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Opinion
Israel Folau played his last test for the Wallabies against England in November 2018. On Saturday, he returns to Test rugby representing Tonga.
A change in World Rugby’s eligibility criteria allowing players to switch allegiance to a country where they have a birthright, has allowed Folau along with former All Blacks Charles Piutau and Malakai Fekitoa, join Tonga for the revived Pacifc Nations Cup, featuring Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Australia A.
Israel Folau. (Paul Kane/Getty Images)
The new rule requires players to have waited three years since last representing their previous country at test level. Fortunately for Tonga, Folau was stood down by Rugby Australia in early 2019, a debacle the hardly seems three years ago.
The new rule is set to give the greatest benefit to the pacific nations, with many of the worlds best players having pacific nations heritage, and these nations have also often seen their best home grown players defect to tier one nations.
Folau has been playing rugby most recently for the Shining Arcs in the Japanese Top League, previously playing rugby league for the Catalan Dragons in the English Super League.
Controversy aside, this new rule adds an exciting boost to the Pacific Nations Cup. Folau will line up on the wing with former All Black and Bristol Bears star Charles Piutau starting at full back.
Piutau is rumoured to be the highest paid player in the English Premiership on approximately £1,000,000 a season. Piutau played 17 times for the All Blacks and might not be particularly well known to Australians but he has been one of the best players in Europe for many years now.
The other big name, Malakai Fekitoa, will start at inside centre. Fekitoa has 24 caps for the All Blacks, winning the 2015 Rugby World Cup in the process. Former Wallaby lock/number 8 Lopeti Timani is also in the squad but has not been selected for this weekend.
Tonga has not rolled out players of this quality in the modern era and whilst three players, backs no less, will not make Tonga a genuine threat to consistently beat tier one teams, it does add a wild card factor to the landscape of world rugby.
For years Tongan rugby has been on the decline. Whilst Fiji and Samoa have more or less been able to at least tread water and occasionally produce memorable performances, Tonga seem to have struggled to be competitive at all.
As it stands Tonga are yet to qualify for the world cup but will do so by the end of next month and will feature in Pool B alongside South Africa, Scotland and Ireland.
It seems unlikely that even with these inclusions Tonga have any chance of progressing from the pool stage but it is highly possible, that they have the best player on the field in any one of these fixtures. And that these teams will need to turn up to beat them.
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.