Foreign-Born Players at 2019 Rugby World Cup: Home Nations

Tuesday, 03 September 2019 at 15:42

bySteven Smith

The hot topic of foreign-born players returned yesterday when World Rugby vice president Agustin Pichot criticised Ireland's selection.

RUCK takes an in-depth look at the foreign-born players in each of the home nations squad, where they were born and how they are eligible.

SEE EVERY COUNTRIES TALLY BY CLICKING HERE:

Ireland - Four players

Joe Schmidt has selected three less foreign-born players for this year's tournament with none of the seven selected in 2015 making the cut, which included the liked of Jarryd Payne and Jamie Heaslip.

Jean Kleyn - South Africa
CJ Stander - South Africa
Joey Carbery - New Zealand
Bundee Aki - New Zealand

England - Six Players

The number of players from other countries has doubled since the 2015 showpiece, where the Vunipola brothers along with Brad Barritt were the only foreign-born selections.

Manu Tuilagi of England surges forward amid the presence of Tommaso Allan of Italy during the Guinness Six Nations Round Four match between England and Italy at Twickenham Stadium, Twickenham, London on the 9th March 2019. Photo: James Fearn/PPAUK.

Mako Vunipola - New Zealand
Sam Underhill - USA
Billy Vunipola - Australia
Willi Heinz - New Zealand
Manu Tuilagi - Samoa
Joe Cokanasiga - Fiji

Wales - Seven players

Wales is a Tier 1 nation packed with players born abroad. To suggest they are there on eligibility grounds, though, would be very misleading. Most of the foreign-born players in the squad grew up in Wales. It's also massively down from 2015, when they had 12 foreign-born players.

Tomas Francis - England
Jake Ball - England
Ross Moriarty - England
Aaron Shingler - England
Jonathan Davies - England
Hadleigh Parkes - New Zealand
Hallam Amos -England
George North - England

Scotland - 14 players

The players qualify based on a variety of criteria with some qualifying based on living in the country while others have parents or grandparents from Scotland. Up by two from the last World Cup.