NRL stars face state or country dilemma
Israel Folau, Tevita Pangai Junior, Anthony Milford and Josh Papalii are among the league superstars who will be forced to make a choice between state and country due to a change in international eligibility laws that will have huge ramifications for next year’s Rugby League World Cup.
The International Rugby League has introduced changes to qualification rules that will prevent players from representing at NSW or Queensland at State of Origin level and playing for a country other than Australia in tests.
The Sydneymorning Herald has obtained a copy of the new eligibility criteria document, which states, in part: ‘‘A player who has elected to represent a nation cannot then elect to play for another nation in the same calendar year.’’
That means that dual-eligible players including Milford, Folau, Pangai Junior, Papalii, Kotoni Staggs, Jaydn Su’a, Manase Fainu and Waqa Blake will have to choose between making themselves available for Origin or a Pacific nation ahead of the 2020 World Cup.
The issue comes into sharp focus amid renewed hopes there could be some tests played at the end of this NRL season if it successfully resumes frommay 28.
Under the previous rules, a player such as Broncos star Milford – who has Samoan and Australian heritage – could have represented the Maroons, Australia and Samoa all in the one season. The idea was to bolster the talent available for emerging league countries including Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea if players missed out on Kangaroo or Kiwi call-ups.
However, there will be less flexibility to move from now on in a bid to bring greater integrity to the international game.
‘‘This is not about player payments, this is about giving people the opportunity to represent the area of their heritage,’’ said the RLIF’S southern hemisphere general manager Jeremy Edwards.
‘‘It’s a chance for the player to make a decision and for the fans to understand it as well. It has been confusing [in the past].’’
Tongan officials have been in contact with cross-code star Folau – currently playing for French club Catalans in the Super League – in a bid to get him to commit to the nation. The former Wallaby had represented Queensland and Australia in his previous stint in rugby league.
The rules also govern junior international matches, meaning young guns including teen Rabbitohs fullback Joseph Suaalii will need to make a call between NSW and Samoa.
Last year’s World Cup 9s was hit by several eligibility dramas, resulting in Lebanon being stripped of one of its wins.
Under the new rules, there will be serious ramifications if a player breaches the new qualification criteria. Players can be fined up to £10,000 ($18,000), teams will be stripped of points and the offender will be banned until eligibility can be established.
When New Zealand went into lockdown to combat Covid-19, All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock knew exactly where he and his family needed to be. It’s the same place he’s headed pretty much the minute he hangs up the boots.
Whitelock owns 830 hectares of farmland in Hawke’s Bay where he runs sheep and beef principally. Right now it’s being operated by his uncle and aunt while the 31-year-old concentrates on his rugby.
But there will come a day when Whitelock, winner of two World Cups with the All Blacks and three straight Super Rugby crowns with the Crusaders, no longer makes his living from playing the game he loves. No career lasts forever, and Whitelock is as aware as anyone that his time as a professional rugby player is finite.
It’s fair to say that the rugged lock, who has played 117 tests for the All Blacks (the youngest to reach the century mark in the team’s history), has been preparing for the end of his rugby career from the moment he began it.
Whitelock, the third generation of a family of dairy farmers, completed his Bachelor of Science at Lincoln University during the early years of his professional career as he was establishing himself with the Crusaders and All Blacks.
‘‘I sat exams all round the world,’’ he recalls in an interview with Stuff. ‘‘The university would send over the exams to Gilbert [Enoka] or Pete Gallagher and I’d sit in a room on my day off and do an exam while everyone else would be out sightseeing or whatever. It was hard at times, but there is a lot of travel time in the game, and the way technology is now, it’s pretty easy to do these things.’’
You could say Whitelock likes to be as efficient off the field as he is on it. Recently he was stuck in limbo in Japan where he was in the midst of a highly enjoyable sabbatical season with the Panasonic Wild Knights when the league moved into abeyance with the onset of coronavirus.
‘‘We thought, ‘what else can we actually do?’ So [former Highlanders and Crusaders prop] Chris King and I started out a coaching course and we’ve almost finished level two. There are heaps of opportunities to grow yourself online.’’
Whitelock is chatting life after rugby with Stuff on the back of a comprehensive piece of work just put out by the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, of which he is a board member. The 156-page magazine is entitled Expand, was a year in the making and provides a definitive resource around professional careers home and abroad and, ultimately, the move beyond playing days.
It’s an important piece of work, says Whitelock, on so many levels. ‘‘It’s an awesome resource and pretty cool to know you can go to one area and get 95 per cent of the information you need . . . it doesn’t matter if you want to become a rugby player, you are a rugby player or you’ve transitioned out, it’s for everyone.’’
The magazine delves into the gamut of a professional rugby players’ life, from relationships to health and wellbeing to financial advice. But it deals most comprehensively with planning for life after rugby. ‘‘When you’re 19 or 20 you’re not thinking about the day you’re going to finish playing rugby.
‘‘You’ve got your dreams and goals and you’re committed to achieving them. The reality is the average professional rugby player’s career expectancy is