A loophole that has allowed rugby players to more easily switch allegiances is helping reshape a sport that has previously tended to tie representative players to one country for life.
Quality tighthead props are highly sought after and Toomaga-Allen was thrilled last year to be claimed by Samoa — his mother’s homeland. He scored his first test try in a win over Romania.
Tonga and Samoa aren’t expected to make a similar splash in the 15-a-side World Cup, but their new transfers help them level the playing field, as the governing body hoped. The amended law also rectifies in a small way decades of disregard for the Pacific Island countries. Tonga had to select amateurs to face New Zealand two years ago and lost 102-0, but has drawn ex-All Blacks Charles Piutau, Malakai Fekitoa, Vaea Fifita, George Moala and Augustine Pulu and former Wallaby Adam Coleman. Injured and unavailable was Wallabies great Israel Folau.
Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui wasn’t in favor of the law change but still gave a World Cup shot to former All Black midfielder Seta Tamanivalu. Fiji has enviable depth, though, thanks to the Super Rugby success of the Drua, which has supplied 18 of the 33-man World Cup squad.South Africa voted against the move yet still called up lock Jean Kleyn, who’d qualified for Ireland on residency and was capped five times in 2019.
Professionalism in 1995 changed things again. Countries with limited resources went shopping for players: Scotland recruited ‘Kilted Kiwis’ who gave up dreams of playing for the All Blacks.
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