Is Rugby Ireland’s New National Game ?
By: Conor Keenan
Tags: Ireland, Rugby, Politics, Identity, Sports

“ Becoming a citizen, I thought it helped gel the squad together “

This current Irish rugby squad has encouraged and provoked interesting conversations around national identity that normally do not occur compared with say for example, the Republic Soccer team. Joe Schmidt, Irish head coach for the past six years has in fact been in Ireland since 2010, first moving over to be Leinster Head Coach. But that was not Joe’s first taste of Ireland.

In 1990, Schmidt did the Kiwi equivalent of a gap year, doing an ‘OE’ Overseas Experience, where he ended up as coach in Wilson’s Hospital, a Church of Ireland Boarding School in Westmeath. The impact was immediate, with Wilson’s winning their first ever trophy for rugby, the ‘A’ section of the Senior Cup, that same year.

Joe Schmidt during his first Irish Coaching stint in Mullingar in the 90’s. *Pic / Westmeath Examiner

There was also a GAA related trivia-generating event, where Schmidt even managed to sneak in a game for Mullingar Shamrocks’ third side, after a year of curiously looking over the fence at this other 15 a side ball game.

In 2015, on the eve of the last Rugby World Cup, Schmidt took the unusual step of becoming an Irish citizen. A move he himself said “helped gel the team together”. It was a heartwarming pledge of allegiance to the country he has called home for almost ten years.

When it comes to the players, it is interesting to observe the public’s willingness to accept non-Irish players into a squad, and how that attitude may change from sport to sport. There are few questions asked when a Declan Rice or a Jack Grealish is asked to play football for the Irish Republic, as the public has been de-sensitised to this since the Jack Charlton heralded era of Cascarino, Townsend and Aldridge. There is no Granny rule in Rugby, but a qualification through residency recently reduced from 4 to 3 years by World Rugby. Players like Jean Kleyn, CJ Stander and in particular Bundee Aki have all received an extra level of scrutiny over their declaration, and their acceptance as Irish players have been at best mixed, at worst, vitriolic. The harsh words of former International Neil Francis were absolutist on this issue and seemed to cloak a sneaking sense of discrimination when his focus seemed to laser in on the player whose skin was darker than the others.

The reality is that the movement of people around the globe, and indeed our ideas of nationhood itself have evolved dramatically, and World Rugby to their credit have moved with the changing times. Particularly in this sport where there are only a handful of places around the globe that support a top level league. The three year qualification rule will move to five in 2020, time enough for another Kiwi James Lowe to qualify for the squad, who recently described it as ‘weird’ that he would be Irish eligible in such a short time.

It’s ironic that more questions are raised over eligibility to the Irish first fifteen in rugby, as at least on the surface, these men appear to have much more right to their new assumed nationality than those of other sports. The players are not only inhabiting a jersey, but actively participating in civic life through their employment with the provinces. It’s not hard to argue that Bundee Aki as a New Zealander of Tongan descent, living and working in Connemara, has done more to enrich the lives of his Galway neighbours than say, a Premier League soccer player who moves to England before he is 18, and never returns home. Have these players not earned the right to represent the place in which they have made their home, and indeed, feel they belong to ? It is certainly a million miles away from the apparent bidding process for the services of elite East African runners, many of whom who have switched flags for better conditions.

That’s not to mention the issue of Irish identity, that nettle that no-one ever seems to want to grasp.