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19 hours ago, The Bard said:

Rugby is laughable in this respect.  Samoans playing for the All Blacks, Kiwis playing for Samoa. Italians called Luke McLean and Dries Van Schalwyk.   South African Irishmen, Kiwi England captains. 

 

19 hours ago, MichaelRobartes said:

I actually don't mind at all. It was more of a not to subtle dig at the Irish granny complaint in football. Anyone willing to fly halfway around the world, start a new life and put their bodies on the line for anyone is alright by me.

You need to keep an eye on MR, Bard - he's always picking on me!

I'm with Bard on this, if the parents are a particular nationality, or the player in question was born in a different country to their parents I'm ok. Anything passed that and it all gets a little daft. I just couldn't imagine moving to Australia, for example, marrying an Aussie, playing their for a certain number of years and then putting that shirt on and singing their anthem. On saying that, I'm hardly likely to be in that position, so an easy choice for me to make!

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2 hours ago, Woodsy said:

 

You need to keep an eye on MR, Bard - he's always picking on me!

I'm with Bard on this, if the parents are a particular nationality, or the player in question was born in a different country to their parents I'm ok. Anything passed that and it all gets a little daft. I just couldn't imagine moving to Australia, for example, marrying an Aussie, playing their for a certain number of years and then putting that shirt on and singing their anthem. On saying that, I'm hardly likely to be in that position, so an easy choice for me to make!

That's fair enough Woodsy. I just look at someone like CJ who wasn't wanted in SA and gambled on coming to Ireland to play. I see a guy like that putting it all on the line for Munster and Ireland and nobody can convince me that he doesn't have as much right to tog out for us as anyone born on the island. When they change the qualification period to five years instead of three that's fair enough. I'm convinced that it won't make a big difference, most lads come to play for the club first and foremost. If international caps follow then so be it.

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On 5/9/2017 at 14:06, MichaelRobartes said:

That's fair enough Woodsy. I just look at someone like CJ who wasn't wanted in SA and gambled on coming to Ireland to play. I see a guy like that putting it all on the line for Munster and Ireland and nobody can convince me that he doesn't have as much right to tog out for us as anyone born on the island. When they change the qualification period to five years instead of three that's fair enough. I'm convinced that it won't make a big difference, most lads come to play for the club first and foremost. If international caps follow then so be it.

And that's the other side of it. Anyone who hasn't watched CJ play, and didn't know his name, wouldn't know he wasn't Irish through and through

Agree about the qualification period. No one is going to vote against it, but it needs to be a little harder to attain. Wasn't it 7 years at one point, maybe in cricket??

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19 hours ago, Woodsy said:

And that's the other side of it. Anyone who hasn't watched CJ play, and didn't know his name, wouldn't know he wasn't Irish through and through

Agree about the qualification period. No one is going to vote against it, but it needs to be a little harder to attain. Wasn't it 7 years at one point, maybe in cricket??

True enough Woodsy. I'm sure there are plenty of clubs in the British Isles with players like that as well. Guys like Josh Strauss leaving Glasgow for more money after becoming Scottish qualified aren't the norm in my opinion. No blame to him either, who wouldn't take a pay rise in what is a short career?

I don't know about seven years, I only remember it being three from around the time that so-called 'project players' began to be allowed by the IRFU (we have a maximum non-Irish qualified quota for all the provinces to protect the national team). I see it's not coming in until 2020 which allows all current project players to fulfil the qualification criteria. Quite right too if they've signed somewhere for less money because there's a chance of international recognition at the end of the tunnel!

The IRFU have also established a new programme to find and support Irish-qualified players abroad. Good move since we have people all over the shop.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/39718.php#.WRRUvvnyvIU

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On 10/05/2017 at 17:18, Woodsy said:

And that's the other side of it. Anyone who hasn't watched CJ play, and didn't know his name, wouldn't know he wasn't Irish through and through

Agree about the qualification period. No one is going to vote against it, but it needs to be a little harder to attain. Wasn't it 7 years at one point, maybe in cricket??

https://www.limerick.ie/council/newsroom/news/cj-stander-made-honorary-international-ambassador-limerick

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2 hours ago, MichaelRobartes said:

Nice touch! Wait until the contract offer from the mighty Glos lands on his table though....I'll stick a blue plaque on my house for him!

