{"id":254485,"date":"2025-11-01T02:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/254485\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T02:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:09:07","slug":"fewer-players-than-serbia-irl-boss-explains-why-samoa-and-tonga-cant-be-tier-one-rugby-league-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/254485\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer players than Serbia\u2014IRL boss explains why Samoa and Tonga can\u2019t be \u2018tier one\u2019 rugby league nations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of another big weekend of international rugby league, the game\u2019s eligibility rules are once again in the news.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with AAP\u00a0International Rugby League (IRL) boss Troy Grant has <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aapnews.aap.com.au\/news\/league-s-eligibility-rules-will-stay-after-pacific-rise\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ruled out any changes<\/a> to the current system with the 2026 World Cup less than a year away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy change something that is working?\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe responsibility we have as an organisation is to provide the best available eligible players to represent their nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/england-boss-swallows-pride-search-ashes-miracle-against-kangaroos-goodwill-has-expiry-date\/7d2fb74102033cac17738ce1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">England boss swallows pride in search of Ashes miracle against Kangaroos<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey can be eligible by birth, by heritage through the grandparent rule or by citizenship, they\u2019re the rules,\u201d Grant continued.<\/p>\n<p>Arguing the international game has never been in better shape, Grant strongly fended off suggestions that the rise of Samoa and Tonga should see them graded as \u2018tier one\u2019 nations alongside Australia, New Zealand and England\u2014a decision that could bring seismic selection ramifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tiering is not an on-field tiering performance, it\u2019s about off-field governance,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is all about the domestic capabilities of their leagues\u2014they are small countries, Tonga has a population smaller than Canberra, there is only so much capacity for them to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrl.sport\/uploads\/docs\/IRL_AnnualReport_2024.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IRL 2024 Annual Report<\/a>, Tonga had just 3,042 locally-registered rugby league players in 2024 while Samoa had only 592\u2014less than both Serbia and Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly Australia had overwhelmingly the largest talent pool to draw upon with 246,948 registered players, while England was second with 97,958 and New Zealand third with 35,101.<\/p>\n<p>Registered rugby league players in 2024<\/p>\n<p>Australia<\/p>\n<p>246,984<\/p>\n<p>England<\/p>\n<p>97,958<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand<\/p>\n<p>35,101<\/p>\n<p>Papua New Guinea<\/p>\n<p>11,893<\/p>\n<p>France<\/p>\n<p>9742<\/p>\n<p>Wales<\/p>\n<p>4334<\/p>\n<p>Tonga<\/p>\n<p>3042<\/p>\n<p>Serbia<\/p>\n<p>859<\/p>\n<p>Jamaica<\/p>\n<p>742<\/p>\n<p>Samoa<\/p>\n<p>592<\/p>\n<p>Cook Islands<\/p>\n<p>438<\/p>\n<p>Fiji<\/p>\n<p>Not supplied<\/p>\n<p>Source: IRB Annual Report 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of another big weekend of international rugby league, the game\u2019s eligibility rules are once again in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-254485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}