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Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility
By Henry Lee
Whether it’s about bringing Richie Mo’unga back to New Zealand or converting Moana Pasifika flyer Kyren Taumoefolau to an All Black, eligibility discussions are ongoing all around the country.
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Last week, Kyren Taumoefolau discussed the option of playing for the All Blacks, even though he has played five Tests for Tonga, the last of which was in the 2023 Rugby World Cup group stages.
At the other end of the spectrum, All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and New Zealand Rugby CEO Mark Robinson explained on the Rugby Direct podcast that NZR has moved past trying to bring Mo’unga home early.
“We respect that and we’re moving forward,” he told the Newstalk ZB podcast.
100-Test former All Black Mils Muliaina has made a bold claim on Sky Sports weekly rugby show The Breakdown, saying that Scott Robertson should be able to pick his All Blacks squad from any Super Rugby franchise, not just the New Zealand teams.
“Because the competition is so competitive, we’ve talked about how good the Aussies are,” Muliaina said on The Breakdown.
“I think the All Blacks should be able to be selected from Super Rugby Pacific, whether it’s playing for someone in Australia. So imagine in the ideal world, imagine if an Angus Bell can play for the Highlanders. There’s Joseph Sua’ali’i also playing for the Hurricanes.
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“The sponsorship that would come on board, but also the fact that you can go to Moana Pasifika, we’ve seen it already with Ardie Savea, and now if we listen to this Kyren Taumoefolau interview, we’ve also got someone that’s a youngster that’s aspiring to be an All Black.”
When speaking to media this week, Taumoefolau said that he always wanted to play for the All Blacks growing up.
“I’d definitely be open to it. When I was growing up and being in New Zealand, I’ve always wanted to put that black jersey on,” Taumoefolau said to James McOnie from Sky Sports last week.
“Definitely something I would be open to.”
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Muliaina backed up the statement made by the high-flying winger, claiming that someone wanting to play for the All Blacks is a positive thing.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re not saying that you don’t have to plead your allegiances first and foremost. But isn’t it great that someone wants to actually play for the All Blacks and he’s playing some good rugby?
“I think it’s great for the game, it’s great for our competition.”
Sky Sports commentator and analyst Taylah Johnson strongly disagreed with Muliaina, explaining that the World Rugby Council’s decision to make this rule was made to help the smaller rugby nations.
“Absolutely not, I totally disagree. The reason why is that Taumoefolau made his allegiance to Tonga, and I sat at that World Rugby Council meeting.
“We didn’t make this rule change to allow people to go to top nations, it was the other way around to help the smaller ones.
“Essentially, this is going exactly against what’s happening here, but that’s a different debate. But what I’m saying is I don’t want New Zealanders to play for the Aussie teams, nor the Aussies, to play for us, because we always talk about Australia as not competitive enough. Well, they’re going to get less competitive if they’re not building their own connections.
“So if we’re going to throw some Kiwis in there, that’s going to make it worse. And then we got to be the first ones to complain and say they weren’t competitive enough.”
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I think Taylor is missing the point of the eligibility rules, it was always meant to go both ways. If Kyren Taumoefolau did not have the option of switching allegiance it is highly likely he wouldn’t have chosen to represent Tonga at all. The fact that players can switch now means they are more likely to play for the smaller international teams than before. Highly relevant is the case of Isa Nacewa, a NZ born Fijian international who was capped once as an 21 year old in 2003, but prevented from playing for NZ due to the 3 minutes or so he played for Fiji. Part of the reason the eligibility rule was changed is because to allow rugby back into the Olympics the IOC requires that participants have the right to change countries, in part based on previous legal challenges. This rule was then expanded from 7s to full rugby international rugby as they recognised the unfairness of separate rules for essentially the same sport.
Yes! Well, not so much both ways, more both ends. She is only thinking of players who give up one dream to pursue another, that is players coming towards the end/cross roads of their aspirations, but it is also perfectly fine for someone to do that at the beginning of their career too, yes.
Very good post.
So rules created to fill the Samoan and Tongan sides with Aussie and Kiwi born and developed players is what Taylah Johnson is saying. Well, those two ‘island’ sides are increasingly less so by the year, so mission accomplished there, and it ultimately doesn’t make them any more competitive.
Kyren Taumoefolau is a NZer. He’s come through all the NZR systems and he wants to play for the All Blacks, so what? The only people making an issue of this are the ones who are always keen to play the victim card. It’s okay for them to poach with rules that are openly designed for them to do so, but heaven forbid a Kiwi or Aussie wants to play for the nation of their birth. Good grief.
No. She’s saying it’s the reason she voted for it when she was in World Rugby, not why everyone else voted in favour.
You also seem to be mistaken that she was critizing Kyren for it. You are way off the mark other than suggesting it’s fine for Kyren to switch allegiance.
You also either don’t understand what the word poach means; take or acquire in an unfair or clandestine way. - or you’re not familiar with Kyren’s decision/circumstance.
Taylah got given the short straw but the producer on both arguments, though I think she put her hand up on the Kryen one, which I had long wondered if he thought he had a small window to represent Tonga before switching to New Zealand.
I’m also with Mil’s on the other, there are some very good Kiwis playing for the Aussie sides even now, who would be great to poach back. Kalani Thomas, Gamble, Murray reminds me very much of Shaun Stevenson. All these guys, and others, have the potential to explode and warrant a AB jersey.
Johnson ignores that Australian teams have had average NZers filling them out since the turn of the century and they still continue to get thrashed. That demoralization is one of the key factors killing the game in Australia and leading to a worse super rugby competition. If Super Rugby had more equitable selection policies and a draft - it would quickly become consistently competitive rather than occassionally competitive. That’s how Australia raises their overall performance
Australian rugby has always been weak apart from the Eales era.
It's getting absolutely weakened having to share talent with the two other oval ball games of League and AFL. It gets kiwis over to fill out sides to plug holes.
The limitations with an equitable draft is NZ players aren't eligible to play for the Allblacks from offshore. However on both sides of the Tasman a draft system could be useful.
No she doesn’t ignore that point, that was in fact the point she made on the program. It was Mills suggestion.
Taylah Johnson doubling down on her strange assertion that the Aussie test players were outperforming NZs using the risible example of Rieko Ioane, follows up with opposing a kiwi born kid being eligible for the ABs and who wants to be an AB. Mmm Time to consider a new job?
Or a new hobby?
Kyren Taumoefolau is born and bred in New Zealand, of course he should be eligible for the Allblacks. Technically he was poached by Tonga.
Technically I wouldn’t say poached, I’d say it’s a great use of World Rugby regulations for him to have been able to play for and help Tonga, a heavily disadvantaged national union, at a Rugby World Cup, while still being able to pursue his aspirations or dreams.
Play for whoever give all the pathways for young players to succeed rugby community help Tonga Samoa sort out there unions and get their players in a position where they can play and get rid of eligibility stand down