A Citizen Solution to the 'Project Player' Problem

The new French model is the best way to solve the problem of project players, argues James Harrington.

World Rugby’s Regulation Eight states that a player may only play for a country’s senior side (or their designated second team or sevens side) if they were born there, one of their parents or grandparents was born there, or they have lived there for 36 consecutive months.

Three years – no greater commitment than the length of a fairly standard player contract. There’s no wonder World Rugby vice-president Agustin Pichot is desperate to set a new mark of five years. The good news is that support is growing.

Players from 20 countries will take part in the 2017 Six Nations, according to official figures. Ten of the players involved were born in New Zealand and nine are South African-born.

The 23 who have qualified on residency grounds include injured Vunipola brothers Mako and Billy, who were born in New Zealand and Australia respectively to Tongan parents, but moved first to the UK as children. Similarly, Tonga-born Taulupe Faletau moved to Wales at the age of seven in 1998. And England captain Dylan Hartley – who was born in New Zealand – qualifies for England both because he has an English mother and on residency, having moved to England in 2002 at the age of 16.

Another is Ireland’s Jamie Heaslip, who was born in Israel when his high-ranking Irish army officer father was stationed there.

None of the above can be legitimately branded ‘Project Players’: talented young stars, often from the southern hemisphere, who serve the one-contract residency then spring fully formed into the international side. Others can.

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Among those who were snapped up for their new country almost as soon as they qualified on residency are England’s Fijian-born Nathan Hughes, who reportedly sat out the 2015 World Cup so he could play for England.

Former South African Under-20 rep CJ Stander, meanwhile, qualified for Ireland the day after the 2015 World Cup final. In January 2016, he was named in Joe Schmidt’s squad for that year’s Six Nations, and made his debut against Wales in the opening match of the tournament.

The Irish Independent has reported that, up to last November’s internationals, almost a quarter of the 25 players who have won their first Irish caps under Schmidt qualified on residency grounds, while another 12% have worn the green shirt thanks to their parentage.

How long are the odds, do you think, that Connacht’s Bundee Aki will get the call as soon as he qualifies in October this year? Or that former New Zealand Under-20 hooker Rhys Marshall, who joined Munster on a three-year deal at the end of last year’s ITM Cup, will don the green shirt?

As for Scotland, the ink had not yet dried on the Scottish residency qualification of South African Josh Strauss before he was playing in his adopted country’s opening 2015 World Cup match against Japan, while former Springbok Under-20 Cornel Du Preez was selected for last Scotland’s November internationals weeks after he had served his three-year term at Edinburgh, and is in Vern Cotter’s Six Nations’ squad.

No one is breaking any rules here – unlike during the ‘Grannygate’ scandal at the turn of the millennium. And no one is questioning the effort the players put in on the pitch. But the system is being played.

Moves are afoot to make playing international rugby under a flag of convenience more difficult. World Rugby is to vote in May on whether to increase the qualifying period from three to five years, following a consultation with 126 unions.

The plan has the backing of the world’s richest union, the English RFU, which has said it could impose its own five-year residency rule if World Rugby does not in May, while Wales has also backed the plan.

Not every union agrees. Scotland, unsurprisingly, has said it likes the three-year set-up, which it says gives players plenty of time to lay down roots and become acclimatised to their new country; Ireland has maintained a diplomatic silence, saying only that it abides by the rules now and will continue to abide by them in future, whatever they happen to be.

But rugby authorities need to go further, as France’s FFR has done. The union’s still new and crusading president Bernard Laporte announced in December that France will no longer select non-French players for the national side.

Currently uncapped players must be French citizens before they can play for France. To become a citizen, you need to have lived permanently in France for a minimum of five years, demonstrate a reasonable level of spoken and written French and know something of the country’s history and culture.

“We told World Rugby that we had made a decision not to select foreign players even if the regulations allow,” said Laporte, as he announced the decision.

The decision is not retroactive, so current overseas-born French internationals, including Virimi Vakatawa and Scott Spedding, who both have citizenship anyway, and Noa Nakaitaci and Kiwi-born prop Uini Atonio – who have both applied for it – are still available to coach Guy Novès. As would currently out-of-favour players, such as scrum-half Rory Kockott, who has not featured in the France side since the World Cup.

Laporte said: “Our … aim is to favour French players, to play as many French players as possible and be very careful about not impoverishing Fijian, Georgian, Samoa and Tongan federations, otherwise we impoverish standards across international rugby. The aim is to have the maximum number of competitive teams.”

That’s the way forward. Not just three years, and not just a resident. A citizen. There can be few arguments over loyalty after that.