Rugby World Cup - british,scottish, irish and welsh nationalities?

Question

For playing in a national team one precondition is that the player has a passport of the country he is playing for. There exist a british passport but not a welsh, irish, scottish or english one. So why there is not one british team and how it is defined that a player is scottish (or welsh, irish or english) and is allowed to play in the scottish national team? Which condition he has to fulfil?

Answer 1

Don't be so ignorant.

Ireland is a totally separate country from Britain. We have our own passports, government, currency....read some history books.

Also Britain is not a country, it is a union of 4 countries:  Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. One passport, 4 separate countries.

What a stupid question.

Answer 2

The IRB (rugby) and FIFA (football) allow the four nations to play independently because of their history and continuing identity as separate entities.

However, the Olympics have different rules. Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh national players don't play for the UK teams in Olympic football because that would undermine their home nation's independence.

The Irish national rugby team is unified, both the Republic and Northern Ireland.

I suppose it's confusing, but keeping the national teams really matters to us.

Answer 3

for your reference there is an Irish Passport, I have one and so does every other Irish citizen, It's based on where you are born, if you are a foreign national you can also represent a country if your family tree comes from that nation.

Answer 4

Ireland has a cross-border team and the Republic of Ireland has it's own passport.  Players from Northern Ireland have a passport with place of birth on it that states which nation of the UK they have come from.

Diva - Passports have on it the European Union, but they also have the symbol of the Irish harp on them, similar to the Royal seal or whatever the UK has.  

The passport show a person nationality and in the Irish person and presumably with the UK passport it has a request from the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the bearer of this passport is an Irish citizen and should be allowed into your country, or something to that effect.

Answer 5

All those proud Irish passport holders might be interested to know that when your current passport expires you will be issued with a European passport - not an Irish one - part of the conditions of entry to the EU!  not sure if anything has changed - it used to be that if a grandparent came from somewhere else you could play for that country or part of the union - quite a few English-born players went to Ireland that way.

Answer 6

As the UK is in fact a 'united kingdom' of several nations you can play for the UK / GB team when the UK fields only one team (as in olympics) if you are a national of the UK; or - when the UK fields several teams e.g. RWC - the player can play for the country of their birth, or under the 'grandparent rule' they can play for another e.g. an Aussie with a scottish grandparent can play for scotland and vice versa.  The UK passport states the nations within it for your info, it is also printed in english, gaelic and cymraeg.  so there you go - a united kingdom of several nations - not hard to work out!

Answer 7

There is a british team, well british and irish - the lions.

Answer 8

The same condition as everywhere else, you can play for the country your parents or grand parents were born in. The place of birth is on their birth certificate.