IRELAND ARRIVED IN Cape Town yesterday with three South African natives among their 32-player squad.
CJ Stander’s return to his homeland has been well flagged for some months now, but Richardt Strauss and Quinn Roux will also come across familiar faces in the coming weeks as Joe Schmidt’s men take on the Springboks in a three-Test series.
Quinn Roux hopes to make his Ireland debut in South Africa.
Strauss made his debut against the Boks in Dublin back in 2012 and has warned Stander of exactly how heated a reception he can expect, while any debut for Roux on this tour would see him face a similar onslaught.
A debut for Roux would also result in him become the latest Irish international to have qualified under the residency rule, as Strauss and Stander both did. Jared Payne is another who is Irish by residency rather than birth or family connection.
The issue of the three-year residency rule in rugby is one that has come back up for debate recently, with incoming World Rugby vice-chairman Agustín Pichot having stated that “it is wrong”.
IRFU CEO Philip Browne, however, confirmed that the Irish union was among those who were happy to keep the rule at three years.
Schmidt then pointed out last week that he would like to have Connacht’s New Zealand-born pair Bundee Aki and Tom McCartney available to him. That impactful duo qualify in the autumn of 2017 and look like certainties to play for Ireland if they remain here.
26-year-old Aki’s current Connacht contract expires in June 2016, before he qualifies in October next year, and the expectation is that the IRFU will have a battle on its hands to keep him in Ireland.
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IRFU performance director David Nucifora says the union will be doing its utmost to ensure Aki is not lured to New Zealand, France or England.
“Bundee’s contract runs until this time next year,” says Nucifora. “That will be the end of his third year. He will qualify a little bit after that. “Obviously, we’ll be trying to keep the guy here to play his rugby in Ireland.
Bundee Aki will be an Ireland international if he remains beyond June 2017. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“He’ll be that close to being eligible for Ireland. If that’s what his motivation is, if that’s what he’s driven by, then we’ll be working to help him achieve that.”
“Obviously, we are aware of the interest going on around him because of his performances of late but, as I say, he’s got 12 months to run on a contract. We are aware that other people are interested.
“At the end of the day, it has to come down to the motivation of the player. If he is going to stay and his ambition is to play for Ireland then I think the conversation that we have with him will be slightly easier than any other team might have with him.
“If that’s what he wants to achieve then he is going to be very close to achieving that or being eligible to achieving that at the end of his contract period.”
There is little doubt that any Ireland call-up for Aki would be welcomed by the many Ireland supporters who have been enthralled with the dynamic centre’s performances for Connacht this season.
Stander has been embraced wholeheartedly by the majority of Ireland fans already, but there remain many who are increasingly put off Test rugby by what appears to be a growing transfer market.
Nucifora says the signing of ‘project players’ is led by the Irish provinces, rather than the IRFU.
“It is a combination of things,” says the Australian. “We talk to the provinces. They may come to us usually with the proposal of a player; firstly with a proposal of a position would be the initial thing that would happen.
“They’ll say ‘we’d like look at recruiting in such and such a position.’ We’ll sit there and have a conversation around how that fits the succession plan nationally of the teams, who else they have on their books at that point in time, who else is available in Ireland, who else Irish-eligible is available around the place and we’ll have that discussion first to see if we agree that the position is needed.
Nucifora [left] has been performance director since 2014. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
“Then they would usually come and present a player to us. We will have a discussion with them about the player and the quality and whether we see that player as being the best available player to fill that need. That is pretty much how it works.”
And while many supporters of rugby would argue that project players and those who qualify under residency are devaluing the Test game, Nucifora points out that the IRFU are simply playing by the rules.
His argument is that every single foreign-born player who becomes eligible for Ireland must convince the national team coach that he is good enough for Test rugby.
“They still have to be able to better than the other Irish players in the system to be able to earn that right,” says Nucifora. “You work with the rules put in front of you and then try and do it as well as you possibly can.
“Do you consider them as being Irish-eligible players? What do we do, do we start making our own internal quotas? All you can do once they qualify is start judging them on performance. You judge all the players equally.
“If they are eligible then they are judged equally with all the other players. If it does nothing more than raises the bar of performance in the country, if they don’t get picked, but if it has helped lift the standard of the Irish players around them then that is a huge positive as well.”
