Bound to the nation: Pacific Islands rugby and the IRB's new ‘one-country-for-life’ eligibility rules

Abstract

The rulings made by international sports governing bodies are not merely technocratic actions, but are political decisions that have extensive impacts on lived experience. Indeed the impact of Regulation 8.2, instituted by the International Rugby Board, has had effects that have weighed heavily on the smaller nations of the rugby-playing world. The regulation, that is known as a ‘one-country-for-life’ eligibility rule, functions to limit the potential of pacific island nations and their players that rely on the economic resources of international rugby. Whilst at the same time this regulation has also supported established rugby playing nations in utilizing the human resources of these pacific island nations. In this article we will explore the specific ways in which this regulation has shaped rugby and the flows of rugby related peoples and capital within the pacific region. Regulation 8.2 exists as a particularly vexed issue for Pacific countries because of the inherently ‘mobile’ nature of Pacific societies and the existence of a ‘special relationship’ between pacific island nations and New Zealand in particular. As such we have provided a specific critical discussion of the effects this ruling has had within the region, attempting to explore powerful relations exercised through international rugby and moments of marginalization.

Notes

^1.Sassen, ‘Spatialities and Temporalities’, 215.

^2.Bruce and Wheaton, ‘Rethinking Global Sports Migration’.

^3.Falcous and Maguire, ‘Globetrotters and Local Heroes’, 137.

^4.Elliott and Maguire, ‘Getting Caught in the Net’, 158.

^5.Bruce and Wheaton, ‘Rethinking Global Sports Migration’, 589.

^6.Rowe and Gilmour, ‘Global Sport’, 171.

^7.Giardina, Sporting Pedagogies, 61.

^8.Falcous and Maguire, ‘Globetrotters and Local Heroes’, 139.

^9.Harris, Rugby Union and Globalization, 108.

^10.Tsing, Friction.

^11. See Regulation 8.1, ‘Eligibility to Play for National Representative Teams’.

^12. See Section 8.2 from the IRB's Regulation 8: ‘Eligibility to Play for National Representative Teams’.

^13. Former All Blacks challenge IRB.

^14.Holmes and Storey, ‘Transferring National Allegiance’, 253.

^15.Rees, ‘Time for IRB to Play Ball’.

^16. For instance, see ‘Eligibility Rules Unfair Says Tongan PM’, The New Zealand Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby-world-cup2011/news/article.cfm?c_id = 522andobjectid = 10705328 (accessed February 10, 2011).

^17. ‘Jones Calls for Rule Change’, Australian Associated Press, http://my.rugby.com.au/news/2001_november/jones_calls_for_rule_change_12569,7696.html/news/archive/section/21893 (accessed November 10, 2001).

^18. Quoted in ‘Eligibility Rules Unfair Says Tongan PM’, The New Zealand Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby-world-cup2011/news/article.cfm?c_id = 522andobjectid = 10705328 (accessed February 10, 2011).

^19.Gray, ‘Bring Test Discards’.

^20.Jackson, ‘Let These Samoan Exports Go Back’.

^21. Such scholarships have long been criticized on a number of fronts, not the least of which being how they contribute to the further ‘de-skilling’ of Pacific Islands rugby (Field, ‘Rugby Blackbirders Snatching Island Boys’; Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’; Harvey, ‘Stars Watch in Anger’; , ‘Samoa Hope for NZ Boost’, ‘Kahn Do Deal Helps Pacific’, ‘Pacific Kept Out in the Cold’, ‘Trading Places’; Romanos, Judas Game; and Zavos, ‘Browning of the Wallabies’). Beyond the early loss of talent from Pacific rugby, the other main point of debate is the true educational merit of rugby scholarships. Critics have suggested that the ‘poaching’ of young ‘mercenaries’ (Clarke, ‘Lure in Fields of Dreams’; see also Grainger, ‘New Labour Mercenaries’) from the Islands is emblematic of the way in which some New Zealand high schools have become akin to ‘elite American or Australian high- school sports “factor[ies]”’ (Kilgallon, ‘Playing a Wider Field’). Prominent rugby writer Gregor Paul likens some school rugby programmes to the ‘American scholarship system’ where ‘athletes may well greatly improve their sporting ability, but very few walk away having advanced their life skills’ (Paul, Black Obsession, 126). Exacerbated by the advent of professionalism, he argues that the emphasis at many New Zealand high schools is now ‘rugby first, education second’ (ibid., 127).

^22.Rees, ‘Time for IRB to Play Ball’.

^23. Ibid.

^24. ‘Jones Hits NZRFU Over “Abuses”’, The New Zealand Herald, July 2, 2003, C3.

^25. See Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’; and Hewett, ‘Samoa's Ferocity Factory Gears Up’.

^26. Quoted in Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’.

^27. Quoted in Neil, ‘Nationality Rule Upsets Islanders’, 110.

