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'I'm available for the Wallabies': Ex-AB Kerr-Barlow wants to swap

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

All Blacks World Cup winner Tawera Kerr-Barlow has reiterated his desire to change allegiance and line out for the Wallabies. The 32-year-old La Rochelle scrum-half played for New Zealand on 27 occasions and came off the bench in the 2015 World Cup final versus Australia.

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It was last February, in an extensive RugbyPass interview, when he originally floated the idea of being able to swap countries and play the Wallabies. After all, he was Australian-born and had gone to New Zealand as a teenager to attend school and chase down his All Blacks dream.

Now, he would like to reverse that allegiance and play for the country of his birth and he has repeated the desire originally mentioned to RugbyPass earlier this year in a Top 14 pre-season interview published on rugbyrama.fr.

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Six months ago, in an extensive conversation with RugbyPass, Kerr-Barlow had spoken about how he liked that international rugby had recently opened up its eligibility rules to now allow players capped by one country to play for another. “It is a really positive thing,” he said at the time. “You get players who play a handful of Tests for a country and that is their eligibility shot and they have still got a lot to offer world rugby.

“We all want world rugby to be strong, we want it to be a spectacle and some of the best players in the world, they move overseas and they grow and they improve. You have got the likes of Charles Piutau in England, Steven Luatua is there, you have got Victor Vito in France, you have got all these guys who could add so much to their country.

“Even myself, I’d love to chuck on the Australian jersey as I spent the first part of life in Australia, my family is still there and I’m very grateful for what they have done for my family. My mum played for Australia. It [opening up eligibility] is a positive thing. You will get people saying, ‘Oh you know you’re not loyal’ or ‘How can you play for one country and play for another?’

“But if you are born in a country or your parents are born there and you feel a certain way about the country and you have got roots already established, then why not? I am a pretty open individual in terms of those sorts of things and I just want rugby to be the big thing I know it can be because if you love rugby you want it to improve.”

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Now, ahead of his sixth season at La Rochelle, Kerr-Barlow has reiterated his interest in playing for the Wallabies, telling rugbyrama.fr. “Unlike New Zealand, Australia have a rule allowing players who are overseas to still be eligible for selection. I am available to play for the Wallabies!

“I was born there. I have a lot of ties in this country and if the staff calls me I will go without hesitation. It would be a great opportunity but for the moment I am focused on La Rochelle.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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