UTK

This is absolutely the current reality and one where much work will need to be done in Australia over the next few years. At the same time, the game is still big enough in Australia to sustain a profitable International game even if it isn't considered the pinnacle at this stage. That 18k in Townsville is disappointing and reflects poor strategy on behalf of those in charge yet there's every chance that is the worst attendance of the Pacific Championship (it may not be but it's probably the safest guess). Despite 18k being likely the worst attendance of a poorly constructed Pacific Championship, based on current sales for the England/Tonga series the Townsville crowd could well eclipse attendance of every game in that series (TW capacity doesn't allow it to get above that but nonetheless). While our relative popularity of the International game isn't where it needs to be we're still getting enough following to stage quality International events provided the administration gets a clue (wishful thinking perhaps). It's also going to be an essential strategic vector for developing the game in NZ, which links to the NRL's interests in their next expansion bout so further investment in that area at least wouldn't surprise me.

The NRL shot themselves in the foot by drawing out the CBA and losing Tonga to the England tour, something that is probably lucky to have happened in a sense because if successful it opens up opportunities for other nations that weren't even considerable before. Consequence is that they've lost the nation required to make a competitive 4-team top tier for the Pacific Championships, 3-nation tournaments make no sense unless it's a home/away thing and there's too big a gap to the next level. Made a post the other day about the ridiculous staging strategy of Townsville, it will be interesting to see how Eden Park goes next week - should get a decent enough response but may still be too big for NZ-Samoa at this stage but I guess we'll find out. The Cook Islands are in a tough spot, even though RL is their national sport they simply don't possess the population to sustain a competitive team against even other pacific nations. It's a bit of a miracle that someone like Kayal Iro can be born/raised in CI and make it to the NRL and even that has a lot to do with his family. FTA coverage on a main channel in prime-time is a step forward for post-season internationals which should be noted. Regional Pacific tournament is something that needs to happen (as is also the case for every other region in the World) - RL has well and truly outgrown the previous 4N concept and it makes zero sense for it to return today. The numbers/performance gaps aren't perfect at this stage but the competitions do need to be larger than 3 nations.

Yes it's an unfortunate development in our context specifically, from memory they had one or two with short stints at WWR as well. I know Nianiakis was playing for an amateur side in England prior to the WC last year and there's certainly plenty of amateur-based examples of players from developing nations across both England and Australia but semi-pro opportunities would be ideal. I believe Joran Schoenmaker was another victim of visa troubles after he signed with North Wales, then he played in Mackay in QLD before now landing in Elite One. I'd say moving forward encouraging aspiring talents from developing European nations to try their luck in the Elite comps is probably the most available pathway at this stage, as has been done by a handful of Serbs, Greeks and Italians in recent times. Now Schoenmaker appears to be following in those footsteps. As an aside, someone who I believe has had a hand in many of these unique connections for developing nations is Luke Srama, Phillipines International and former lower-grader + brother of ex-NRL player Matt Srama. He runs 'Srama Rugby League Recruitment' and I believe they got Schoenmaker to both Mackay and Villeneuve while Damel Diakhate is also affiliated with them (not entirely sure if they got him to Hull or not so don't necessarily quote me on that point).

Dudson is the only one playing SL though and he turned his back on Wales internationally years ago, the other 2 made a SL debut over 12 months ago and haven't really played top level since. Distinguishing between RU and RL domestic products doesn't make a great deal of sense when these guys are becoming professional RL players, all of those I've mentioned have come through RL systems to get to the NRL they're not senior converts poached from directly RU professional sides. If you want to rule out those who played RU juniors before transitioning to RL you will remove a chunk of that Wales crop too, but you shouldn't because it ultimately doesn't mean they aren't Wales domestic products. Wales haven't produced consistent SL players since the Crusaders died, but that's not to say they don't have one of the stronger junior talent scenes of developing nations. Regan Grace was the last genuine SL player that has come through, based on your RU background exclusion criteria he wouldn't count - but he should. There is no way to spin it other than this - players born and raised in Tonga have regularly found their way to the NRL over the last 5 years, players born and raised in Wales have not done the same in SL (even Grace was a 2016 or 17 debut I think). Again, this is not intended to have a shot at Wales, when the Crusaders were in SL they produced an extremely strong crop of Welsh products that are now being phased out of the professional game. Tonga's domestic pathways grow every year and their test team strength adds to the International scene significantly, there is no reason to downplay their development with the "heritage" tag. Hopefully the Wales-Salford link can produce more professional players in the next 5 years.

