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Scottish Rugby adopts 'project signings' strategy

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/18307303

Scottish Rugby is embarking on a policy of 'project signings' to bolster the national team's selection options with foreign talent.


Eligibility rules permit players who have been resident in a country for three years to play international rugby for that country.


South African WP Nel has been signed by Edinburgh for this purpose.


"For Scotland to compete in years to come, we have to do this," Edinburgh chairman Jim Calder told Sport Nation.


"WP Nel is viewed as being a project signing. He, in three years time, will qualify for Scotland under the eligibility rules.


"On the way through, he'll contribute hugely to Edinburgh but crucially at the end of that period he will be available to play for Scotland.


"He's 26. Tighthead props probably come to their best at the age of 29, 30 and if it all works out, Scotland will get a good three or four seasons out of WP Nel.


"I don't see that, down the line, there'd be seven or eight of them. I do see each team, Edinburgh and Glasgow, having maybe two or three of them.


"To be good enough to play for Edinburgh and Glasgow in the years to come will mean you will be good enough to make a difference at international level and I don't think we've had that up until now."


Edinburgh's Dutch wing Tim Visser is expected to make his Scotland debut during the summer tour of Australasia, having been resident in Scotland since 2009, while Glasgow Warriors' English prop Michael Cusack could become eligible in 2014.


"I feel very Scottish, this is now my home," said Visser.


"I came to this country to play for Edinburgh. At the start, Scotland wasn't in my mind at all. Only when it started going quite well at Edinburgh did that become a small rumour which grew and grew.


"It became a lot more realistic this season. Now finally I'm here.


"There is obviously the case where people haven't been whole-hearted and played for Scotland and then left only a year later.


"That's not my intention. I've been here for three years, I'm going to be here for another three years at least, I'm under contract until 2015.


"The general consensus [from fans] has been that they really want me to play for Scotland, they seem to be happy about it. There is obviously the odd few that do believe you have to be born in a country to represent them."


Doddie Weir, who won 61 caps for Scotland and played for the British Lions, is one who does not entirely agree with the new strategy.


"At the moment the ones coming into the team are homegrown and a lot more time and effort should be spent on that side before they go and look abroad for players," said Weir.


"If we go down that route and have 15 foreigners, I don't know what that'll do to Scottish rugby. As soon as they finish, they go back to their countries as we've seen in the past."


Attracting project signings will be part of former Warriors head coach Sean Lineen's new head of player acquisition role with Scottish Rugby. Lineen was born in New Zealand but qualified to play for Scotland through his grandfather and won 29 caps.


"Sean Lineen's possibly one of the few that's decided to stay around and that's great," added Weir. "If the foreigners decide to stay in Scotland for a long time, I've not got a problem but generally that does not happen.


"If you get someone from South Africa, for example, who's a world class player and you bring him to Scotland, he's got to be funded for three years before he's available to play for the national team.


"He could decide that he goes back to play for South Africa.


"The players should want to come to Scotland to play for the Scottish teams if they're going to be available."
If you look at Edinburgh's signings, none of WP Nel, Isak van der Westhuizen, Perry-John Parker, Greig Tonks or Mike Penn have played representative rugby that rules them out of Scotland selection in future. New Glasgow signing Tim Swinson can also qualify to play for Scotland in the future.

I intensely dislike the idea behind "project players" and think it's a short term fix to a long term problem. Hopefully Scotland don't view this as a solution to their problems are are also running a talent identification program in their own country with the aim to develop more native players for their national side.
 
How demoralising must this be for young prospects who are already eligible for Scotland??

WP Nel, IMO has what it takes to play for the Boks, so it's a matter of who gives him the call-up first.
 
Scotland have a small player base so makes sense in a way, although I am sure there are plenty of good young players in the Borders that just need a chance.

It does sound like Englands policy of poaching South African players over here for a few years....
 
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Swinson already does qualify for the Sweaties, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of the other English players were as well.

It's pretty shitty to see another country to succumb to the lure of institutional theft but it does make sense. Also, if Scottish talent have a problem with this, they need to take a spoonful of concrete and harden the f**k up. Competition breeds success after all. If they're not better than Greig Tonks, they shouldn't be playing international rugby anyway.
 
"Project signings" = lame
"I'm feeling very Scottish" = super lame

Just say that you're a Dutch guy who's honored to play for Scotland and will give your all and you're thankful for the opportunity to play top level rugby.
 
What does this say about the state of professional Scottish rugby?
 
So glad I bought a South African rather than a Scottish World Cujp shirt last year when leaving NZ.....

There is little right about Scottish rugby and too much wrong.
 
The practice in not uncommon at all. Australia have been doing it for years. James O'Connor, Quade Cooper, David Pocock, Sitiliki Tamani and most recently Mike Harris were all eligible to play for other countries. Australian Super Rugby providence's even have a "foreign development player" position available in their squads meaning they are allowed to sign a young foreign player in the hope that he will be good and eventually be eligible to play for the Wallabies.

I think it's a good move by Scotland. Obviously they don't have the player base at the moment and that doesn't look like it will change anytime soon. They have been struggling for too long on the international stage (including their wooden spoon in this years 6 nations) so good on them for trying to fix the problem instead of giving up and just offering excuses.

While I agree that investment in youth development is a better long term solution that's exactly what it is, a long term solution. It will be a 5, maybe 10 year investment and signing foreign players is a good strategy to bridge the gap.
 
