RWC Poaching reference thread

[Lizard]

Oof 51.6% is surely going to be the highest.

While 19.4% is higher than I’d like for England, I feel mostly pretty comfortable about the nature of the poaching minus Heinz. I think the other 5 can absolutely be credited to the English system.

Wait for Samoa. They are usually at least half NZ-born.

[Lizard]

Matsushima was qualified, I think, from birth for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Japan. I bet that’s a small club.

[Lizard]

And here it is...First Equal with Japan..

Samoa: 16 poached players (51.6% snatched away from deprived home unions)

13 New Zealanders (Paul Alo-Emile, Piula Fa'asalele, Kieron Fonotia, Jack Lam, Seialala Lam, Kane Leaupepe, Motu Matu'u, Tim Nanai-Williams, Raymond Niuia, Filo Paulo, Josh Tyrell, Chris Vui, Belgium Tuatagaloa)
3 Australians (Michael Ala'alatoa, Ulupano Seuteni, Senio Toleafoa

No sure about Dwayne Polataivao. He lived in Auckland as a young player but I'll assume Samoa born unless other info comes to hand

[Lizard]

Wales: 8 poached players (25.8% Jones-the-not-from-round-here)
7 Englishmen (Tomas Francis, Jake Ball, Ross Moriarty, Aaron Shingler, Jonathan Davies, Hallam Amos, George North)
1 New Zealander (Hadleigh Parkes)

[Lizard]

If anyone feels like googling the origins of the Russian and Uruguayan squads, I’d be grateful. Wikipedia is not much help.

[Lizard]

Turns out the Russian Rugby Federation has an excellent website.

Russia: 1 poached player (3.2% in Russia, your grandma qualifies through you)

1 Azerbaijani* (Igor Galinovsky)

*When Galinovsky was born, Azerbaijan was part of the USSR

[Lizard]

Uruguay: 0 players poached (0.0% Yours-aguayan)

At least according to this article https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2019/ ... up-roster/

[Mellsblue]

Yours-aguayan)

Very good.

[Lizard]

Ireland: 5 poached players (16.1% you say potato I say kumura)

2 New Zealanders (Bundee Aki, Joey Carbery)
2 South Africans (Jean Kleyn, CJ Stander)
1 Canadian (Luke McGrath)

[Lizard]

Namibia: 1 poached player (3.2% Nah-mibian)

1 South African (Des Sethie)

Info is incomplete on a couple of players

[Lizard]

Tonga has also been named, but I’ll post their poached tomorrow.

[Puja]

Tonga has also been named, but I’ll post their poached tomorrow.

You still thinking of their pun, huh?

Puja

[Lizard]

Tonga has also been named, but I’ll post their poached tomorrow.

You still thinking of their pun, huh?

Puja

No, I need to wait for some fanboy to put the squad on Wikipedia, linked to player pages!

[Lizard]

Georgia: 1 poached player (3.2% Georgia not on my mind)

1 Russian (Merab Sharikadze)

Any Georgian-born player born before 9 April 1991 was born in the USSR.

[Lizard]

France: 6 poached players (19.4% Faux Francais)

2 New Caledonians* (Peato Mauvaka, Sébastien Vahaamahina)
2 Fijians (Alivereti Raka, Virimi Vakatawa)
1 Algerian (Sofiane Guitoune)
1 South African (Bernard Le Roux)

*Here we have some ambiguity. Technically, New Caledonia is a "Special Collectivity" of France. New Caledonian rugby is administered by the Comité Régional de Rugby de Nouvelle Calédonie, which comes under the French Rugby Federation. New Caledonia does not have separate membership of the IRB (unlike Tahiti, an "Overseas Collectivity" of France) but it does belong separately and fully to Oceania Rugby (itself under the auspices of World Rugby) and as such has its own national team. I haven't researched this fully, but it seems that Regulation 8 applies to Unions that are members of associations such as Oceania Rugby so playing for New Caledonia would make a player ineligible for France, and vice versa, thus making the selection of NC-born players for France officially poaching.

[Lizard]

A new record...