The Dutch are somewhat unknown as a prospect because they haven't had the chance to test themselves against Nations that would stack up at the traditional European Championships 'A' level. It appears they are probably the strongest European nation outside of the home nations when all sides are utilising minimal heritage players, but if they were promoted to a competition of Euros A level or indeed the WC, they would undoubtedly be required to use heritage players to compete - and that's fine. They appear to be building a consistent test calendar year-on-year which is great, and they are obviously taking the appropriate steps toward developing a junior component with the upcoming u19s tour. From a senior team perspective progressing through European Championships structure would be the ideal way to expose their test team to greater challenges - who knows where that competition is left at this stage and that probably deserves another thread on its own. Overall they look to be a very well-run organisation who are building their domestic scene sustainably over time. Unfortunately I've blown this out to a bit of a ranting thesis but the point is - heritage players are necessary if these Nations are to compete at the WC or larger tournaments against the big boys. Most of these nations have zero genuine pathways to the professional game, putting wholly amateur sides up against professionals is dangerous and does not advance domestic progress. The IRL have absolutely done a poor job of upholding standards that ensure domestic participation underlies "heritage team" participation at major tournaments - despite the disastrous drop to 10 teams, only allowing full members to participate is a step in the right direction and the standards for full membership should be enforced upon current members who are no longer meeting those requirements. Focus for the IRL should be on assisting developing nations toward full-membership standards, supporting regional bodies in developing consistent senior tournaments that allow for progressive challenges in terms of opponents and fostering links between junior tournaments and professional pathways.

My apologies, you're correct with 12. I had in my head that the Olds brothers were Australian because they've been over here for some time now, but nonetheless 12 v 8 is only a 50% difference despite Wales as you correctly point out having nearly 10x the domestic player pool to draw from. Thereby Greece are utilising a greater proportion of domestic players relative to their available player pool. The point wasn't to have a shot at Wales, but rather wrap Greece - Greece could easily have filled their squad with 100% heritage players for the WC and had better results. They didn't, instead they took a squad composed of 1/3 domestic players and gave them all experience at that level while solidifying the pathways from their domestic game to the International side. Putting a wholly domestic or even half domestic side into the WC would have been pointless, getting beaten by 150 every game doesn't help any of their domestic players and is borderline dangerous for the amateurs involved. Pathways to professional/semi-professional games from Greece are at this stage relatively non-existent, this is made more difficult by the strict visa requirements for lower-league English competitions, France elite competitions are probably the best hope at this stage by acting as a satellite league for European developing nations (as we've seen already). RL has been legal in Greece for less than 18 months at this point, to be fielding a 1/3 domestic squad at the WC 6 months post-legalisation means you cannot consider them as a heritage nation, when Wales as you say has 115 years of RL but is only 50% more domestic at the top level. Scotland and Ireland certainly are well behind Wales in terms of true domestic products, Samoa too. Tonga is a different story, they have stronger utilisation of heritage players but they also have genuine domestic products - if you put a 100% domestic Wales v Tonga I would imagine Tonga probably comes out on top now that the Crusaders crop has phased out of the professional game. After Rhys Williams leaves Salford Wales no longer have a domestic product in either SL or the NRL, whereas Tonga still have Eliesa Katoa, Konrad Hurrell and Viliami Vailea playing in the top tier with Taniela Otukolo who is turning out at cup level but has played NRL in the last 12 months. It would be of no benefit to Tonga RL for them to decrease their playing standard by shoehorning domestic players into the squad and killing their competitiveness, provided this England tour is a success they finally have the opportunity to develop consistent income streams for Tonga RL - this would not have occurred without the competitiveness afforded by their heritage players. As long as Tonga are consistently producing first-grade domestic talent through their junior pathways there is no problem with inflating their competitive ability through the use of heritage players - the same story applies for Wales, but they don't have the same strength of heritage commitment so are left with greater domestic representation organically.

Wales is one of the Nations you regularly refer to as non-heritage yet they had 10 domestic products in their WC squad last year, Greece had 8.

Absolute star of the future - born and raised in Samoa until he was 13 when he moved to Melbourne. Won't be leaving the Samoan team for a very long time.

This is the double-edged sword that Nations inherently take on by utilising heritage players - unless those players have actively made the decision between their heritage and nation of birth (Ie Jason Taumalolo, Brian To'o, Junior Paulo, etc.) you always risk them not being committed to the cause. While I'm sure he was extremely proud to represent Tonga, if he had the choice at the time it is likely he would never have become an established Tongan International.

