England must be bad again, time to blame the foreigners

Patrick McCarry

‘The fluidity of nationality constantly lurks in the background at this tournament… ‘

England had Grand Slam ambitions in this year’s Six Nations but were well beaten by Scotland. They have Ireland up next, at Twickenham, before flying out to France to wrap their championship schedule.

When the fixtures were decided on, a while back, it was not unreasonable to think France vs. England as the third of the three ‘Super Saturday’ games might be the gripping title decider. If Ireland beat England next Saturday, the championship could be wrapped with a week to go. France vs. England may, euphemistically, be the battle for third place.

England were good again, until they were not. Now it’s time to spread the blame.

On Wednesday, The Telegraph’s chief sports writer, Oliver Brown stepped forward and applied a new lick of paint to a hoary old Middle Englander moan – it’s those foreigners that are messing everything up. Brown wrote:

‘Take last weekend’s Calcutta Cup, a contest electrified by Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe, whose name hardly suggests a rugged clan from the Cairngorms. Not that the issue can ever be reduced to a single player. Of the 39-man squad selected this year by Gregor Townsend to wear Scottish blue, an astonishing 23 were born elsewhere.’

Brown appears to want only players to be able to represent the country they were born in. That would mean Scotland centre Cam Redpath could only play for France because that’s where he was conceived – when his father, Bryan was playing his club rugby there. If you hold to that rigid logic, Jamie Heaslip could only line out for Israel, Ronan O’Gara would have been limited to playing for the USA and Ciarán Frawley, who starred at fullback for Ireland against Wales, could only play for Australia.

The fluidity of nationality that Brown cribs about is the fluidity of modern life. People have much greater opportunities to move around now, and to work and life in other countries. To make new lives and homes elsewhere.

‘About as Irish as a Shamrock Shake’

James Lowe set out to make a new life for himself, 12,000 miles from his home in New Zealand, after being told by senior figures involved with the All Blacks that he was not going to make the grade. He recalled a difficult phone call with his father, crying in his car as he told the old man, “We’re not going to make it.”

He was 25 when Leinster, aware of him being blocked in those Test dreams, reached out. Lowe packed up and headed to Ireland with his girlfriend to give it a crack in a new land. He fully embraced the challenge, became a vital figure in a team that would go on to become European champions and soaked in life around him. Almost seven years on, he is well established in the Irish set-up. Himself and Arnica have since married and, last year, welcomed a baby boy they called Nico. He has spent half of his adult life in Ireland. He will always be a Kiwi, too, but there is a huge Irish imprint there. And, still, we have The Telegraph state:

‘Lowe is about as Irish as McDonald’s Shamrock Shake, coming to the country when he was 25 and having played for the Maori All Blacks against the British and Irish Lions.’

Give me a break.

In the past, World Rugby’s eligibility rules stated a player could represent a country, as long as he or she had not previously played for the country of their birth or another nation [through maternal or paternal links], if they had played club rugby there for three years. There was a stink raised about that, especially when French clubs starting setting up mini academies in the Pacific Islands so they could ‘naturalise’ them sooner.

The compromise was five years playing club rugby in a country before you could represent it on the international stage. That change made a lot of sense, as some nations were starting to look at young players and selling them on a future of Test rugby and major tournaments. However, for every Jared Payne or Bundee Aki, you have a Danie Poolman or a Jake Heenan. Life does not always work out like the sales pitch.

For me, as I have stated in the past, what passport you hold should no longer be the sole tie that binds. Back in January 2017, when there was cribbing about Jared Payne, who grew up in Tauranga, New Zealand, I wrote:

“Payne calls himself ‘a converted Irishman’ and who are we to argue. Anyone that comes to this country, invests themselves fully in it, works hard, engages with the wider community and contributes is entitled to call themselves Irish.”

Bundee Aki and his love affair with Ireland

Bundee Aki does not do a whole heap of media but he was up for two stints, recently (one for a brand, the other a chat with ITV). The brilliant Gabriel Clarke asked Aki, born in Auckland but just shy of a decade living in Galway, to sum up his relationship with this country.

“I would say ‘love’. I love playing for Ireland, I love the people in Ireland.

“They’ve given nothing but love. I can only show it back with the way I play and the way I represent the country.”

Bundee Aki will always be from South Auckland. That will never change. After nine and a half years living and playing in the West of Ireland, Aki considers himself a true Galwayman. It took him about a year to come to that conclusion, another to solidify it. He had to deal with some of those Telegraph-style bleats back when Ireland won World Rugby Team of the Year, around 2018 and 2019, but surely no-one doubts the guy and his commitment levels now?

For the Scots, whose win over England sparked the latest round of jingoism, they have always had a tough road because they can just about sustain two professional sides. They’ve tried more but it is not sustainable. If you look at the current active Scottish born players there are in professional rugby, you will see what they are dealing with:

Scotland – 131 players
Ireland – 288
England – 888
South Africa – 501
Wales – 281
France – 1891

Scotland found themselves looking further afield and have leaned on those eligibility rules more than many other nations. What rankled some, regarding Duhan van der Merwe, was that he became Scotland eligible then skipped down to the English Premiership to play with Worcester Warriors. He did return in 2022, but Worcester’s financial woes added to that.

I know from personal experience that living abroad for a stretch than quickly see bonds and relationships form. The three-year residency rule was being exploited but many players that represented countries during that period were credits to themselves, and the teams and fans that welcomed them and made them feel part of something bigger than all of them.

This tub-thumping over ‘them foreigners’ is never far from the surface, in some parts of society that need to deflect their own unease and sense of lacking on another party. Such has been the way for years, and it is unlikely to change any time soon.

In closing, I do what I should have done at the start as Frankie Boyle summed it up better in this tweet than I think I have with 10 times the words:

Don’t really follow rugby, but I imagine this means England are losing https://t.co/rL6DFWNf7z
— Frankie Boyle Updates (@frankieboyle) February 28, 2024

‘X’ hits the spot.

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