^28.Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’.

^29.Cummiskey, ‘Islanders Prepared to Fight’.

^30. , ‘Samoa Hope for NZ Boost’; ‘Pacific Kept Out in the Cold’; and ‘Trading Places’.

^31.Paul, ‘Samoa Hope for NZ Boost’.

^32. Quoted in Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’.

^33. , ‘NZRU and NZRPA’; ‘NZRU Approves Foreign Players’; see also ‘NZ Market Open to Foreigners’, Rugby365, http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/super14/news/2642681.htm (accessed September 24, 2010); Paul, ‘Super Door Ajar to Foreigners’; and Stoney, ‘Super Rugby Slowly Opens Door’.

^34.Baldacchino, ‘Fresh Consideration of Development’; Connell, Global Health Care Chain; Farran, Human Rights in the South Pacific; and Gibson-Graham, ‘Surplus Possibilities’.

^35. Quoted in Gregory, ‘Pacific Islands Eye Rugby's Riches’.

^36. Quoted in Cummiskey, ‘Islanders Prepared to Fight’.

^37.Paul, ‘Trading Places’, 41.

^38. Quoted in Lesa, ‘Rugby's Old Boys' Network’.

^39. Quoted in Hinton, ‘IRB Boss Rejects Pacific Conspiracy Theory’.

^40.Mulhauser, ‘On Your Marks’.

^41. ‘Big Dreams Under Flags of Convenience’. Agence France-Presse, February 16, 2010.

^42.Nafziger, International Sports Law.

^43.Shachar, ‘Picking Winners’.

^44.Holmes and Storey, ‘Who Are the Boys in Green?’, 93.

^45.Holmes and Storey, ‘Transferring National Allegiance’.

^46.Maguire et al., Sport Worlds, 38.

^47.Paul, ‘Trading Places’, 42.

^48. Ibid.

^49.Grainger, ‘New Labour Mercenaries’, 130.

^50.Paul, ‘Trading Places’, 41.

^51. Ibid., 42.

^52.Rygiel, Globalizing Citizenship, 105.

^53. ‘Samoan Ex-All Blacks Challenge IRB's Rules on Jersey-Switching’, The New Zealand Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id = 4&objectid = 586469 (accessed January 14, 2002).

^54. ‘Former All Blacks Tackle IRB Rules’, The Dominion (Sport), January 14, 2002, 23.

^55.Chapman, ‘Introduction’.

^56.Wesley-Smith, ‘Changing Patterns of Power’.

^57.Wesley-Smith, ‘There Goes the Neighbourhood’, 122.

^58.Macpherson, ‘One Trunk Sends Out Many Branches’, 68.

^59.Lal and Fortune, Pacific Islands, 87.

^60.Opeskin and MacDermott, ‘Resources, Population and Migration’, 365.

^61. See Howe, Kiste, and Lal, Tides of History; and Lee, ‘Pacific Migration and Transnationalism’.

^62.Opeskin and MacDermott, ‘Resources, Population and Migration’, 365.

^63. Ibid., 363.

^64.Krishnan, Schaeffel, and Warren, Challenge of Change.

^65.Opeskin and MacDermott, ‘Resources, Population and Migration’, 365; see also Bedford et al., ‘Neighbourhood Effect’.

^66.Ongley and Pearson, ‘Post-1945 International Migration’.

^67.Statistics New Zealand, QuickStats About Pacific Peoples.

^68.Opeskin and MacDermott, ‘Resources, Population and Migration’.

^69.World Bank, ‘Regional Engagement Framework’.

^70.Baldacchino, ‘Fresh Consideration of Development’; Hugo, Callister, and Badkar, ‘Demographic Change and International Labour’; Maclellan and Mares, ‘Labour Mobility in the Pacific’; and Qalo and Akintade, ‘Emerging Lessons from Integrating Labour’.

^71.International Organization for Migration, World Migration 2008, 86.

^72.Firth, ‘Pacific Islands Trade’, 131.

^73.Gilroy, ‘Diaspora and the Detours’, 331.

^74.Entzinger, Martiniello, and Wihtol de Wenden, ‘Introduction’, xxvi.

^75.Paul, ‘Trading Places’, 42.

^76.Holmes and Storey, ‘Transferring National Allegiance’, 266.

^77.Stasiulis, ‘Migration–Citizenship Nexus’, 134.

^78.Connell, ‘Pacific Islands in the Global Economy’.

^79.Joppke, ‘Citizenship between De- and Re-Ethnicization’, 441.

^80.Spoonley, ‘Transnational Pacific Communities’, 81.

^81.Bruneau, ‘Diasporas, Transnational Spaces, and Communities’; and Glick Schiller, ‘Global Perspective on Transnational Migration’.

^82.Heisler, ‘Now and Then, Here and There’, 229.

^83.McMillan, ‘Developing Citizens’, 282.