It was Japan’s Michael Leitch who surprised everyone under the sun when he said they are “going for it”.
Guy was talking about Bill, the William Webb Ellis Cup, the Rugby World Cup trophy.
Loose-forward Leitch is of course a New Zealand-born player, who, at 34, would have been seven years old when the country of his birth smashed Japan 145-17 at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa.
Fast forward 24 years and Japan made the quarterfinals on home soil where they lost 26-3 to eventual champions South Africa.
Talk about metres made.
Leitch led that side which included no fewer than 16 foreign-born
players.
Now that’s the first way to go.
Players often go to other countries for better opportunities.
Here in South Africa, we’ve had a number of players playing for adopted countries.
And then World Rugby paved another road – one that leads back home.
Rugby’s governing body, in January 2022, changed the rules to allow a player who has played for a foreign country to return to his homeland and represent his birth country.
The player, though, has to meet the following criteria according to World Rugby: “The player must stand-down from international rugby for 36 months; the player must either be born in the country to which they wish to transfer or have a parent or grandparent born in that country [and] a player may only change union once and each case will be subject to approval by the World Rugby Regulations Committee to preserve integrity.”
That’s how, despite initially voting against the proposal, South Africa got Ireland’s Jean Kleyn back.
But, more importantly, it’s how Tonga and Samoa got their stars back.
When the world champion Springboks tackle Tonga in their World Cup Pool B match on 1 October this year, they could line up against ex-Wallabies fullback Israel Folau, former All Blacks fullback/ wing Charles Piutau, centre Malakai Fekitoa, flanker Vaea Fifita and ex-Australia lock Adam Coleman to name a few.
Those are definitely not names to take lightly.
In the words of coach Toutai Kefu: “We’re going to have a really good team, probably the best ever [at the World Cup].”
Director of rugby in SA, Rassie Erasmus, knows it and says of the Tonga team after the rule change: “To be honest, in the beginning, we voted against it. But when you see what is happening in this Tonga team, it is fair.
Happy to be back with the #Springboks - more here: https://t.co/LgrJYn6KBS 🥳#StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/2wzCBzPdSE
— Springboks (@Springboks) June 15, 2023
“These are guys who were born there, played for another country and came back to Tonga.
“If I look back at it, sometimes for those teams they were seen as the minnows or the lesser favourites in a group and now all of a sudden we’ve got these guys who are world class and get together at the highest level – at the World Cup…
“I do think that sometimes having really weak teams in your pool doesn’t help you a lot when you get into the quarterfinals. I know it’s going to be tough… but that’s great.”
Samoa, meanwhile, have always been there and thereabout and I always got the feeling that with some added firepower – maybe if their stars didn’t play for adopted countries – they could be a real force in world rugby.
And thanks to the rule change, they now have former Australia flyhalf Christian Leali’ifano, veteran All Blacks prop Charlie Faumuina, experienced New Zealand flanker Steven Luatua and ex-All Blacks flyhalf-cum centre Lima Sopoaga in their ranks.
Whether these guys are enough to really challenge the big teams of the rugby world remains to be seen.
But I really like this new rugby-without-borders vibe, how about you?