What does this say about the state of professional Scottish rugby?

That they're not stupid?

If you're going to sign a mid-level pro from overseas to bolster a club, you might as well keep open the prospect of international recognition as well.
 
After some of these other posts, I came to realise that SA rugby should give themselves a pat on the back. Australia, England and Scotland are now POACHING (yes, I know some of you hate that word) our guys...
 
Replace England with Ireland there...
We don't poach anyone. If they come here, qualify, and are deemed good enough then we use them - there's no project players/identifying foreign talent abroad or anything in our system.
 
From what I've heard, there will only be two categories for players, Welsh qualified and non-Welsh qualified.
No 'project' or 'developmental' players.

Furthermore, they will expect an average of 19 Welsh qualified players in the matchday squads, up from 17.
This is from 2013/14 season.
 
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lol yet another reason why rugby is going to remain a closed shop for some time yet... this whole system is stupid and needs to be revised.
 
After some of these other posts, I came to realise that SA rugby should give themselves a pat on the back.
Spare a thought for Zimbabwe, exporters of Tendai Mtawawira, Brian Mujati, David Pocock, Takudzwa Ngwenya, Tonderai Chavanga and David Denton along with many more in the past. Now I know Zimbabwe is a basket case with it's own issues but plug those six players into their team and they'd be pushing for a spot in the top 10 or 12 rugby nations in the world.
 
Well it's not like SA, USA or Aus took those players in on a 'project/development' basis and you can't blame anyone for wanting to f-off out of Zim.

But, yeah, if they could get their politics sorted and hold on to a few players they could push. One thing about Zim rugby though is that many players are Bok fans and dream of representing the Springboks. Might be tough to deal with that and get a foot in the door so to speak even if you manage to sort out the socio/political troubles.
 
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I definitely wouldn't begrudge anyone getting the hell out of Zimbabwe especially David Pocock after what his family went through. Going off on a tangent, would things change if the regime was overthrown though?

To play top class international rugby, Zimbabweans would have to represent bigger rugby playing nations. It's a vicious circle whereby Zimbabwe won't play the top teams because their results aren't good enough but their results won't improve unless their top players remain representing their country. Irish cricket has the same problem. They'll never be competitive against the top cricketing nations unless they can hold onto the likes of Ed Joyce, Eoin Morgan and George Dockrell.

"Poaching" of lower tier players (like Tim Visser) by tier 1 nations will continue until the IRB are serious about growing the game in "lesser" countries and giving them more international exposure. It's hard to argue that even tier 2 countries are being ****** on by those running the game so what chance have those below that level got of raising standards? Hopefully Olympic exposure will help grow the sport in more countries.
 
I definitely wouldn't begrudge anyone getting the hell out of Zimbabwe especially David Pocock after what his family went through. Going off on a tangent, would things change if the regime was overthrown though?

To play top class international rugby, Zimbabweans would have to represent bigger rugby playing nations. It's a vicious circle whereby Zimbabwe won't play the top teams because their results aren't good enough but their results won't improve unless their top players remain representing their country. Irish cricket has the same problem. They'll never be competitive against the top cricketing nations unless they can hold onto the likes of Ed Joyce, Eoin Morgan and George Dockrell.

"Poaching" of lower tier players (like Tim Visser) by tier 1 nations will continue until the IRB are serious about growing the game in "lesser" countries and giving them more international exposure. It's hard to argue that even tier 2 countries are being ****** on by those running the game so what chance have those below that level got of raising standards? Hopefully Olympic exposure will help grow the sport in more countries.

Like you said; it's a vicious circle. Zim has a few good rugby schools. If they could get their **** together I'd say the route forwards would be for two 'provincial' level teams to join Vodacom cup rugby in SA. It's a good platform for the level they would be at; they shouldn't get mauled and it'll be enough of a step up to allow Zim to keep some decent players (if they had the money; possibly with some help from the IRB and the SARU) and grow as a rugby playing nation.
 
Like you said; it's a vicious circle. Zim has a few good rugby schools. If they could get their **** together I'd say the route forwards would be for two 'provincial' level teams to join Vodacom cup rugby in SA. It's a good platform for the level they would be at; they shouldn't get mauled and it'll be enough of a step up to allow Zim to keep some decent players (if they had the money; possibly with some help from the IRB and the SARU) and grow as a rugby playing nation.

But also bear in mind that many moons ago when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia and part of the South African Union many South African families were sent there to help develop the country only to have it get stolen and destroyed with their kids born and raised and then when Rhodesia became an independant state, those guys became Zimbabweans, and only their parents were allowed to come back to SA as South Africans. I live in Limpopo Province which is the Northern province and border between SA and Zimbabwe and we get many Zimbabweans coming back to SA. Our high schools who have hostels has even been given special permission to accomodate the kids from Zim
 
WP Nel is Scottish qualified already through a grandparent

It is understood that he is Scottish qualified by way of a grandfather

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...ign-South-African-prop-Willem-Petrus-Nel.html
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/rugby/south-african-nel-to-join-edinburgh.16770718

Greig Tonks and Tim Swinson are also already Scottish qualified

so it would seem that any player with Scottish heritage is welcome there,

to be fair, Scotland have little player resources and with Andy Robinson's job on the line, I don't blame him looking around the globe for any talent he can have,

BTW, Scotland U20's just got totally hammered by the Aussies
 

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