So there we were in the bowels of Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night. The post-game media mixed zone is not always the natural home of relaxed, honest repartee, but Sione Tuipulotu is a friendly guy and the British & Irish Lions had just won their opening tour game in Australia. It was a chance for a couple of ritual inquiries and a spot of gentle breeze-shooting.<\/p>\n
Aside from anything else, it was good to see Tuipulotu smiling. He had missed the entire Six Nations through injury, initially putting his tour participation in doubt. It must have been a particularly tough period given he was Scotland\u2019s captain back in the autumn and also grew up in Melbourne. To say he fancied going on this trip would be an understatement.<\/p>\n
His backstory is also a multifaceted sign of the times. The MacLeods and the Mackenzies have their famous clan tartans; the Tuipulotus not so much. His grandmother hails from Greenock but moved to Australia as a young girl. His father is from Tonga. The family genes, consequently, are more exotic than some and the concept of nationality correspondingly more blurred. Which, on this trip, puts him in the crosshairs of those who insist borders should be hard and fast and national flags nontransferable.<\/p>\n
Maybe the Western Force stadium announcer thought he was being hilarious as he rattled off the Lions team: \u201cThe Aussie at No 14, Mack Hansen. Another Aussie at No 12, Sione Tuipulotu. The Kiwi now Irishman, James Lowe.\u201d Either way, more fuel was instantly poured on one of sport\u2019s more incendiary debates.<\/p>\n
Tuipulotu didn\u2019t hear it \u2013 or claimed he didn\u2019t \u2013 but you could sense the 28-year-old\u2019s heart sinking when the subject inevitably came up<\/a>. \u201cI knew there would be some \u2018good humour\u2019 coming back home to Australia,\u201d he replied, more than a touch wearily. \u201cThese are all things we\u2019ve got to take in our stride. Look, I am from Australia. I was born here. I don\u2019t know how funny that gag is to everybody but I\u2019m loving playing for the Lions.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, he wasn\u2019t too impressed. Understandably so. Imagine if the same announcer pulls a similar stunt before England\u2019s cricketers play the opening Test of the Ashes series in the very same stadium this November. \u201cWest Indian Englishmen Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethell, Pakistani Englishman Shoaib Bashir \u2026\u201d Harmless banter or something more insidious when all that should matter is the three lions on their caps?<\/p>\n The Lions prop Pierre Schoeman has already had to deal with such inquiries, as did Lowe on Saturday evening. Lowe qualified for Ireland via residency and played against the Lions for New Zealand M\u0101ori in 2017, but he and his wife are now Irish citizens and he insists representing the Lions \u201cwill make me proud until the end of my days\u201d.<\/p>\n It may also be worth mentioning, for balance, that the current Wallaby squad are a similarly cosmopolitan bunch. The Fijian-born Filipo Daugunu qualifies via residency, while the winger Harry Potter was born in England. Tom Lynagh was born in Italy, for whom his brother Louis now plays, and raised in England. Taniela Tupou is known as the \u201cTongan Thor\u201d while Hunter Paisami represented Samoa at under-20s level. Noah Lolesio and Will Skelton were also born in New Zealand.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s head coach, Joe Schmidt, meanwhile, is a Kiwi revered for his work in Ireland. Yet even Schmidt has had to row back publicly from a \u201csloppy\u201d comment in which he pointedly referred to \u201cthe southern-hemisphere centre partnership\u201d of Tuipolotu and Bundee Aki. Schmidt says he regretted the remark and that it was not meant as a slight.<\/p>\n Joe Schmidt was forced to backtrack on a comment. Photograph: Steven Markham\/AAP<\/p>\n Too late, sadly, to douse the jingoistic flames. And if allowed to rage unchecked, where will it all end? A Ryder Cup team \u2013 Brexit means Brexit \u2013 containing nobody from beyond the white cliffs of Dover? A ban on the naturalised Canadian Greg Rusedski showing up at Wimbledon? A retrospective trawl through the Lions record books to insert asterisks beside Ronan O\u2019Gara (born in the USA) or Paul Ackford (born in Germany)? Life is not always about staying in your notional lane or adhering to other people\u2019s old\u2011school beliefs surrounding nationalism.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Nor, furthermore, has a single one of rugby\u2019s regulations been broken. Yes, it would help if stricter rules applied around \u201cproject players\u201d and the poaching of youthful southern hemisphere talent. Nor should it be possible, as it theoretically would be, for someone such as Jack Willis \u2013 the England international currently based in France \u2013 to switch allegiance to Ireland at the end of next year on the strength of a grandparent from Ulster. But where in the Lions tour agreement does it say that a strong Irish, Welsh, Scottish or English accent is a prerequisite to be a fully fledged tour member? Equally ludicrous is the idea being peddled in some quarters that if, say, Tuipulotu, Hansen and Lowe were to combine to score a series-clinching try against the Wallabies it would somehow cheapen the Lions ethos. Good luck with flogging that theory to Tuipulotu\u2019s proud granny Jacqueline, or, indeed, Andy Farrell.<\/p>\n Because once they pull on a red jersey with a Lions badge on their chest, there should be no doubting any player\u2019s commitment. The eligibility rules are what they are and, until they change, the current whinging is both disrespectful and irrelevant. Those who disagree are entitled to their opinion. But if people think certain members of the Lions squad now in Australia are devaluing the exercise they are very much barking up the wrong gum tree.<\/p>\n