Pacific island player drain 'not right,' says World Rugby's Agustin Pichot

World Rugby vice-chairman Agustin Pichot. Photo / Getty

World Rugby vice-chairman Agustin Pichot is to look into the sport's international eligibility rules as part of a wide-ranging report into the sustainability of the game in the Pacific island nations.

The former Argentina international came out strongly against the existing rules, which allow a player to represent a country if they have lived there for three years, when he was nominated to his post last month.

Admitting his views would be controversial, the 41-year-old former Pumas captain and rugby Hall of Famer said he thought the period was too short.

"There are special cases where players moved when they were ten or twelve years old," he said.

"But just moving to a country, being taken from an Academy, like they are doing in Tonga, and put into play, say, in an Ireland shirt, I'm against it. I think it is not right."

Fiji, Samoa and Tonga have suffered from talent drain for many years and most of the top tier northern hemisphere nations as well as Australia and New Zealand regularly field players born in the islands.

Pichot was part of a World Rugby committee that met with the Fiji, Samoa and Tonga unions in Fiji on Tuesday and has been asked to lead a working party to make recommendations to the governing body in October.

The group will also look at future high performance investment levels, the conduct of agents, player movement regulations, future competition pathways, player release regulations and the conduct of non-union rugby academies.

World Rugby also reaffirmed its commitment to Pacific islands rugby and said it would be supporting the high performance and development programs of the three unions to tune of STG4 million (NZ$8 million) in 2016.