Depth shouldn’t be a problem for Samoa heading into the 2015 Rugby World Cup, thanks in large part to the Olympic sevens eligibility loophole.
Players are well aware of their dual eligibility for Samoa and other nations, and have been quick to get in touch with the Samoan Rugby Union about switching allegiance to the island nation.
Those in contact about representing Samoa include former New Zealand 15s or sevens representatives Fritz Lee, Isaia Toeava and Tim Nanai-Williams, as well as Australian Super Rugby players Fotu Auelua (No 8) and Alofa Alofa (winger).
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For Lee, Toeava and Nanai-Williams any switch would see them use an eligibility loophole created due to the inclusion of sevens at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Any player tied to a tier-one nation that has not represented that country in the past 18 months can switch allegiance to a second country for which they hold a passport.
Samoa assistant coach Tom Coventry said the list of players having dual eligibility was long, and the vast majority of that list had already contacted the Samoan Rugby Union.
“Ambition is key,” Coventry said. “Guys who want to come and play for Samoa are valuable. You could ring guys and ask them to play, but to be fair, most of the guys who are now dual eligible and have the option to play have asked.”
“There are a lot of them [who have contacted Samoan rugby]. They are playing rugby in different parts of the world and that’s the nature of the beast with Samoan rugby, and Pacific island rugby in general.”
For players in New Zealand Super Rugby franchises a switch of allegiance will be a little harder. Super Rugby contracts have a clause ensuring a player is available to play for only New Zealand at national level.
A player like Nanai-Williams will have to ask for an exemption to that clause if he was to play for Samoa.
“Super Rugby is all about developing All Blacks, so that makes sense. If they look at each case and decide they probably won’t be in All Black consideration, then they can choose to remove that clause.”
Coventry was excited by the prospect of having Lee, Toeava or Nanai-Williams join the Samoan team, but said it will take time to get a new- look Samoan side together.
“Someone like Fritz, he’s in superb form for Clermont. He’s one of their standout players, I think he was player of the year last year. “It’s fantastic when they put their hand up, and obviously Fritz has a desire to play. For him to be able to play, he’d need to play in the IRB Sevens World Series in October to be available for our end of year tour. “That would be purely at the whim of his club. They’d have to release him to do that, which would be very unlikely, so he’d have to wait until the end of the northern hemisphere season to play sevens and then for Samoa.That’s going to be the case for us, with players trickling in when they can.”
With the influx of established stars the current national team squad could be disheartened by losing first team places, but Coventry said the ageing Samoan squad is relishing the introduction of new talent.
“They realise that we have an ageing squad in need of some young talent,” Coventry said. “Most of the guys are looking forward to it. We want to go deep in the World Cup and these guys will help us to do that.”
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