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Jones backs influx of 'foreigners'
By Wayne Smith (via Fox Sports)
October 24, 2005
EDDIE JONES has added his weight to moves to relax the ban on foreigners playing for Australian Super 14 teams - but only if they one day might become eligible to play for the Wallabies.
International Rugby Board regulations restrict players from turning out for more than one nation during their careers, which means the "Jones proviso" would create an opening only for young footballers who have not represented their home country at either Test or A team level.
Jones has long been a fierce opponent of any relaxation of the ban on foreigners, arguing that with Australia having only three professional teams, a Super 12 berth should not be wasted on someone who was ineligible to play for the Wallabies.
But with the Western Force coming in as a fourth team, Australia's depth in some positions is being stretched to the point where some players not yet up to Super 14 standard might have to be used next year.
"The policy we have had in place has been absolutely correct but I think we have to look at how we can improve our talent pool and this is one way of doing it without discriminating against the young (Australian) players coming through," Jones said.
Unless a young immigrant has an Australian grandparent - like Clyde Rathbone - the present rules mean they cannot become eligible to play for the Wallabies until they have lived in Australia for three years.
If the impending Australian Rugby Union (ARU) review of its Super 14 policy results in a relaxation of its ban, foreigners would have to serve the three-year qualifying period but they would now be allowed to serve it while playing for the Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies or Western Force.
Force chief executive Peter O'Meara, whose team has been inundated with approaches from young South Africans willing to sit out the three-year qualifying period, supported the campaign to relax the Australians-only Super 14 rule.
He revealed yesterday that before the Force began its drive to recruit a team from scratch this year, he had asked the ARU to extend an exemption to the new Perth team to allow it to sign overseas players.
"I felt at the time it wasn't in the best interests of Australian rugby for us to rip prop forwards and five-eighths out of the east coast teams," O'Meara said.
"I asked the ARU to relax the rules to let us sign two or three foreigners but they wouldn't do it because they reckoned they would have to give the same latitude to the other franchises."
While the Australian teams all would be delighted to at least have the latitude to recruit foreign players, news of the policy review is certain to send a chill through the Pacific Islands.
Eight players of South Pacific or Maori ancestry - George Smith, Mark Gerrard, Lloyd Johansson and Tatafu Polata-Nau (Tonga), Morgan Turinui and Leroy Houston (Maori), Lote Tuqiri (Fiji) and Digby Ioane (Samoa) - were named this month in the Wallabies side that will leave on Wednesday on its spring tour to France and Britain.
All grew up in Australia, even if Tuqiri was born in Sigatoka, Fiji, but if the ARU lifted its ban, it would be possible for the four Australian provinces to recruit from islands, offering contracts none of the South Pacific nations could come close to matching.