Super Saturday, the last weekend of the Six Nations rugby tournament saw an explosive match between Scotland and England as the finale to an exciting tournament. Transnationalism took to centre stage during the standout highlight of the match saw Australian-Scotsman Sam Johnstone power past the English centre pairing of Henry Slade and Samoan born Manu Tuilagi. A blistering turn of pace saw him beat the last defenders and score between the posts.
More than ever before, the transnational nature of Rugby is becoming apparent. The Vunipola brothers, whose farther played for Tonga, are proudly English having moved to England at a very young age. Billy the younger brother even attended Harrow, perhaps one of the most iconic British institutions. Similarly Tommy Allen who was part of the London Wasps academy now plays for Italy, now preferring to go by Tommaso. CJ Stander who has on multiple occasions captained Ireland
hails from a large landowning South African family.
This widespread movement of players across national borders belies the stringent national eligibility rules. To qualify to compete for a country, the player must have a direct blood link or have been in residence for five years. This will always be difficult to enforce however, especially in a sport which sees Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England compete as separate teams. Furthermore there has been a large degree of controversy over the recent movement of players. Brad Shields, who had played and lived in New Zealand was airdropped into the English team for the South African tour without having played a match for an English club. A similar situation occurred with Irelands recruitment of Bundellu Aki who when recruited by
Ireland faced large scale criticism given he was born in Auckland. However, despite his critics, he has rapidly become a cult figure following his total embrace of Irish culture.However transnationalism in rugby is not without is victims, its critics are not only dinosaurs who believe nationalism is strictly based on your place of birth. However what promotes more division is when especially in the Southern Hemisphere the enticement of players from poorer nations with the benefits that richer nations can offer. This so called player drain sees young talents leave Pacific island nations such as Samoa, Fiji and tonga at older ages, specifically poached by wealthy private secondary schools to travel to New Zealand and Australia. When I went to see Scotland vs Fiji this autumn, the vast majority of the Fijian team played in the British and French leagues. Islanders playing abroad is not in itself bad and can mean that players can afford to send their large salaries home to support their extended families and often helps to lift them above the poverty. However Ben Ryan, the Ex Rugby Sevens coach for Fiji has been very vocal in his criticisms of predatory clubs and agents who take advantage of financially illiterate islanders who are often left destitute, with subpar wages often being sliced even further following their agents often extortionate percentage has ben extracted. Therefore the players themselves are often the victims of transnationalism. This process is depicted in the harrowing French film Mercenaire. Ironically, the French national team suffers from transnationalism. With the French Top 14 league rammed with Pacific Islanders and old all blacks alongside the bureaucratic mess of the FRU the saturation of the league with foreign players has served to suppress and damage the ability to create home grown talent.
However poor management and predators aside, rugby’s increasing transnationalism is surely only a reflection and exaggeration of increasing global transnationalism. In an industry which has skill as its main capital and international competition as its most consumed product, it is unsurprising that migrant labour is very present. Despite the muddying of the water by nationalist sentiments, more often than not players frequently embrace multiple nationalities into their identity. Maro Itoje, born in London, speaks in a posh English accent and attended Harrow, regularly references his Nigerian heritage and visits his fathers country. He even studied African Studies at SOAS. It is doubtful whether anyone would question the 6’4, 130kg frame of Billy Vunipola on the sincerity of his British identity, however if he would tell you that both the Tonga and England are key to his identity. In an international sport which sees competition between nations as its pinnacle, transnationalism is not only inevitable, but enriches it. Not only this but, in the end despite its competitive nature, rugby does more to bring people together than divide them. Yet further still, it can be seen that transnationalism will always have its detractors, yet broadly it can be seen it brings people together rather than driving them apart, enriching peoples identities and experience rather than forcing them into national boxes even in a fundamentally competitive and nationalistic setting of rugby.