8 replies to this topic

[nb from rome]

How do they decide who plays for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? Do you have to be born there or something?

[joe90]

Hello nb,no you dont have to be born there,in cricket there is about four South Africans play for England, In Rugby League, if your grandparents where born there,and you live in another country you qualify.

[nb from rome]

Thanks, Joe. I was actually thinking of union, as I am forced to watch only that here in Italy.
But maybe the rule is the same. Does that mean that one could play for any one of the four, if your 4 grandparents were born in four different countries? Doesn't it matter where your parents were born, or you, come to that?

[joe90]

Hello NB,they have to be born in Great Britain,or they can qualify if they become british citizens,do you not get sky sports over there for rugby league matches.rugby union matches the players dont understand the rules,England are hopeless,they got beat with Ireland yesterday,Italy only just got beat with them.

[nb from rome]

I could get Sky sports, Joe, but an English friend here told me I still couldn't get the English rugby league without doing something else which was too complicated/expensive, I don't remember now. But I trust my source, he has all the channels and he's sports mad so I think he knows what he's on about.
I'll tell you something which confirms my frustrations with watching rugby union. In the Italy-Scotland game they were down to the last seconds when play restarted and Scotland had possession. They couldn't kick, or they would have lost the ball, and it couldn't go anywhere near touch or it would have been out of play. They could only pass and run. It was the best 2-3 minutes in the game.

[Griffin]

Nuala, despite my great enthusiasm for the Union game, I can never understand the extent to which players kick away possession, often to have the ball returned to them. I would much rather see a good run. After all, you can only score if you have the ball, so why kick it away? None of this is to be interpreted as any sort of leaning towards League, however. That is definitely a "ne plus ultra."

[Alan]

Running with the ball and scoring tries!? Griffin, wash your mouth out lad. Rugby Union, or to give it its proper title Punt and Grunt is all about rucks, mauls and kicking into the next parish

[nb from rome]

So if I was born in England, my dad was born in Ireland, my mum in Scotland and my grandparents in Wales, I could take it in turns and play for all four teams?

[Griffin]

Yes, apart from the slight matter of gender. When I watched Italy play in Rome recently, I was struck by how many players didn't seem very Italian. They even had a player a while ago called Paul Griffen.