How should we decide national team eligibility in sport?

Eddie Jones has included the Harlequins wing/ full-back, Louis Lynagh, in his first training squad for the new season, not surprisingly since the young man has been starring for his club. There’s a special point of interest, his father being the great Australian fly-half, Michael Lynagh, a World Cup winner in 1991. Young Louis has been educated in England and qualifies for England on the residency rule; he has also, of course, been developed in the English system.

The young man has other options, being also qualified for Australia, on account of his father, and for Italy because he was born in Treviso and his mother is Italian. These options remain open until he has been capped by one of the three countries for which he is qualified.

At one time, this wouldn’t have settled the matter, for it used to be possible to switch allegiance from one country to another. Back in the 19th century, a centre-three quarter, James Marsh, played twice for Scotland in 1889 and once for England three years later, though not, as it happens, against Scotland. Such switches were less usual than someone playing for one of the Southern Hemisphere countries and then for one of the Home Nations. 

After all, for a long time, what was still spoken of as “Colonials”, l often thought of England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland as their home country.

England frequently selected Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans studying at Oxford or Cambridge – more often Oxford because of the Rhodes scholarships, many of which went to rugby players and cricketers. So far as I know, nobody objected to this, publicly at least, though no doubt some English players kept out of the team by such temporary residents felt aggrieved and hard done by.

Well, this is no longer the case. Once you have played international rugby for one country (or indeed its designated second team), you’re committed for life. Tough if you turn out to be a “one-cap wonder” and are left reflecting how much longer – even more glorious – an international career you might have had if you had opted differently.

The attraction for young Lynagh of going to England is obvious. Not only has he been schooled here, played for England age-group sides, and may well have supported England in the Six Nations Tournament and World Cup (though I do wonder who he rooted for when England played Australia or, indeed, Italy), but quite clearly he would have a better chance of winning trophies with England. 

Then, he might have a problem if he chose to be Australian since the present regulations require someone to be playing his rugby in Australia to be eligible for the Wallabies, the only exceptions being made for players with a certain number of Australian caps, and Louis’ brother Tom is following that route and playing for Queensland Reds.

On the other hand, competition for a place in the England team is very stiff. Anthony Watson and Johnny May are the resident wings. Both have their eyes on the World Cup in France two years on and will not be easily displaced. Even if Lynagh is picked for one of the Autumn internationals to tie him to England, it might be some time before he had the chance to play much international rugby.

It might be different, and he might be more highly valued if he was to choose Italy. Of course, he would be joining a team with a dismal record in the Six Nations, one that is sadly accustomed to heavy defeats. Yet there were signs of improvement last season. With a young team, Italy played some good attacking rugby, but they were let down by making far too many defensive errors. The two Italian professional clubs, Zebre and Benetton, are stronger than they were.

Interestingly, Lynagh has a new colleague at Harlequins: Tomaso (or Tommy) Allan, the experienced Italian fly-half. Like Lynagh, Tommy Allan had a dual qualification, in his case Italian and Scottish. He had played age-group international rugby for Scotland, just as Lynagh has for England, but chose Italy. I doubt if he has regretted doing so. He would almost certainly have played for Scotland, but not near as often as he has for Italy. He would have been competing against Finn Russell, and it’s a competition he would have lost. 

He would have faced competition for a place on the bench from Duncan Weir and Adam Hastings too, while in Russell’s early years, the Scottish captain Greig Laidlaw, normally a scrum-half, often covered the fly-half position too.

Many, especially those on social media, get tiresomely worked up about the question of eligibility. In truth, the three tests – birthplace, ancestry, residence – seem reasonable, especially now that the qualifying period for residence has been raised from three years to five. Some of us may not like the idea of what is called “project players “, brought over, almost always from the Southern Hemisphere, with a view to subsequent international selection. 

But, though there are cases of players serving the necessary time, being picked for their adoptive country, and then moving to a club elsewhere that offers a higher salary, there are others who settle and make a great contribution to the club and country.

Some dislike the grandpaternal qualification, and indeed this sometimes seems slim if the grandparent in question emigrated as a child and has little experience or knowledge of the country of his birth. But there are cases when it is this single grandparent – whether grandfather grandmother – who may have encouraged the child’s interest in rugby and made it clear which country should be supported.

 This was the case with the Evans brothers, Thom and Max, who played (very well) for Scotland ten or so years ago. It was their Scottish grandfather who took them to matches when they were young and insisted they should think of themselves as Scots.

The birthplace qualification satisfied most people, though I find it less compelling. This may be because I was born in Singapore and haven’t been east of Suez since six months old. This qualification is fine if you have lived there as a child, less so if you were whisked away while still in nappies. In any case, as the great Duke of Wellington when accused of being Irish because of his place of birth, “being born in a stable doesn’t make you a horse”.

Finally, there is one agreeable oddity. We discovered in the mid-90s that anyone born in the Channel Islands could opt to play for England, Wales or Scotland, probably Ireland too, on account of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom. 

We were very happy when Northampton’s Channel Islander Budge Pountney chose to be Scottish; even if we knew very little about him. However, we soon learned that he was a very fine player and proved himself Scottish enough to captain the national side for a bit.