Rugby: Swapping countries soon thing of past

SYDNEY - When is an Australian not an Australian? Or a Kiwi not a Kiwi? Or a Samoan not a Samoan?

Answer: When he's a promising rugby player.

As the fourth rugby World Cup approaches, rugby fans could be forgiven for scratching their heads when studying some of their national team lists.

The three Celtic nations are busily trawling the world looking for young players whose parents or grandparents happened to be born in Ireland, Wales or Scotland, the All Blacks continue to look to the Pacific Islands and Japan have solved their height problem by importing tall New Zealanders.

And before we Australians get too smug, think of Tiaan Strauss, Patricio Noriega and Willie Ofahengaue.

Switching countries is nothing new, of course, but it seems to have become more prevalent as the stakes get higher.

But from January 1, the International Rugby Board has decreed that once a player has represented a country that's it, no more flags of convenience.

The issue was brought to a head in Australia this week when the Welsh Rugby Union named promising Waratah Jason Jones-Hughes in their 30-man World Cup squad.

Jones-Hughes, whose father is Welsh, was brought up in Australia and has represented Australian Schools and the Australian Barbarians.

But the 22-year-old got his back up early this season when NSW officials brought Wallaby star Jason Little to Sydney from Queensland, promising him Jones-Hughes' outside centre position as bait to leave Brisbane.

Although Little was injured early in the Super 12, allowing Jones-Hughes to take his place in the side, he was clearly unhappy with the attitude of the officials.

With Jones-Hughes relegated to the NSW wing, he must have assumed he was not considered in the top four centres in Australia, meaning he would struggle to make the World Cup squad.

Enter a resurgent Wales, Australia's likely quarter-final opponents now under the tutelage of respected New Zealand coach Graham Henry.

IRB regulations say a player is not eligible to represent another country if he has played for either his former country's national side or its "A" team, effectively a second XV.

Jones-Hughes, his advisers and the WRU believe the player's one appearance for the Australian Barbarians against Scotland does not make him ineligible for Wales.

However, ARU managing director John O'Neill begs to differ: "Quite simply, there is no case to suggest that Jason Jones-Hughes is eligible to play for Wales," he said.

In 1997, the ARU decided the country's "A" team would be known as the Australian Barbarians rather than Australia A or Emerging Wallabies as the second XV had previously been called.

The ARU has forwarded minutes of board meetings and other documents discussing the name change to the IRB, which will hear an application from the Welsh Rugby Union within the next 10 days.

For his part, Jones-Hughes claims he does not want to be a Wallaby.

"This was an extremely difficult decision, which I made after careful consideration and after lengthy discussions with my family," Jones-Hughes said.

"I believe I am eligible to represent Wales and I have informed the Australian Rugby Union and the New South Wales Rugby Union of my intention to make myself available for selection for the Welsh World Cup squad."

The ARU will not back down on this issue. O'Neill said he sympathised with Jones-Hughes, who he said just wanted to play in the World Cup, but he stressed that the 22-year-old was very much a part of the Wallabies' future plans.