Vaea Fifita will play for Tonga at the World Cup. Photo / Photosport
OPINION
New Zealanders should get used to the idea that many of the All Blacks of today will be the enemy of tomorrow.
It’s the new reality of being in a cultural melting point and the decision to change the eligibility laws so players can represent more than one nation in their career.
This World Cup is going to feature a handful of familiar faces, who not so long ago were either playing or wanted to be playing for the All Blacks at the global showpiece.
Tonga have picked former All Blacks Charles Piutau, Malakai Fekitoa, George Moala, Vaea Fifita and Augustine Pulu, and Samoa have found places for Charlie Faumuina, Steven Luatua and Lima Sopoaga.
These players became eligible when World Rugby, somewhat unexpectedly, voted in favour of changing the rules in late 2021 - stating that it would be possible for players to switch allegiance to another nation for which they were qualified after a three-year stand down.
It was essentially a random quirk of timing that these players had unwittingly served their three-year standdown and became immediately eligible to take advantage of the new law.
But what’s going to change in the next World Cup cycle is that some All Blacks, perhaps more than many realise, will make deliberate career decisions about freeing themselves up to play for another nation at the 2027 tournament.
The first real hint of how this new world is manifesting came with the news that Blues prop Alex Hodgman, who made four All Blacks appearances in 2020, has signed with the Queensland Reds and will, by next year, also be eligible to play for the Wallabies as his father was born in Australia.
Welcome All Blacks props Alex Hodgman and Jeffery Toomaga-Allen to the #RedsFamily through 2025 🙌
— Queensland Reds (@Reds_Rugby) August 14, 2023
Read more: https://t.co/o2m7aIKEu0
The Reds obviously did their homework, realised they could offer Hodgman a club deal that came with the possibility of resurrecting a test career that stalled in 2020, and the package was too good to turn down.
Hodgman’s switch alludes to the prospect that the new career norm for those with dual heritage may be to try to play at two World Cups - one with the All Blacks and one with their heritage nation.
No one should doubt this because for those New Zealanders with a Pasifika heritage, the connection to the Islands is powerful and real and that’s why it is possible, maybe even probable, that Richie Mo’unga will be the All Blacks playmaker in 2023 and Tonga’s No 10 in 2027.
Mo’unga has signed a three-year contract to play in Japan after the World Cup and while he’s said he’s open to the idea of coming back to New Zealand, so few players ever do once they realise the enormity of the pay cut they will have to take to do so.
And for Mo’unga, the lure of playing for Tonga or Samoa, for whom he’s also qualified, will be undeniably strong as it’s becoming apparent that those former All Blacks who have returned to play for an Island nation have found the experience almost spiritual.
The experience of playing for a Tier One heavyweight such as New Zealand, Australia or England is incomparable with the experience of representing Samoa, Tonga or Fiji - not better or worse, just simply so different as to be an attractive proposition for those qualified to do both.
It’s not quite the best of both worlds, but if we stick with the example of Mo’unga, he’s enjoyed six seasons with the All Blacks, will win his 50th cap at what will be his second World Cup and then bank a heap of cash playing rugby in Japan before - possibly - finishing off with one last test hurrah in 2027, by which time he will be in his early 30s.
It’s a win-win, though, as, assuming he avoids injury, he’ll have the experience and class to add something significant to either Tonga or Samoa and bring them high-performance knowledge and game management nous.
He won’t be the only 2023 All Black potentially turning up somewhere else in 2027.
Leicester Fainga’anuku will be staying in France after the World Cup and he’s another with strong links to Tonga and who will qualify to play for them in 2027.
Shannon Frizell, who is contracted to play a club season in Japan next year, was born and raised in Tonga before coming to New Zealand in his mid-teens.
New Zealand Rugby will be keen to try to lure him back from Japan, given the way he’s come of age this year, but he may well like the idea, after six seasons with the All Blacks and two World Cups, of “giving back” to the country of his birth in 2027.
New Zealand has long been vulnerable to the spending power of European clubs, but now it has another enemy in the form of the eligibility law changes.