when he made noises about playing for Fiji, they picked him for one Wallaby game then promptly forgot him to the point where he buggered off overseas. If Aust teams are allowed to recruit more marquee players (and you are already doing it) then this not only weakens the case for further Super rugby expansion but also strengthens criticism of the tournament (and I am slowly becoming a critic). Not to mention the threat from the NRL (and even the AFL) which could poach these players as well.
Sharminator
Roar Rookie
Yep, Im in Paraguay. Paraguay did suffer at the recent Sudamericano, but it was due to political problems in the Union. Earlier this year the top 3 clubs (including my club) withdrew from the local championship, and also withdrew all their players from selection for the National Side. Last year 20 of the 25 in the National Team for the Sudamerciano were from these clubs. In solidarity, many individual players from other clubs also withdrew themselves from Selection. As a result the National Team ended up consisting of poor players from the worse 1st division clubs and even some from Intermedia (Second Division). For those of us who have played and represented Paraguay in previous years, the team was sent was a disgrace, they only got together a week before the Sudamericano and most of the players were not fit. The irony is that at the end of last year we beat Brasil for the first time in 3 years, and we started training in January for this years Sudamericano. It was the best training I have experienced since coming here, in terms of organisation, paying and compensating players for time off work, gym every day, and several games against Argentinian provincias and Brasil and Argentinian provinces, and a preparation trip to Buenos Aires planned. However, the preparation fell apart with the political problems I mentioned. Politics is a big problem in South Amercian rugby. It is because over here people have a soccer mentality ... the Presidents of Clubs want power, for their clubs, and dont really care about what is good for rugby. This is one of the reasons why professional rugby still does not exist in South America. A few years back Agustin Pichot proposed a professional South Amercian Rugby Competition, based on Argentinian Regions, but the idea was squased by the Argentinain Rugby Union ... which is still run by Old Farts. Earlier this year URBA (the Buenos Aires Rugby Union) banned players from the Jaguars (the Argentina A team that plays in the Vodacom Cup) from playing in the Buenos Aires Club competition (which is top level of domestic rugby in Argentina. The irony of this is that the whole point of the Jaguars is that it allowed players to be contracted to the Argentine Rugby Union and stay in Argentina (apart from when they are playing the Vodacom Cup) instead of going to Europe. Thankfully the issue was resolved. Last year the Uruguayan team also played RWC Qualifiers without players from their best club, Carrasco Polo. In terms of this years Sudamericano, Chile managed to beat Uruguay for the first team in a few years, which is a suprise, but apart from that Argentina are way ahead, and Brasil are still 20 points behind Uruguay and Chile, as Paraguay were last year when we sent a proper team. Rugby is growing here though, in Brasil especially. Their Women´s team is ranked ahead of Argentina in 7s and the Brasil mens 7´s team also beat Argentina this year, something which neither Chile or Uruguay have managed for a long time. The Brasillian government is pouring money into rugby due to them hosting the 2016 Olympics, and therefore having an automatic berth in the Rugby 7s which will be played at the Olympics in 2016.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Sharminator, Aren't you the bloke that is based in Paraguay? I'd love an article about the recent South American Rugby Championships that took place? Though I believe you're country (Paraguay) suffered at the hands of their opponents.
Jiggles
Roar Guru
Funnily enough I remember watching Ratu running around with Quade Cooper from about under 13’s onwards at South’s Juniors up in Brisbane. Cooper was good without being exceptional (nothing to indicate he would be where he is today), however Ratu was an absolute monster for the mighty Magpies! Even at that age people thought he would go very far in Rugby. It’s funny how these things pan out.
wallythefly
Guest
Absolutely, I agree with the points raised but also if we want PI, Argentina and even Japan to be more internatioanlly competitive (which will help the ARU in the long term as they'll be more interest in these test matches) as these players will be exposed to high level rugby as opposed to local competitions.
mitzter
Guest
Yes the ARU are very self centred in this regard.I understand the need not to employ Saffers or NZers as they are our competition but assisting 2nd and 3rd tier teams IS a responsibility for australia just as it is for every other country. Sure put a limit but we must allow argentininans and the PI a go
Wilbur
Guest
Yeah, agreed, we should be encouraging PI rugby and at the same time would add something to our Super Rugby teams to have some Islanders playing, bring it on I say.
Bayboy
Guest
New Zealand already allows Pacific qualified players to play in our Super teams, I also believe allowances have been made to include Argentinian players in our squads as of next year
jameswm
Guest
Nalaga on one wing and we can get back Nemani (formerly Ratu Naciganyavi) on the other wing!