Does The All Blacks steal Pacific Islands talent?

Question

I have heard this from some people. And i have heard that players from Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga choose whether to play for their home nations or the All Blacks.

Is this true and are there any examples?

Answer 1

To understand this question you really have to look at the agenda of the people who continually raise it. These people are English, Australian and South Africa media. These countries are traditionally New Zealands biggest rivals, and in most cases have significantly more people playing rugby and much more money, yet are often beaten by NZ. They are seeking to sell newspapers by telling the public what they want to hear, 'that some of the All Blacks aren't from NZ and are therefore somehow cheating'. It is the same with many critisisms of the AB's in recent years. The people bringing up this question have little or no knowledge of NZ, the pacific islands and the relationship between the nations.

The pacific islanders playing for the All Black's are playing for one simple reason, they are New Zealanders. Pacific islanders make up 8% of New Zealand's population and are important contributers to our collective identity, communities and families. To say that they should not be able to play for their country because they are more recent immigrants than others is quite simply ignorant.

Answer 2

I don't think the ABs steal the Pacific talent as you call it. These players from all the little islands spread around are better off playing for ABs if they're good enough that is. It's just better prospects.

Anyway, if they don't come over and play for ABs, they don't get the exposure and we will never know how good they were.

Answer 3

yes

Answer 4

This does get debated a fair bit.  As far as I'm aware any player from the islands can play at home or in nz, but not necessarily for the All Blacks right off the bat.  Majority that I can think of all actually have played for nz at a national level first be it in Super 12/14 or NPC/ANZC prior to being snapped up for All Blacks selection.  Not 100% on that though, just an observation over the years.

I think the one thing that needs to be pointed out is that The All Blacks do not "steal" Pacific Island talent, because New Zealand is pretty much a Pacific Island country in its own right.  Not to mention that most of the islanders in the ABs are NZ born, raised, schooled, emigrated etc.  Also in most cases there are more Pacific Islanders in New Zealand than in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands, Niue etc.

Heck I'm Cook Island, Samoan, Maori, Irish, German & Chinese - but a Kiwi through and through.

Oh - so my answer is no.

:-)

Answer 5

Short answer - No. To expand slightly, there are lots of people born in NZ of different heritage, (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga etc) which may make them eligible to play for either country. Yes, some will choose to play for the AB's and some others might choose to play for their country of ancestry.

Bottom line - they have to be good enough to be there in the first place and if they ARE, they deserve the right to choose who they want to play for IMHO.

Answer 6

Answer is No .. The AllBlacks do not steal players from the Pacific Islands or any other country ..

What do you think the NZ Rugby does .. Sneak over to all the Pacific Islands and nab likely Players from Back Yards ?

If you believe the rubbish put about by so called know alls with little understanding of the real facts relating to this old chestnut of a question , then you would still think that Noddy was a real person  and that Goldilocks was real as well ..

Answer 7

Simple answer NO . New Zealand has the highest proportion of pacific islanders living here in the world .(higher than the islands themselves) .As far as I am aware , only one current All Black was not born here in N.Z and that is Sitiveni Sivivatu.

However , he is a New Zealand citizen and was raised here.He was given the option of playing for Fiji but wanted to be an All Black.

Many other countries have players that were  not born but now live in those countries including many New Zealanders who have played for Wales,Japan,Scotland,Australia and England.It really is no big deal.

If the All Blacks were not so dominant  this would not be an issue.

Go the A.b's .Kia Kaha

Answer 8

They choose to play for NZ, no one is forced.

I am getting annoyed at people who keep on saying the All Blacks keep poaching players from the islands. The Island players live here, they have their lives here and they obviously consider themselves New Zealanders and choose by themselves to play for NZ. Here, It doesn't matter what your colour, your ethnicity or where you are born. As far as we are concerned if a player is happy to play for NZ and represent us with pride, the whole country will support them because they are kiwis as well. It does not changes wether a player is White, Black, Brown, Red, or Yellow.

And also, if you look at other teams around the world, you won't find one team without people who have moved to that country in some stage of their lives. Australia, Japan, USA, Italy, Wales, France, Scotland, Canada, England and South Africa are just a handful of examples with players past and present who have guys playing for them who are not born in that country.