Holes in Fiji coach's claims
Mick Byrne.
Fiji coach Mick Byrne claims the New Zealand Rugby contracting system is preventing a couple of Highlanders from playing for the Pacific nation.
Byrne told the FijiVillage website he was effectively hamstrung from selecting Fiji-eligible players from Super Rugby teams as their contracts stipulated they must remain eligible for the All Blacks.
He said he had brief chats to Highlanders winger Jona Nareki and fullback Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, and claimed both had expressed some interest in playing for Fiji.
But his claim about the contracting system has some holes in it.
The five New Zealand clubs in Super Rugby are actually allowed to nominate up to four players who are ineligible for the All Blacks.
That has, for example, allowed the Highlanders to contract the services of the likes of Freddie Burns (England), Rhys Patchell (Wales) and Martin Bogado (Argentina) in recent seasons.
Australian veteran James O'Connor is playing for the Crusaders despite still remaining very much eligible for the Wallabies.
While most leading Fiji-eligible players would naturally lean towards representing the Drua, an ersatz national side, if they wanted to play for a New Zealand club, and the club wanted them and could prove there was a positional need, it is unlikely there would be an issue.
A factor to consider is that NZR pays the wages of the Super Rugby players. Naturally, they would prefer the vast majority of them were eligible for the All Blacks.
In the case of the Highlanders' outside backs, both would understandably be welcomed by Byrne, and would add real quality to the Fijian national team.
It could be a moot point, though.
Both Highlanders men — one of whom, Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, is literally at a training camp with the All Blacks coaches this week — are understood to be eager to play for New Zealand.
If circumstances change, especially if there is a carrot of playing at a World Cup, they could easily switch allegiance to Fiji but remain with the Highlanders.
Nareki was born in Fiji but has spent most of his life in New Zealand, growing up in Whanganui, attending Feilding High School and representing New Zealand at under-20 level as well as sevens.
Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens was born in Christchurch to a Fijian mum and a Dutch dad.
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