Staggs is an Indigenous Australian who has lived his entire life in Australia, representing the Kangaroos is a pretty big deal. Staggs is of Tongan descent through his father, a man who he didn't even meet until he was 20 I believe.

A stronger Samoan side than this one couldn't get near the Kangaroos in the WC Final. QCB Stadium is rarely used for things other than RL being a regional stadium with no other major sporting teams playing out it, would've been a cost-based decision which reflects most of our recent International activity.

Having this game in Townsville is quite simply a terrible decision. We could still end up with 20k but anything less than sellout is poor considering the support Samoa received across Australia and the fact that the Kangaroos are playing. The 2017 WC demonstrated that Internationals in North Queensland are a terrible idea, that alone should have been enough to put a line through Townsville. Townsville also does not have a large Polynesian community and is isolated from the major Polynesian communities in QLD by well over 1000km. Solid Polynesian communities do exist in SE QLD, particularly places around Brisbane such as Logan and also the GC. But yes, Western Sydney would have the largest Polynesian community in Australia and Melbourne also has a strong Samoan community that is particularly intertwined with RL. Some interesting stats that I saw compiled elsewhere - The Kangaroos haven't played in Sydney since the 2017 WC against Lebanon, and have only played in Sydney 3 times since the 2008 WC (Lebanon, NZ and PNG), they have also played in London (4) and Leeds (4) more times than Sydney during that same 15 year period. The logical outcome is of course to play the game in an isolated city of 200k people with minimal Samoan population that has previously provided disastrous crowds for Internationals involving Samoa.

For 2024 AFAIK: Tiaki Chan (Wigan) Hugo Salabio (Huddersfield) Damel Diakhate (Hull) Justin Sangare (Leeds Mickael Goudemand (Leeds) Salabio and Romain Franco were with Wakefield this season, Franco has yet to be picked up while Salabio just signed a 3-year deal with Huddersfield. Technically they had Langi as a French International too. Fages heads back to Catalans next season. Championship final obviously threatens to change the field significantly if Toulouse win. Featherstone carried Gadwin Springer, Matthieu Cozza and Thomas Lacans at the top of the Championship as well.

I tend to think that Quota players tend to receive more points/votes by virtue of the fact that they are often accompanied by a requisite degree of media hype when compared to homegrown players. Not that those MOS winners weren't necessarily deserving but the Dream Team in particular I find often has a higher rate of Quota player representation than is often warranted. In any case nobody could allege that Barba or Hastings left the NRL due to their on-field performances, Croft and French were both victims of poor circumstances at their respective NRL clubs and will both have already fielded offers to return but have obviously preferred to remain in an environment that has better supported their careers.

I've seen the text of this article posted elsewhere, both are just responding to journalist questions and say they would be open to it at some stage in the future but are committed to Australia and NZ at this stage of their careers. Nelson had previously ruled out playing for Samoa entirely but states that he has changed his perspective following the passing of his father.

For anyone who wants to have a look at what's going on in the Netherlands, their website is probably one of the best in all of International RL and their socials are very well run too. Real credit to whoever is working behind the scenes in the administration.

Given Olam and Martin are both in the reserves I'm assuming they're using this game to give the second-string guys a run against what is perceived to be their weakest opposition. Not sure what's going on with Ipape.

