The Times, They Are A Changing
"The times they are a changing”, so the popular saying tells us. And the selections for the Great Britain Rugby League team ahead of their recent Test Series against New Zealand and the England Rugby Union squad ahead of their forthcoming action in the Six Nations tournament would certainly indicate that change is very much in the air in both codes of rugby.
When I played for the England RU side at Twickenham in the early Sixties, racing down the touchline was a pacy winger, John Young, whose pen portrait in the programme referred to his background at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford and Harlequins. A few years later when I represented the Great Britain RL team in the World Cup Down Under alongside me in the second row of the pack was the powerful Arnie Morgan, a miner from Featherstone in Yorkshire. Yes the times really are changing in rugby in the 21st century as both games have made rapid strides away from what were once the roots of their recruitment.
For the clash with the Kiwis, new coach, Tony Smith, took the bold gamble of selecting the St.Helens' pack star, Maurie Fa'asavalu, a former Samoan RU World Cup player in the Great Britain RL team. Outrage in certain quarters, when many traditional League supporters could not come to terms with such a bold and daring selection. Now England RU coach, Brian Ashton, has aroused similar debate by selecting the former Bradford Bulls and New Zealand RL prolific try scorer and current Gloucester RU wing flyer, Lesley Vainikolo. to play a part in the Six Nations RU tournament.
Many supporters of two games as conservative and as tradition bound as rugby league and rugby union are in the British Isles will find it difficult to reconcile such talent from the Southern Hemisphere donning a Great Britain or an England jersey. And yet such critics have all too easily accepted the fact that the New Zealand All Blacks squad would be seriously weakened without their reliance on the Pacific Island players and that the Australian RL team would lack power and pace if their Fijians, Tongans, etc were not allowed to wear the famous Green and Gold jersey. Don't forget too that even the parochial French RU selectors have used an Aussie in their Six Nations campaign.
Rules are rules and, under the three years residential qualifications for both codes, both Lesley and Maurie, are free to offer themselves for selection to their adopted country. Both have proved ideal role models for the followers of both League and Union in this country. Both have immersed themselves in the British culture and set standards on and off the field that others in many sports would do well to follow. And both have made a massive impact on both games of rugby and attracted many followers to watch and admire their exciting play. They and their families have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the ways and culture of their adopted country and so, is it not only right that, if the rules for international selection allow, that they should be able to represent the country of their choice?
I for one look forward to Maurie Fa'asavalu knocking off an Aussie or two as he pounds down the middle of the pitch in Brisbane in the World Cup in November and, as a good Englishman, I will have no regrets if Lesley Vainikolo tramples a couple of Welsh defenders underfoot on his way to a try.
Yes, "the times are a changing," and the reason is because "rules are rules". And any sport must abide by them or change them.
Ray French
"The times they are a changing”, so the popular saying tells us. And the selections for the Great Britain Rugby League team ahead of their recent Test Series against New Zealand and the England Rugby Union squad ahead of their forthcoming action in the Six Nations tournament would certainly indicate that change is very much in the air in both codes of rugby.
When I played for the England RU side at Twickenham in the early Sixties, racing down the touchline was a pacy winger, John Young, whose pen portrait in the programme referred to his background at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford and Harlequins. A few years later when I represented the Great Britain RL team in the World Cup Down Under alongside me in the second row of the pack was the powerful Arnie Morgan, a miner from Featherstone in Yorkshire. Yes the times really are changing in rugby in the 21st century as both games have made rapid strides away from what were once the roots of their recruitment.
For the clash with the Kiwis, new coach, Tony Smith, took the bold gamble of selecting the St.Helens' pack star, Maurie Fa'asavalu, a former Samoan RU World Cup player in the Great Britain RL team. Outrage in certain quarters, when many traditional League supporters could not come to terms with such a bold and daring selection. Now England RU coach, Brian Ashton, has aroused similar debate by selecting the former Bradford Bulls and New Zealand RL prolific try scorer and current Gloucester RU wing flyer, Lesley Vainikolo. to play a part in the Six Nations RU tournament.
Many supporters of two games as conservative and as tradition bound as rugby league and rugby union are in the British Isles will find it difficult to reconcile such talent from the Southern Hemisphere donning a Great Britain or an England jersey. And yet such critics have all too easily accepted the fact that the New Zealand All Blacks squad would be seriously weakened without their reliance on the Pacific Island players and that the Australian RL team would lack power and pace if their Fijians, Tongans, etc were not allowed to wear the famous Green and Gold jersey. Don't forget too that even the parochial French RU selectors have used an Aussie in their Six Nations campaign.
Rules are rules and, under the three years residential qualifications for both codes, both Lesley and Maurie, are free to offer themselves for selection to their adopted country. Both have proved ideal role models for the followers of both League and Union in this country. Both have immersed themselves in the British culture and set standards on and off the field that others in many sports would do well to follow. And both have made a massive impact on both games of rugby and attracted many followers to watch and admire their exciting play. They and their families have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the ways and culture of their adopted country and so, is it not only right that, if the rules for international selection allow, that they should be able to represent the country of their choice?
I for one look forward to Maurie Fa'asavalu knocking off an Aussie or two as he pounds down the middle of the pitch in Brisbane in the World Cup in November and, as a good Englishman, I will have no regrets if Lesley Vainikolo tramples a couple of Welsh defenders underfoot on his way to a try.
Yes, "the times are a changing," and the reason is because "rules are rules". And any sport must abide by them or change them.
Ray French