🏉 Two new stars eligible for Ireland duty!
Tyler Bleyendaal | Munster
The 27 year-old Munster fly-half and All-Black expat will become eligible for Ireland national team selection on the opening day of the 6 nations next year, where Ireland will play France.
Tyler previously played for club sides Canterbury and the Crusaders, scoring 237 points from 33 apps and 112 points from 20 apps respectively. He also had a stint in the All-Blacks U20 squad with 82 points coming from a measly 5 appearances.
The talented hotshot has shown his worth in Munster colours over the past couple of seasons, and has been selected for a recent Irish training camp by head coach Joe Schmidt. No doubting that Bleyendaal will come in handy, with my thoughts being that he would play the easier 6 Nations games against the likes of France and Italy, with the recent Lions fly-half Johnny Sexton playing in the more important games.
Bundee Aki | Connacht
Primarily playing at centre, the 27 year-old, also from New Zealand, has won both a Super Rugby title with the Waikato Cheifs and and PRO-12 title with Connacht.
The centre had previously been linked with the Ireland national team, and had been deciding whether or not this was the right choice for a while now. He will be available in November, when Ireland face South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.
My thoughts on the residency rule:
These two players are not the first to be included in the Ireland squad under Joe Schmidt with now key members of the Ireland team, CJ Stander and Jared Payne being eligible through the 3-year residency rule. The rule states that after being a resident of an Ireland province for more than 3 years, the player would be eligble for the Ireland national team selection.
The issue I have with this rule is that the less well-skilled All-Blacks players would never have contention in a NZ shirt, but say they decide to up-sticks and move to a PRO-14 Irish provincial team and after 3 years they would have contention for Ireland. I think it's a stain on international rugby, and skews the real quality of a country's rugby.
The rule is set to change in 2021, when it changes from 3 to 5 years.