Tonga: 17 poached players (54.8% migrated sea eagles

15 New Zealanders (Paul Ngauamo, Leva Fifita, Ben Tameifuna, Sam Lousi, Maama Vaipulu, Zane Kapeli, Daniel Faleafa, Nasi Manu, Leon Fukofuka, Kurt Morath, Siale Piutau, Telusa Veainu, Cooper Vuna, Viliami Lolohea, Nafi Tuitavake
2 Australians (Mali, Hingano, Steve Mafi)

Info incomplete on Siua Maile and James Faiva.

[Lizard]

So, to date, sources of poached players are:

43 from New Zealand
11 from England
9 from Australia and South Africa
8 from Tonga and Fiji
3 from Zimbabwe and Samoa
2 from New Caledonia
1 each from Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Canada, Germany, Korea, PNG, Russia, USA

Strange that there's no Welsh or Irish born in there.

[Lizard]

Scotland: 14 poached players (45.2% wearing something under their kilt)

5 Englishmen (Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Chris Harris, Duncan Taylor)
3 New Zealanders (Simon Berghan, Blade Thomson, Sean Maitland)
2 Australians (Ben Toolis, Sam Johnson)
2 South Africans (Allan Dell, WP Nel)
1 Hong Kongese (John Barclay)
1 American (Tommy Seymour)

[cashead]

Tonga has also been named, but I’ll post their poached tomorrow.

You still thinking of their pun, huh?

Puja

No, I need to wait for some fanboy to put the squad on Wikipedia, linked to player pages!

Be the change you want to see.

[Lizard]

Canada: 4 poached players (12.9% Can't-nadian)
2 Irishman (Shane O'Leary, Peter Nelson)
1 Hong Kongese (Gordon McRorie)
1 South African (D. T. H. van der Merwe)

I'm not convinced all the info I have is accurate here. The Canadian RU website has "home town" data that is not necessarily "birth place."

[Lizard]

Just waiting on the USA now. They've got a final warm-up this weekend v Canada and are required to name their 31 by Sunday.

[Lizard]

You still thinking of their pun, huh?

Puja

No, I need to wait for some fanboy to put the squad on Wikipedia, linked to player pages!

Be the change you want to see.

I have occasionally contributed to Wikipedia, but team lists need all sorts of tricky formatting and links and shit that I cannot be fucked with. Someone usually gets around to it soon enough.

[Lizard]

Last, and frankly not far off least...

United States of America:15 poached players (48.4% Snuck over the Wall)

4 Irishmen (Dylan Fawsitt, Paul Mullen, John Quill, AJ MacGinty)
3 South Africans (Hanco Germishuys, Shaun Davies, Ruben de Haas)
2 American Samoans* (Joe Taufeteʻe, David Ainuʻu)
2 Australians (James Hilterbrand, Greg Peterson )
2 Englishmwn (Will Magie, Will Hooley)
2 New Zealanders (Tony Lamborn, Paul Lasike)

*American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the USA. It's people are not automatically US citizens and it has an independent national rugby union that is a member of World Rugby, so this undoubtedly poaching.

[Lizard]

Scotland: 14 poached players (45.2% wearing something under their kilt)

5 Englishmen (Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Chris Harris, Duncan Taylor)
3 New Zealanders (Simon Berghan, Blade Thomson, Sean Maitland)
2 Australians (Ben Toolis, Sam Johnson)
2 South Africans (Allan Dell, WP Nel)
1 Hong Kongese (John Barclay)
1 American (Tommy Seymour)

Updating this - we now have some Irish (big in North America) but apparently Welshmen don't travel well:

New Zealand: 48
England: 18
South Africa: 15
Australia: 13
Fiji: 8
Tonga: 8
Ireland: 6
Samoa: 3
Zimbabwe: 3
American Samoa, New Caledonia, Hong Kong and United States: 2 each
Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Canada, Germany, Korea, Papua New Guinea and Russia: 1

Of RWC2019 participants, no players have been poached from France, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Namibia, Scotland, Uruguay or Wales.

On average, each team has a mean average of 6.9 foreign born players, with a median of 5.5.

[Stom]

Good work.

It would be interesting to see how many of those players were simply born elsewhere but whose parents were the nationality of their affiliation and they never really played for anyone else nor wanted to.