WHY DOUBLE STANDARDS - LET COSTIGAN PLAY
ST GEORGE Illawarra star Neville Costigan has had an appeal to play for Papua New Guinea in this year’s Four Nations rejected. Costigan knew he was most likely sacrificing his Kumuls jersey when he made himself available for Queensland this season but had enlisted the help of PNG coach Adrian Lam and the Rugby League Professionals Association in having an exception made for him. “I got an email from the RLPA saying they were going to stick to the rules,’’ Costigan told sportsnewsfirst.com.au. “So it looks like I can’t play.’’
The contradiction is that Fiji winger Aquila Uate is being permitted to play for the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII against PNG this month even though he is not eligible for Australia. Uate was named Dally M winger of the year. "I’d love to play for the Blues. It’s a great atmosphere and I’d love to get involved with it," he said at the ceremony. The ARL will attract considerable criticism if it allows Uate to play for Australia and NSW but blocks Costigan from representing PNG
Yet the ARL thinks that it can entice both Manly Winger Tony T-Rex Willaims and the Knights Akuila Uate who have both played for Tonga and Fiji respectively to change country's play for them.
Thats just setting double standards in my opinion.
There are so many quality backrowers available for Australia. If you are being so stringent the great game of Rugby League will never spread further than Queensland and New South Wales for another 100 years. Players like Hayne (Fiji), Costigan (PNG), Mason (Samoa), and the many pacific Islander's who make up the NZ Kiwi's must be encouraged to go and represent the islands. The time to be petty about such rules will come in the next 100 years when rugby league has grown and the strength of Kangaroos is undermined. These days international rugby league is a joke because a full strength NRL team can defeat any international team except Australia. Regardless of whether Neville plays or not you will still beat us in the four nations so let him play and make a spectacle of it!
I say that we should still name him for the Kumuls and see how the bloody Aussies react.
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