The eligibility rules in Rugby League are a complete and utter joke. Basically, if you want to play for any representative side bad enough, and the administrators want you, you will get a run. Below are the five worst examples of Rugby League’s eligibility rule farce.
Rangi Chase Played For England
Rangi Chase was a reserve grader and former New Zealand Maori representative in the NRL who went over to Super League to have a professional career. Playing for Castelford, he set Super League alight. His form saw him selected for the Super League Exiles team that played mid season against England. His form in that game was so good, he ended up being selected by England just months later. While Chase qualifies for England under the current rules, he ran into trouble a year later when his visa didn’t allow him to move from Castleford to Hull FC.
Akuila Uate Plays For New South Wales
The urgency of Australian officials to rush Uate into Australian representative sides is astounding. A very good player born and raised in Fiji, who has not lived in Australia for all that long, Uate’s eligibility was never an issues with officials who allowed him to turn his back on Fiji and play for New South Wales and Australia.
Tonie Carroll Plays For Everyone
Born in New Zealand, he played for Queensland, then played for New Zealand, then played for Australia. Do I really need to say much more?
Greg Inglis Plays For Queensland
Under State Of Origin rules Greg Inglis does not qualify to play for Queensland by any stretch of the imagination. He was born and raised in New South Wales and even by the ridiculously flexible State Of Origin eligibility rules, he should be playing for the Blues.
Nathan Fien Plays For New Zealand
Australian born and raised, Fien was selected to play for New Zealand under the good old “grandparent” rule. The problem was, Fien’s Grandparents weren’t from New Zealand either! Eventually Fien qualified under residency rules after playing for the New Zealand Warriors and living in New Zealand for three years, after which he left New Zealand to live back in his native Australia. Oh, he still plays for the Kiwi’s though!
The best bit of the Rangi Chase story is surely that a transfer to Hull failed because of visa problems.
That really is the icing on the cake huh? 😀
It’s also worth mentioning that Rangi Chase played for the ‘Exiles’ against England and then played for England 4 months later, further adding to the farce. Since the Exiles is a farce in itself, it’s a farce within a farce.
I didn’t add that originally because it is so batshit crazy it is kind of hard to follow if you are not familiar with the situation, but really, it needs to be said doesn’t it.