Good to see stuff like that, as you know, I'm a massive NFL fan and the players there have very little (in fact 0%, unless you're a choosy **** like Eli Manning) during the draft process, but the one thing they promote from day 1 is giving back to the community where you now live and work. Fair play to the man

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57 minutes ago, Woodsy said:

Nice touch! Wait until the contract offer from the mighty Glos lands on his table though....I'll stick a blue plaque on my house for him!

Good to see stuff like that, as you know, I'm a massive NFL fan and the players there have very little (in fact 0%, unless you're a choosy **** like Eli Manning) during the draft process, but the one thing they promote from day 1 is giving back to the community where you now live and work. Fair play to the man

Haha, I'm sure he'd enjoy a session in the Shed. Shame it'll be another year at least before we meet in Europe again. Love the guy. Goes to show what you can gain by welcoming people with open arms. I imagine he only ever thought about playing for the Bulls and SA as a kid, now he bleeds red. I always enjoy when Munster are on Sky and CJ has the player mic as well, he's from the Paulie school of manic aggression.

That's good to hear. It's easy to criticise sportsmen on huge wedges for pretty much anything, but I'm sure plenty are doing things in their communities that we never get to hear about. 

28 minutes ago, JBFC II said:

And also JFR is on England's bench v the baabaas, hopefully he makes it, great guy and talented player

I hope so too. Great to see local guys making it. Shame it won't be with Bristol for now though.

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1 hour ago, MichaelRobartes said:

Haha, I'm sure he'd enjoy a session in the Shed. Shame it'll be another year at least before we meet in Europe again. Love the guy. Goes to show what you can gain by welcoming people with open arms. I imagine he only ever thought about playing for the Bulls and SA as a kid, now he bleeds red. I always enjoy when Munster are on Sky and CJ has the player mic as well, he's from the Paulie school of manic aggression.

That's good to hear. It's easy to criticise sportsmen on huge wedges for pretty much anything, but I'm sure plenty are doing things in their communities that we never get to hear about. 

I hope so too. Great to see local guys making it. Shame it won't be with Bristol for now though.

On about Paulie, only seen it this week....his speech on last Lions tour, bigging up Farrell. Have you seen it? 

What a bloke!

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1 hour ago, MichaelRobartes said:

I have. Paulie obviously taught him all he knows about goal kicking as well. It's going to be really weird seeing the Lions in NZ without the great man.

Ha, I'm sure Farrell was all ears during that training session....!!

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Anyone see the Northampton v Stade match last night? Some really awful stuff from Saints. Tom Wood stamps on Camara's head, is rightly sent off then remonstrates with the ref, claiming that Camara has milked it. You stood on his face you bloody idiot! The crowd chant "cheat" at Camara for having the audacity to headbutt Wood's studs from the bottom of a ruck. That fool Mallinder then claims there was no evidence of contact. 

The Champions Cup would be better off without Saints. Shocking carry on from players, coaches and fans.

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Great to see JFR get some game time for england v the barbarians yesterday, hopefully he's done enough to get a cap v the argies

What a player Ian Madigan looked yesterday as well, he can really kick and dictated the game from 10, is a quality signing for Bristol

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23 minutes ago, JBFC II said:

Great to see JFR get some game time for england v the barbarians yesterday, hopefully he's done enough to get a cap v the argies

What a player Ian Madigan looked yesterday as well, he can really kick and dictated the game from 10, is a quality signing for Bristol

Despite his problems in Bordeaux, Madigan has a lot of ability and is consistent off the tee. I'm sure he will tear it up in the Championship and then the Premiership.

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5 hours ago, MichaelRobartes said:

I hope Lam will set them the target of winning every single game because there's absolutely no reason that they can't.

I'd say to win every game would be underachieving, it may sound a bit over confident but they have to be aiming for 5 points a game and to concede as few bonus points as possible

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Agree. A BP win every game has to be the target. Whilst the teams we'll be playing against are hardly awe inspiring it will be great to watch the "new" Bristol revolution take shape. Should be a much more exciting and expansive brand of rugby that we've been used to. Bring it on I say! 

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Yes it will be nice to see some wins again, few and far between last season. Went to every home game bar one, and yes that was the win against Bath, gutted but as I was in Newcastle that made up for it. I'm seeing this season as having to take a step back to rebuild and then get promoted with a better chance of staying up this time. Anything less will be a failure on par with what the football club has done in the past.

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Tusi Pisi, Jack Lam, Chris Vui and Alapati Leuia have all be selected to start v New Zealand for Samoa on Friday, on Sky Sports 1 at 9 if anyone's interested, should be especially good to see Vui and Leiua in action against the best in the world before they join

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