England poaching may backfire: O'Neill

[laura]

England poaching may backfire: O'Neill
AAP - June 28, 2008, 12:36 pm

ARU supremo John O'Neill says it will actually be England's problem - not Australia's - if the old enemy persists in luring Wallabies and All Blacks to English premiership rugby on big-money contracts.

While O'Neill insists the ARU is doing everything it can to prevent a player drain to cashed-up club sides in Europe, particularly the UK and France, he predicts England may well be the big losers in the long-term.

O'Neill pointed to the failure of England's national soccer team to qualify for Euro 2008 as evidence of the dangers in swelling the domestic ranks with international imports.

"I was interested the other day to read a statistic that said the English Premier League - soccer - that 38 per cent of players were English. The other 62 per cent were foreign and you wonder whether that's been good for English soccer," O'Neill said.

"Equally, when you move into the rugby sphere and see what's happening in English rugby and French rugby where they're throwing money at foreign players, I think they've got to actually rethink the actual long-term benefit of that strategy in terms of what it does to their national team."

more....England poaching may backfire: ONeill Australian Sport - Yahoo!7 Sport

[laura]

Australia set to poach schoolkids
By Wayne Smith
June 28, 2008

AUSTRALIA is to venture into the heartland of South African rugby, Craven Week, in a bid to recruit the big, rawboned forwards it can't seem to produce itself.

Craven Week is the annual schoolboys tournament which showcases the emerging talent of the next generation of South African rugby.

But this year's tournament, to run from July 6-12 in Pretoria, is about to take on an international flavour with the Australian Rugby Union quietly planning to send observers to the carnival, making contact with rising South African players.

Initially, there is likely to be no return on this investment of time and money, but the expectation in Australian rugby is that as South Africa goes further down the transformation path, Springboks teams will become almost totally dominated by black players.

more...Australia set to poach schoolkids - Rugby - Fox Sports

[jargan83]

that soccer stat isn't good for soccer in England. Some months ago i read an article stating that some officials in the Engish FA were thinking of putting a cap on the amount of foreign imports at a club. They already have it in the county Cricket sides, i think their limited to 2 foreign players per side. Add in the articles that i read before and during the 2006 world cup where a few English soccer legends said that the sheer number of foreign imports was killing their national side.
Posted via Mobile Device

[jargan83]

just a further point, im sure that the English Cricket Association put that limit on the County sides after the English Cricket side suffered (more woeful then they usually are at least)

Usually I think John O'Neil is full of shit but i think this statement is closer to the mark
Posted via Mobile Device

[BLR]

that soccer stat isn't good for soccer in England. Some months ago i read an article stating that some officials in the Engish FA were thinking of putting a cap on the amount of foreign imports at a club.

Considering Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are basically made up by a majority of foreigners I suspect this article would be from a very small minority. Maybe you mean the head of UEFA, Platini I think his name is. He wants to bring in, by 2011 off the top of my head, a 6-5 rule in all leagues, 6 home country (not sure in the EPL that means Scots etc. too) and 5 foreigners. I'm not sure if they will grant home country status to players who have played for the team for a certain while or came from the youth ranks...

But the European Union came out and said that it's against the laws of non-discrimination of EU workers, so it won't happen, the EU=many foreigners in the EPL.

[jargan83]

England is not Scotland BLT, Scotland have their own national league. Nor did I say the English FA were going to implement the plan merely that they were looking at it. At the end of the day the English national side is suffering and used it as example to agree with J'ON
Posted via Mobile Device

[Thequeerone]

Did you know that the Welsh don't currently have a No.8 playing in any provincial side who is Welsh - makes selection difficult

[James]

that soccer stat isn't good for soccer in England. Some months ago i read an article stating that some officials in the Engish FA were thinking of putting a cap on the amount of foreign imports at a club. They already have it in the county Cricket sides, i think their limited to 2 foreign players per side. Add in the articles that i read before and during the 2006 world cup where a few English soccer legends said that the sheer number of foreign imports was killing their national side.
Posted via Mobile Device

I saw a job advertisement for teaching English to academy members of big English soccer clubs. By the sound of it there weren't too many English players in the academies either. What it comes down to is that the clubs in the EPL or the GP don't give a toss about how the national team goes. Fact is they'd probably rather them crash and burn so the fans can drown their sorrows by watching their club side win.

[jargan83]

i'd agree with that assessment
Posted via Mobile Device

[jono]

he is actually talking sense for a change.
if england continues to recruit established players from overseas.
the English side will have the funds to pay players to play for them. but the talent wont be there to be selected, due to the players that they would be picking being ineligible to play for england, due to lack of ability.
food for thought on their part perhaps?

[PerthGirl]

It's a bit hypocritical if they are sending scouts to SA to poach the young players

[jargan83]

how can they poach saffers who aren't elligable to play for Australia??
Posted via Mobile Device

[Thequeerone]

If they haven't played for SA and spend 2 years in Oz then they can play for Oz

[thunderchicken9]

The US is weak in international rugby because there's no professional division here, therefore no money. Our best players, (MacDonald, Emerick, Ngwenya) go overseas to make a living, and as a direct result 2 very bad things happen: 1) public interest in the games remains low -after all, rugby is a "foreign" game, and 2) the quality of our international team suffers due to the fact that players get precious little time to practice and play together. We are a prime example of a failure to keep good players at home and "grow" the game for future players. England had best be careful...