Would the All Blacks struggle without the Pacific Island players?

Question

Does anyone else think that, if the Pacific Island players were removed from the All Blacks, they would find it very hard to survive in the World Cup. It is supposed to be nation against nation but I'm afraid there are very few true New Zealanders in the squad.

Answer 1

why single out the ab's. even japan has 4 kiwis in their team.

Answer 2

The All Blacks would not struggle if only twelve players turned up to play for them on the day.

Answer 3

Hawkeye, hats off to you son.............well said

Answer 4

Out of the 22players in the AllBlacks,12 are from pacific Island decent and 5 are in the starting 15.Im NZ born Samoan and this topic always comes up.To me NZ is an Island in the pacific,and people born here are really pacific Islander white or brown,Ive represented Samoa in touch rugby and Auckland in 4th and 5th grade level.

This team is not classed as a mixed team but classed as New Zealanders,the best rugby players available in the country so doesnt matter if you are white,brown yellow or red ,they choose the Country they were brought up in.We are all kiwis Theres no division or hard out racisim in NZ we will say gidday to any one and hv a beer with you.TED AND THE ALLBLACKS

Answer 5

I agree with many of the above, the answer is no. Look at the players that are not in the All Blacks currently but could step up if needed, Loose forwrds like Marty Holah, Liam Messam and Steven Bates (Had to mention them after the Shield, sorry), other players around the country as well.

At the end of the day, a True New Zealander is in fact a person who feels they belong here and call NZ home. If we want to go into technicallities about immigrants etc etc then every single one in the country is not a true NZer as everyone was a immigrant at some point.

I presume by 'True New Zealander', you are refering to Maori or European Origin players?

Answer 6

NZ would not be as good without those players they take the best players from many other nations and pass them off as their own

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

Sure right whatever you say.  There is still enough home grown talent from Canterbury, Otago, Auckland, Wellington and the Waikato to fill the already sweltering talent pool.  No problem.  But what I would like to know is, what is deemed as home grown talent.  If a Pacific Island young man is brought up in New Zealand spent all his life there and is a New Zealand citizen should he be given the right to play for that country.  Just a thought.  

When other countries quibble about eligibility they should take a closer look at there own teams before assuming the so called moral high ground.

Answer 9

Are you serious?  Very few TRUE New Zealanders?  What is a TRUE New Zealander in your opinion?  It seems like the foreign view is that all the Pacific Island players are born and raised on the Islands and then, if they display some talent, New Zealand ships them off to the main land and brands them as Kiwi's.

Most of the Pacific Island players that make the All Blacks are born and raised in New Zealand.  Doesn't that make them TRUE New Zealanders or do you have to trace your heritage back three, four, five generations?  The ones that weren't born in NZ almost definately have immediate family ties to NZ.

As I said in another thread, we have more Fijians, Tongans and Samoans in New Zealand than there are in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.  Just because their family heritage originates in the Islands, doesn't make them less of a New Zealander.

Racial diversity is one of the best things about NZ and it's one of the things that makes us what we are but if you can only represent the country of your family's ancestry, we should take most of the American basketball and track & field team and send them back to Africa... Half Canada's Hockey team can go back to France... half of ALL Australia's teams would have to go back to prison (hahahah couldn't resist that one... but you get my point)

It's also in Maori heritage that we came from the Pacific Islands, so should Maori be taken out of the All Blacks as well?  We are just a uniquely diverse country and that comes with a bunch of problems, but it has some benefits as well, but overall it is our general Kiwi nature that makes the All Blacks the team they are.

Just for arguments sake, lets see what kind of a team NZ could put on the field with their current 30 man squad, without players born outside NZ.

Tony Woodcock, Anton Oliver, Carl Hayman, Ali Williams, Chris Jack, Keven Mealamu, Richie McCaw, Reuben Thorne, Byron Kelleher, Dan Carter, Nick Evans, Aaron Mauger, Conrad Smith, Doug Howlett, Leon MacDonald.

Yes we'd have to play Keven Mealamu or Andrew h**e or Neemia Tialata or Greg Somerville in the loose forwards but I hardly think that lineup would "struggle" against any team in the World Cup, in fact, that lineup would still be favourites... or cant we use Mealamu and Tialata either because their names don't sound right?

Actually I think a majority of the teams in the World Cup would GLADLY take the likes of Keven Mealamu over their own options in the loose... and Luke McAlister, who would start for most nations, is still sitting on the bench.

Answer 10

THERE CALLED  THE MAORI

NATIVE NEW ZEALAND PEOPLE

Answer 11

No..... the A.BS have a magnitude of up and coming players all the time.  To answer your second question. The pacific islanders are either kiwi born or the parent is of kiwi decent. And to say there are very few New Zealanders  playing for the A.BS I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

Is there any true welsh, English, Irish or Aussie playing for their nations,  are you really prepared to read into their history." i think not."

Answer 12

Same as above, What is a "True New Zealander".

Answer 13

Dont think the all blacks will ever struggle, their player base is huge and their skill level is phenominal, even without the likes of siviatu & rokocoko there will always be someone else, NZ could field two seperate teams and still be hot favourites for the world cup

Answer 14

Good question, bound to get a few bites, and a few naive, ignorant responses.

Fact is the players with duel nationality choose which country to play for.

No one forces anyone to play for the ABs !

And that whole "true New Zealander" thing is so 1940s - it's just not funny. More than seven kiwis died on the battlefeilds of France, Africa and Europe to stamp all that nonsense out and keep our Pacific paradise free of ethnic predjudice - we're a brown nation and bloody proud of it - next time you see the ABs play open your eyes and take a look at what your eyes can't see. Listen to the national anthem, count the languages its sung in - Watch Haymen lead the haka and ask yourself why he's leading it.

The real question you should be asking is why can't NZ have more than one team in the comp?  NZ Maori and the Junior ABs would at least make the comp worth watching.

Answer 15

I can't improve on Hawkeye's answer.  I don't understand people who say that immigrants (and their children) aren't legitimate representatives of their new country.  As I said in another answer to this sort of question, my grandfather left Italy as a young child.  He grew up in the United States, was educated here, married an American woman, fought a war for this country, and had four American children.  And I'd like to see you try to tell him that he wasn't a "true" American.  Same thing here.

You might even more legitimately ask if it's fair that countries like Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga get so many New Zealanders in their teams.  They're the ones who are selecting players born abroad, reared abroad, and who have been trained in rugby abroad.