Rugby sevens revolution getting messy

Surely your best players are your best players. It is the same in cricket.

There are some Twenty20 specialists who have prospered, but generally class

wins out.

When Sri Lanka won the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh earlier this year it

was Kumar Sangakkara’s batting that won the final for them. He is not a bad

Test batsman either, as he showed last week with a double century against

Pakistan, his 10th in Test cricket.

In sevens the fitness requirements are clearly different from 15s, with much

longer distances covered, and you would only consider players from certain

positions, but it would surely not take too long to adjust. Indeed one

sevens coach told me recently that it might take only two tournaments to do

so.

It is in looking ahead to the Olympics in Rio in 2016 when sevens will make

its first appearance that problems are arising. Understandably the

International Olympic Committee is keen for the standard of competition to

be high and has therefore relaxed the eligibility rules so that some players

can swap countries. If a player has not represented a country for 18 months,

he can now represent another as long as he has the requisite passport. It is

presumably a ruling designed to aid the likes of the Pacific islands, Samoa,

Tonga and Fiji, who might be able to reclaim players claimed by New Zealand.

So, say, wing Joe Rokocoko, born in Fiji but recipient of 68

All Black caps, could play for Fiji as his last outing for New Zealand was

against England in 2010.

But it has now created a potential loophole for Steffon Armitage, the Toulon

flanker miffed with his continued omission from the England squad. Having

last played for England in 2010, he is looking at obtaining a French

passport. If he succeeds, he could then play sevens and 15s thereafter.

The can of worms that appeared sealed after the ‘Grannygate’ nonsense, when

the New Zealanders Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson played for Wales

through grandparents fictitiously claimed as Welsh, will be reopened with

this Olympic ruling.

Qualifying for a country other than that of your birth is one thing – think

for example of England cricket with Sam Robson, Gary Ballance and Chris

Jordan, and England rugby with Dylan Hartley and the Vunipola brothers Mako

and Billy – but playing for two countries is quite another.

What is more, the International Rugby Board has also decided to extend its

Regulation Nine concerning the release of players for international rugby to

the World Series Sevens events next season, meaning that clubs would be

duty-bound to release players for sevens.

Messy? You bet, and that is before we discuss the potential problems of

England rather than Wales or Scotland having been nominated to do the

Olympic qualifying in the World Series for the Great Britain team.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/28286510

Rugby sevens revolution getting messy