: Thu May 21, 2009 9:01 pm  

Not irrelevant, which is why the top 12 assisters are all in the halves. Just another measure.

: Tue May 26, 2009 1:28 pm  

Wasn't Heckenberg on the Scottish train-on squad for the WC?
IIRC, how come he is still on the quota?

: Tue May 26, 2009 2:45 pm  

tim791 wrote:

Wasn't Heckenberg on the Scottish train-on squad for the WC?
IIRC, how come he is still on the quota?

Because he's "overseas trained". It is illegal to have quotas that discriminate against EU nationals or nationals of certain countries outside the EU i.e. those referred to as Kolpak players after the Kolpak ruling. Heckenberg, like Gafa, and like a tonne of other antipodeans hold joint nationality with an EU country (Heckenberg is a UK national, Gafa is a Maltese national).

However, a sneaky way to try and get around this is to base quotas on the development system players came through, so you can be “club trained”, “federation trained” (i.e. trained at a club with same national governing body) or you can be “overseas trained”. Although there are still some fiddles and fudges around this, or Martin Gleeson would be “overseas trained” along with the Henderson brothers despite all being born in Britain.