Team Lists for the first round of the Pacific Championships - Obviously there's been a couple of changes to the squads following initial announcements given some names missing/added here. Australia v Samoa: Australia 1. James Tedesco 2. Dylan Edwards 3. Kotoni Staggs 4. Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow 5. Selwyn Cobbo 6. Cameron Munster 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Payne Haas 9. Ben Hunt 10. Tino Fa'asuamaleaui 11. Cameron Murray 12. Liam Martin 13. Isaah Yeo 14. Harry Grant 15. Lindsay Collins 16. Patrick Carrigan 17. Reuben Cotter 18. Nicho Hynes 19. Jake Trbojevic 20. Thomas Flegler 21. Valentine Holmes Samoa 1. Sualauvi Fa'alogo 2. Murray Taulagi 3. Izack Tago 4. Young Tonumaipea 5. Brian To'o 6. Stephen Crichton 7. Daejarn Asi 8. Stefano Utoikamanu 9. Gordon Chan Kum Tong 10. Junior Paulo 11. Luciano Leilua 12. Connelly Lemuelu 13. Keenan Palasia 14. Spencer Leniu 15. Terrell May 16. Heilum Luki 17. Ronald Volkman 18. Royce Hunt 19. Justin Matamua 20. Greg Marzhew 21. Tommy Talau PNG v Cook Islands PNG 1. Alex Johnston 2. Robert Derby 3. Zac Laybutt 4. Rodrick Tai 5. Nene MacDonald 6. Kyle Laybutt 7. Lachlan Lam 8. Epel Kapinias 9. Judah Rimbu 10. Valentine Richard 11. Jacob Alick 12. Dan Russell 13. Jack De Belin 14. Liam Horne 15. Nixon Putt 16. Junior Rop 17. Benji Kot 18. Cruise Ten 19. Rhys Martin 20. Wellington Albert 21. Justin Olam Cook Islands 1. Esom Ioka 2. Malachi Morgan 3. Kayal Iro 4. Esan Marsters 5. Steven Marsters 6. Brad Takairangi 7. Tevin Arona 8. Davvy Moale 9. Rua Ngatikaura 10. Makahesi Makatoa 11. Zane Tetevano 12. Reuben Porter 13. Pride Petterson-Robati 14. William Samuel 15. Rhys Dakin 16. Justin Makirere 17. Kadiyae Ioka 18. Takai Mokohar 19. Isaiah Cooper-Tetevano 20. Alvin Maungatti 21. Lucky Pokipoki

I must have entirely missed that this was included amongst the despair of the initial 2026 announcement. So we're now 11 years AT BEST away from going back to a World Cup with >10 Nations. We first had 10 teams in 1995, so it will effectively have taken us around 40 years to move forward by the time 2034 rolls around (If it happens at all). The IRL has been responsible for International Rugby League since 1998. Aside from the 10 Foundation members in 1998, the IRL has since gained 9 full members (1 being Wales who were previously under GB), 16 affiliate members (2 have competed in a Mens WC, another 2 in a Womens WC), and 29 observers. Yet we're still at a 10-team WC until 2034 at the earliest. What the ****.

Predicted: 1. Kayal Iro 2. Esom Ioka 3. Brad Takairangi 4. Steven Marsters 5. Malachi Morgan 6. Esan Marsters 7. Tevin Arona 8. Davvy Moale 9. Rua Ngatikaura 10. Makahesi Makatoa 11. Reuben Porter 12. Isaiah Cooper-Tetevano 13. Zane Tetevano 14. Takai Mokohar 15. William Samuel 16. Pride Petersen-Robati 17. Rhys Dakin 18. Alvin Maungaati 19. Lucky Pokipoki 20. Justin Estall-Makirere 21. Kadiyae Ioka

Cook Islands finally announce their squad: Tevin Arona, Rhys Dakin, Esom Ioka, Kadiyae Ioka, Kayal Iro, Makahesi Makatoa, Justin Estall-Makirere, Steven Marsters, Esan Marsters, Alvin Maungaati, Davvy Moale, Takai Mokohar, Malachi Morgan, Rua Ngatikaura, Pride Pettersen-Robati, Lucky Pokipoki, Reuben Porter, William Samuel, Brad Takairangi, Zane Tetevano, Isaiah Cooper-Tetevano

Trey Mooney also played u19s Origin last year, not sure to be honest - maybe the Kiwis are attempting to use this as an incentive for those guys to commit. Would be interesting because Howarth in particular is one of the most hyped prospects in his age in Australia. Playing for the 'A' side doesn't commit them either way but you'd have to think they've either indicated they're committed or are attempting to convince them to.

Predicted side (those missing the 17 from Kiwis first-team will be included): 1. Keano Kini 2. Bailey Simonsson 3. Ali Leiataua 4. Rocco Berry 5. Will Warbrick 6. Taine Tuapiki 7. Zack Dockar-Clay 8. Wiremu Greig 9. Danny Levi 10. Naufahu Whyte 11. Kalani Going 12. Jack Howarth 13. Trey Mooney 14. Paul Roache 15. Pasami Saulo 16. Joe Chan 17. Ben Te Kura 18. Jacob Laban 19. Asu Kepaoa

Kiwis 'A' squad:

This is covered under rule (x) of the IRL's eligibility rules: "Pursuant to Rule (viii), a Player is entitled to move between a Tier One and a Tier Two or Tier Three Nation freely save that a Player may not change their National Team during any IRL Global Event (including any qualification matches played as part of that IRL Global Event, including Continental Qualification Matches) in which that Player is participating and may only represent one Nation during each IRL Global Event"