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Aussies 'stealing' NZ players
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<blockquote data-quote="smartcooky" data-source="post: 532873" data-attributes="member: 20605"><p>!47,000 is not really a big pool of players. England, France, Australia, South Africa and Ireland all have bigger pools. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Heineken, you still don't get it. They don't get pilfered to play Test Rugby for the All Blacks or the Wallabies, as we have adequately explained. </p><p></p><p>They actually get pilfered by NH clubs, who effectively take them out of test rugby for the PI nations for three years out of every four, refusing to release them for the AI or June windows, and only grudgingly releasing them at RWC time. That is how you only ever get results like Tonga beating France, Fiji beating Wales and Samoa giving the mother of all frights to South Africa, at world cup time, and the rest of the time, they get there arses kicked. Not hard to understand how the landscape would change at AI and June tour time of the PI's got to place full squads when there are RWC seedings up for grabs </p><p></p><p>This is also why the Pacific Nations Championship isn't really Fiji, Tonga Samoa & Japan, its Fiji A, Tonga A, Samoa A & Japan, because many of the top players are in Europe and not released. Meanwhile, PI players ARE released by their NZ & AUS Franchises, NZ Provincial Unions, AUS Shute Shield and AUS Hospital Cup sides.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smartcooky, post: 532873, member: 20605"] !47,000 is not really a big pool of players. England, France, Australia, South Africa and Ireland all have bigger pools. Heineken, you still don't get it. They don't get pilfered to play Test Rugby for the All Blacks or the Wallabies, as we have adequately explained. They actually get pilfered by NH clubs, who effectively take them out of test rugby for the PI nations for three years out of every four, refusing to release them for the AI or June windows, and only grudgingly releasing them at RWC time. That is how you only ever get results like Tonga beating France, Fiji beating Wales and Samoa giving the mother of all frights to South Africa, at world cup time, and the rest of the time, they get there arses kicked. Not hard to understand how the landscape would change at AI and June tour time of the PI's got to place full squads when there are RWC seedings up for grabs This is also why the Pacific Nations Championship isn't really Fiji, Tonga Samoa & Japan, its Fiji A, Tonga A, Samoa A & Japan, because many of the top players are in Europe and not released. Meanwhile, PI players ARE released by their NZ & AUS Franchises, NZ Provincial Unions, AUS Shute Shield and AUS Hospital Cup sides. [/QUOTE]
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