Gregor Paul: The point being missed in rugby's Pacific Island eligibility debate

Fiji are one nation hoping that World Rugby changes the eligibility laws this month. Photo / Getty

OPINION:

There will be an expectation that the Pacific Island nations should be eternally grateful if World Rugby changes the current eligibility laws on November 24.

Already, it would seem, media commentators and rugby officials have convinced themselves that a return to the old days of allowing players to represent two nations in a career will be the panacea to all the ills that have plagued Fiji, Samoa and Tonga since the dawn of the professional age.

Those who have campaigned for and support the change - allowing players to represent a second nation for which they are eligible after a three-year stand down from representing another - are adamant that such a move, should it receive the 75 per cent majority it needs to be passed, will be the proverbial game-changer.

For decades now the Island sides have seen the major nations, particularly New Zealand and Australia, pick players who were also eligible for one of Fiji, Samoa or Tonga, give them a few caps and then cast them aside.

It has left quality players, some of them young, with no place in the international game, off limits to the Island nations who so desperately need them.

The frustration is understandable. It is outrageous, almost unconscionable, that Fiji, Samoa and Tonga have to trawl the world for players, dragging them out of Dunedin club rugby and other unsuitable places as has happened this year, while their world class talent runs around for other nations or sits twiddling its thumbs, desperate to play, but not allowed.

There is this pile of jettisoned Pacific Island-eligible players, growing ever larger while Samoa and Tonga in particular regress on the international stage and World Rugby shouts ever louder about wanting the World Cup to be a showcase of the best players on the planet.

None of it makes sense, which is why the tone will be celebratory should the change be sanctioned.

And it should be celebrated, because a change in the laws would represent a victory and the Pacific Islands don't get many of them.

But it will only be a victory of sorts and it could even prove to be Pyrrhic, potentially doing more harm in the longer-term quest to find sustainable solutions to the endemic problems that have created such inequity between the Island nations and world rugby's elite.

The danger being that World Rugby, having shown no urgency to alleviate the plight of the Island nations, may feel like a box has been ticked and therefore problem solved if the vote is passed.

The point that those in euphoric mode are missing is that Fiji, Samoa and Tonga will be accessing the rest of the world's hand-me-downs.

They still won't be in the same high street shops as everyone else, trying their own players for size, and nothing will fundamentally be changing to prevent every other major nation helping themselves to the best of Pasifika and tossing it away when they are finished with it just as they currently do.

Those with money and opportunity will still be able to call dibs on Pasifika talent and use it for as long as they want and yes Fiji, Samoa and Tonga will in time to be able to claim their people back, but three years after the likes of the All Blacks and Wallabies have taken the best from them.

So it could be the All Blacks have the Fijian-born and raised Sevu Reece at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups – when he's in his prime, capable of anything and everything.

Sevu Reece might not be capable of carrying Fiji at the 2027 World Cup. Photo / Getty

And then Fiji get him back for the 2027 tournament when he's almost 31. Maybe the Vunipola boys, Mako and Billy, who are unwanted at the moment by England despite having contributed so much, will turn out for Tonga in 2027, but what will they be offering by then?

Changing the eligibility laws will not be transformational. It could be helpful in that it will enable Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to bolster their respective squads with a few seasoned, veteran professionals, but it won't make those nations anymore likely to win the allegiance of their eligible players before they are captured elsewhere.

Nothing will change until the Island nations are part of a regular, meaningful, economically viable competition where they can offer competitive payments for playing test rugby.

For the hundreds of dual-qualified players, there is no choice to make if the All Blacks are keen and so are Samoa. One offers the certainty of opportunity – regular tests against the best in the world, a six-figure salary and the kudos to go on to bank a big European club contract when the time is right.

The other says pay your own way to tests which fall sporadically and typically not with much glamour and risk your club contract in the process as they may not like you playing international rugby.

Until that choice is actually a choice and the opportunities and rewards for committing to Samoa, Fiji and Tonga are considerably greater than they currently are, then the eligibility change is window dressing at best.