COMMENT

"We'd love to see all the best players in the tournament," Rugby League International Federation and Australian Rugby League chairman and World Cup tournament director Colin Love said. "But you can't just break the rules, you can't turn it into a farce."

Love's remark was in response to the RLIF's decision on Friday to prevent Parramatta tank Fuifui Moimoi and Wests Tigers truck Taniela Tuiaki representing Tonga in the World Cup, on the grounds of eligibility, and it raised several eyebrows. Credibility? For international rugby league? Who'd have thought?

The Tonga National Rugby League told the Herald on Friday it would take the game's highest office to court over the decision. It wasn't budging yesterday, as tour manager and director William Edwards pow-wowed with lawyers. Expect them to seek an interim injunction in the next day or so.

For the credibility of this tournament, let's hope they are successful and two of the game's powerhouse players will be permitted to take the field.

Rules are indeed rules, but international rugby league does not have the luxury to be so pedantic that red tape consigns such drawcards to the stands.

The RLIF introduced rules last year requiring players eligible to play for more than one country to elect which country they wanted to represent. The rules allow players only one application to change their choice during a two-year period. They were Mickey Mouse guidelines effectively introduced to allow players like Eels star Jarryd Hayne to pull on a Fijian jumper for this showpiece tournament, in the case that he was overlooked to play for Australia. Turns out, he was: Hayne will play for the Fijians.

Alas, Moimoi and Tuiaki used their wildcard last year and played for the Kiwis on an unhappy tour of Europe. Their appeal to the RLIF board last week fell on deaf ears.

Surely, the RLIF should use its discretion and take into account Kiwi coach Steve Kearney's insistence that he doesn't require Moimoi and Tuiaki, and allow them to play. Surely, the RLIF can appreciate that Jim Dymock's side has already been rocked by the bizarre situation of Anthony Tupou training for Tonga in the morning then being called up that afternoon to replace the injured Michael Crocker in the Australian squad.

Surely, as long as players satisfy residential or grandparent rules that bind them to a particularly country, they can play wherever they want. Surely, common sense should prevail.

Instead, the tournament will be robbed of Moimoi playing for his place of birth, in his country's opening match, against Ireland, at his club home ground of Parramatta Stadium on October 27. Organisers might have cost themselves 5000 paying customers there.

This is an idiotic, inflexible rule. Emerging nations do not play enough games for a player of NRL standard to stay loyal. Apart from the World Cup qualifiers in 2006, they have played just a handful of full-blooded internationals since 2000.

Why would a player stay loyal to Tonga when rep bonuses are on offer should they pull on the Kiwi jumper? (It's a no-brainer who their agents would be telling them to play for). That's not to say minnows like Tonga are critical of the support the RLIF is providing to promote the sport in their country. In the past three years, league in Tonga has made significant in-roads into rugby union's domination - not least because ABC Asia-Pacific TV is allowed to pick up Channel Nine's broadcast of headline matches. And thanks to development officer Tas Baitieri, the national side played the Junior Kangaroos last year. Participation numbers have swelled.

"They've given us a lot of assistance," Edwards says. "Our only issue is this rule."

It is an issue that needs to be addressed.