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Bevan French for England/GB?

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BilliejoesBlue

BilliejoesBlue

Posted
Posted

Just putting this out here to float an idea I have had.

Ahead of next year's Ashes, if I was involved in England RL/GB, I would investigate the possibility of approaching Bevan French to see if he'd be up for playing for England/GB.

I am unsure of the exact eligibility criteria, but can remember when Maurie Fa'asavalu was capped by GB after spending 5 years in Britain and thus qualifying under residency. The England cricket team has benefited from selecting overseas players who have spent more than 5 years in England (Pietersen, Stokes, Roy, Hussain, Greig, Caddick etc)

With Bevan French joining Wigan in 2019, he has now reached 5 years over here. Surely it's worth asking the question? 

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Dunbar

Dunbar

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Number 16 said:

What have you just started? 🤣

It should see us through to February. 

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graveyard johnny

graveyard johnny

Posted
Posted

he might as well play for France with him been French

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see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

graveyard johnny

graveyard johnny

Posted
Posted

seriously - we dont want to give the Aussies any excuse for losing by using Aussie players against them  so its a big NO from me

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see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

Exiled Wiganer

Exiled Wiganer

Posted
Posted

While Bevan may not be a great example  for England for other reasons, had he played for Catalans, I would be a strong advocate of his being available for them. It is fair to observe that in this respect other sports have zero qualms and get no stick for it. 

BilliejoesBlue

BilliejoesBlue

Posted
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Posted
3 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

While Bevan may not be a great example  for England for other reasons, had he played for Catalans, I would be a strong advocate of his being available for them. It is fair to observe that in this respect other sports have zero qualms and get no stick for it. 

This is my point. In my opinion, we should be exploring every avenue to beat the Aussies.

England RU have no qualms about looking for eligibility criteria to gain an advantage 

But, thinking again, Wane seems big on selecting proud Englishmen.....but we can only dream. 

WN83

WN83

Posted
Posted

Nobody seems to have too many issues with Radley now after seeing how committed he has been to the cause and how good he is in an England shirt but I would suggest the difference is that he has that English heritage and the whole international game is being underpinned by that now. Players turning out on residency grounds just feels different and maybe it's biting off our nose but I'd like to see us avoid it, at least in the short term. We know how good French is but ultimately we've got extremely good players at 6 and 1 already and Micky Lewis trying to force his way in at 6 or 7. If Williams, Welsby and Lewis all went down before the Ashes, I'd probably have a different answer though. 

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WN83

WN83

Posted
Posted
Just now, sweaty craiq said:

We don’t need French when we can call upon Cleary as his bird lives over here

If he ain't getting in ahead of Smith at Wigan, he won't be making the England side either. Maybe he has some Welsh or Irish heritage. 

sam4731

sam4731

Posted
Posted
56 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

We don’t need French when we can call upon Cleary as his bird lives over here

God they really are getting lax with these eligibility rules now. Just watching I'm a Celeb at the moment. Does that make me eligible for a Kangaroos jumper?

Stainesrover

Stainesrover

Posted
Posted

In my humble opinion, French is a fantastic player, and he is absolutely made for the Super League. However if he were an NRL player, week in week out he wouldn't have almost 80% of the gaps/chances to score. He is perfect for our game, but any proper RL fan will know that he would be zero effective against Australia, even NZ and Tonga

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Sports Prophet

Sports Prophet

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

While Bevan may not be a great example  for England for other reasons, had he played for Catalans, I would be a strong advocate of his being available for them. It is fair to observe that in this respect other sports have zero qualms and get no stick for it. 

See that is interesting, because I understand the mindset. “No” for England but “yes” for France if he had been in France for 5 years at the Dragons.

Why is that? Because France are tier 2 and England are tier 1? Because you don’t believe he truly identifies as English? 

sweaty craiq

sweaty craiq

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, sam4731 said:

God they really are getting lax with these eligibility rules now. Just watching I'm a Celeb at the moment. Does that make me eligible for a Kangaroos jumper?

Is that still legal in Aus?

sam4731

sam4731

Posted
Posted

Personally, I think the residency rule is ridiculous. Maybe set it at 15 years to allow people who have been in a country since they were a kid but 5 years is ridiculous. You could hypothetically get into a situation where a federation gets the idea to pump money into a club from the country to sign players on 5 years contracts so they're eligible for the country. It's not going to happen but it shouldn't be possible.

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WN83

WN83

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Stainesrover said:

In my humble opinion, French is a fantastic player, and he is absolutely made for the Super League. However if he were an NRL player, week in week out he wouldn't have almost 80% of the gaps/chances to score. He is perfect for our game, but any proper RL fan will know that he would be zero effective against Australia, even NZ and Tonga

Not sure how you work out that he wouldn't be effective against those sides. In fairness no English players have been overly effective against the Aussies in a while (hard to be when you don't play them) but plenty of lesser players have done the business against the Kiwis and the Tongans. If they wanted to pretend French was English, he'd go just fine but he's not English and has no English heritage (as far as I'm aware), so it shouldn't be anything we'll get to see in the flesh. 

Looking at some players holding down spots in the NRL, he'd go fine back there as well. This myth the defences are on top in the NRL has surely been blown away now?! There were regular thrashings and high scoring games throughout the year, with sides scoring 40/50/60+ points and combined team totals of over 70 and 80 points. Got to be some decent gaps somewhere! 

 

Hopie

Hopie

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, sam4731 said:

You could hypothetically get into a situation where a federation gets the idea to pump money into a club from the country to sign players on 5 years contracts so they're eligible for the country. It's not going to happen but it shouldn't be possible.

Scottish RU says hello.

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