Over the past few months, international eligibility has become a hot topic due to a number of big-name players boasting dual eligibility.<\/p>\n
AJ Brimson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Billy Smith<\/a> have pledged their allegiance to England.<\/a> Payne Haas<\/a> has confirmed that he will be swapping the Australia<\/a>\u00a0jersey for the\u00a0Samoa<\/a>\u00a0jumper ahead of the\u00a02025 Pacific Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Australia<\/a> and Samoa<\/a> await a decision from Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a> and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a> on who they will be representing, Valentine Holmes<\/a> has confirmed that he was also considering playing for another nation other than Australia<\/a> before going down a season-ending shoulder injury.<\/p>\n A member of Australia<\/a>‘s World Cup squad in 2017 and 2021, Holmes has revealed that he was considering playing for the Cook Islands<\/a> at the end of the year to represent his mother’s heritage.<\/p>\n “I was considering playing this year if this [shoulder injury] didn’t happen. The Pacific nations,” Holmes said on The Unscripted Show.<\/a><\/p>\n “You know, David and\u00a0Andrew Fifita,<\/a>\u00a0a few years ago, 2017 or 2018, how they decided they were going to play for\u00a0Tonga<\/a> and give back to the heritage for their family.<\/p>\n “I wanted to hopefully try and do that and let young players know there’s a pathway also to play for the Cook Islands<\/a> and your home heritage, and I know my mum would definitely be proud and excited.”<\/p>\n Coming to the back end of his career, the move would have seen him add a wealth of experience and skill to the Kuki’s roster.<\/p>\n Other players who are eligible to represent the Cook Islands<\/a> include Brendan Piakura<\/a>, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad<\/a>, Davvy Moale<\/a>, Francis and Michael Molo<\/a>, Marata Niukore<\/a>, Jordan Rapana<\/a>, KL Iro<\/a>, Mason Teague<\/a>, Reuben Porter<\/a> and Xavier Willison<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zero Tackle\u00a0understands that Dolphins<\/a> halfback Isaiya Katoa<\/a> is also eligible to represent the Cook Islands<\/a> along with Australia<\/a>, Tonga<\/a> and the New Zealand<\/a> Kiwis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past few months, international eligibility has become a hot topic due to a number of big-name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-77920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77920","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=77920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}