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[deluded pom?]

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[londonrlfan]

Heritage players are a fact of International sport. Did the 100s of thousands of Wales football supporters who lined the streets of Cardiff to welcome the team back from the Euros care than two thirds of the team were heritage players?

The issue with that though is Wales still have football development and clubs. What do Italy have? They'll qualify with a team of Aussies, then do nothing for 4 years and rinse and repeat.

[Farmduck]

I'm almost fluent in Serbian. Playmaker, play the ball, knock on, Terry Campese.

did you know "gang bang tackle"?

[deluded pom?]

did you know "gang bang tackle"?

 

Doesn't everybody?  

[deluded pom?]

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[damp squib]

Heritage players are a fact of International sport. Did the 100s of thousands of Wales football supporters who lined the streets of Cardiff to welcome the team back from the Euros care than two thirds of the team were heritage players? 

 

Ridiculous comparison. When Rugby League is the most popular sport in most countries in the world then we will be secure enough to not be bothered by this kind of thing. Wales's success in the Euros at the expense of Belgium or Slovakia won't affect the popularity of the sport in those countries but developing RL countries need to be rewarded for their efforts or interest could fade.

 

As it is we're sticking two fingers up at the only countries putting in the work to develop the sport. The Serbians could rightly think that it doesn't matter how hard they work, even if they had a semi-pro league or a team in League 1, they don't have a hope of qualifying for anything for at least another generation.

[Scubby]

The issue with that though is Wales still have football development and clubs. What do Italy have? They'll qualify with a team of Aussies, then do nothing for 4 years and rinse and repeat.

 

That is a different issue and all nations that qualify for the RLWC should be full members of the RLIF. To become full members that means a country would have to have an established federation and have a tangible domestic competition.

 

I agree with the angst on here but at present Italy are not breaking any rules. It is up to the RLIF to set the agenda for standards. They could even implement a rule based on squads with a minimum number of domestic players (even if that is just 5/24)

 

There is nothing wrong with heritage players if done properly. That is a governing body's job. I wouldn't have a problem with Italy and Scotland being excluded from the World Cup on that basis.

[damp squib]

The issue with that though is Wales still have football development and clubs. What do Italy have? They'll qualify with a team of Aussies, then do nothing for 4 years and rinse and repeat.

 

Exactly. We're watching a game between arguably the biggest success story in European domestic RL development vs arguably the biggest basket case and look at the scoreline.

[Futtocks]

Try the link I provided earlier.

That's the one I was using - it may be that my internet just isn't running fast enough today.

[Big Picture]

Heritage players are a fact of International sport. Did the 100s of thousands of Wales football supporters who lined the streets of Cardiff to welcome the team back from the Euros care than two thirds of the team were heritage players? 

You're mistaken about that.  I just checked out the squad using the UEFA site and Wikipedia, and 14 of the 23 players were born in Wales.

[deluded pom?]

 

 

I agree with the angst on here but at present Italy are not breaking any rules. It is up to the RLIF to set the agenda for standards.

 

 

 

Is that actually true though? Do the Italians, or the Scottish, meet minimum requirements to be even allowed to compete in a RLIF sanctioned tournament?

[Scubby]

Is that actually true though? Do the Italians, or the Scottish, meet minimum requirements to be even allowed to compete in a RLIF sanctioned tournament?

 

Well these are officially sanctioned RLWC qualiftiers (a RLIF competition) so someone has given them the green light. Maybe it is our larger than life friend at the RFL who is chairman of the RLIF. He is not that fussed about minimum standards as we've seen.

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[Scubby]

You're mistaken about that.  I just checked out the squad using the UEFA site and Wikipedia, and 14 of the 23 players were born in Wales.

 

I haven't looked into it too deeply but 7 of the 14 players used in the semi final were heritage players so it is a fair-ish point. My view is that heritage players are part of life now. How the RLIF allows nations to compete in tournaments like the RLWC is another matter. 

[deluded pom?]

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[Scubby]

Wales will not get near Italy in Italy unless John Kear can produce another miracle. They will beat Russia in the play-off though.

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[deluded pom?]

As we saw last week and again today the Serbians certainly like the push and shove.

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[londonrlfan]

I haven't looked into it too deeply but 7 of the 14 players used in the semi final were heritage players so it is a fair-ish point. My view is that heritage players are part of life now. How the RLIF allows nations to compete in tournaments like the RLWC is another matter.

A better example would be Algeria, who had 23/24 of their 2014 WC squad from France. But the point is, football have more than 4/5 teams that don't rely on entirely heritage players and the strongest nations are the ones with the best development and strongest leagues.

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