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'All you can do once they qualify is start judging them on performance'
IRELAND ARRIVED IN Cape Town yesterday with three South African natives among their 32-player squad.
CJ Stander’s return to his homeland has been well flagged for some months now, but Richardt Strauss and Quinn Roux will also come across familiar faces in the coming weeks as Joe Schmidt’s men take on the Springboks in a three-Test series.
Strauss made his debut against the Boks in Dublin back in 2012 and has warned Stander of exactly how heated a reception he can expect, while any debut for Roux on this tour would see him face a similar onslaught.
A debut for Roux would also result in him become the latest Irish international to have qualified under the residency rule, as Strauss and Stander both did. Jared Payne is another who is Irish by residency rather than birth or family connection.
The issue of the three-year residency rule in rugby is one that has come back up for debate recently, with incoming World Rugby vice-chairman Agustín Pichot having stated that “it is wrong”.
IRFU CEO Philip Browne, however, confirmed that the Irish union was among those who were happy to keep the rule at three years.
Schmidt then pointed out last week that he would like to have Connacht’s New Zealand-born pair Bundee Aki and Tom McCartney available to him. That impactful duo qualify in the autumn of 2017 and look like certainties to play for Ireland if they remain here.
26-year-old Aki’s current Connacht contract expires in June 2016, before he qualifies in October next year, and the expectation is that the IRFU will have a battle on its hands to keep him in Ireland.
IRFU performance director David Nucifora says the union will be doing its utmost to ensure Aki is not lured to New Zealand, France or England.
“Bundee’s contract runs until this time next year,” says Nucifora. “That will be the end of his third year. He will qualify a little bit after that. “Obviously, we’ll be trying to keep the guy here to play his rugby in Ireland.
“He’ll be that close to being eligible for Ireland. If that’s what his motivation is, if that’s what he’s driven by, then we’ll be working to help him achieve that.”
“Obviously, we are aware of the interest going on around him because of his performances of late but, as I say, he’s got 12 months to run on a contract. We are aware that other people are interested.
“At the end of the day, it has to come down to the motivation of the player. If he is going to stay and his ambition is to play for Ireland then I think the conversation that we have with him will be slightly easier than any other team might have with him.
“If that’s what he wants to achieve then he is going to be very close to achieving that or being eligible to achieving that at the end of his contract period.”
There is little doubt that any Ireland call-up for Aki would be welcomed by the many Ireland supporters who have been enthralled with the dynamic centre’s performances for Connacht this season.
Stander has been embraced wholeheartedly by the majority of Ireland fans already, but there remain many who are increasingly put off Test rugby by what appears to be a growing transfer market.
Nucifora says the signing of ‘project players’ is led by the Irish provinces, rather than the IRFU.
“It is a combination of things,” says the Australian. “We talk to the provinces. They may come to us usually with the proposal of a player; firstly with a proposal of a position would be the initial thing that would happen.
“They’ll say ‘we’d like look at recruiting in such and such a position.’ We’ll sit there and have a conversation around how that fits the succession plan nationally of the teams, who else they have on their books at that point in time, who else is available in Ireland, who else Irish-eligible is available around the place and we’ll have that discussion first to see if we agree that the position is needed.
“Then they would usually come and present a player to us. We will have a discussion with them about the player and the quality and whether we see that player as being the best available player to fill that need. That is pretty much how it works.”
And while many supporters of rugby would argue that project players and those who qualify under residency are devaluing the Test game, Nucifora points out that the IRFU are simply playing by the rules.
His argument is that every single foreign-born player who becomes eligible for Ireland must convince the national team coach that he is good enough for Test rugby.
“They still have to be able to better than the other Irish players in the system to be able to earn that right,” says Nucifora. “You work with the rules put in front of you and then try and do it as well as you possibly can.
“Do you consider them as being Irish-eligible players? What do we do, do we start making our own internal quotas? All you can do once they qualify is start judging them on performance. You judge all the players equally.
“If they are eligible then they are judged equally with all the other players. If it does nothing more than raises the bar of performance in the country, if they don’t get picked, but if it has helped lift the standard of the Irish players around them then that is a huge positive as well.”
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