What nationality of players now play top flight European Club Rugby?

Theres always talk of Wolrd Rugby expanding etc and i wondered about how non 6n countries were getting exposure to top flight rugby.

What players from European countries play top level or even 2nd division...in the three main leagues..ie the RABO, the French or the EPL

Not listing English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French or Italian players.

Several Georgian and Romanians in the French leagues.
1 Moldovan, 1 Cypriot and a Romanian in the RABO with the Welsh regions.
1 Spaniard in the french league
The Lund Brothers in the French Leagues (yes i know Magnus has played for England)
The odd Russian in the EPL

Any other nationalities you can think of playing top flight club rugby?

OSPREYS
Dmitri Arhip – Moldova

BLUES
Chris Dicomidis – Cyprus  

SCARLETS
Horatiu Pungea – Romania

Can’t think of anyone from the Dragons

There are quite a few Romanians in the top 14 and proD2 though they are being outnumbered by Georgians of late.

There is a Czech player player who comes to mind, Martin Jagr who always impressed me the few times i have seen him, played for Pontypool (!!), Toulon, Bordeaux and now Mont de Marsan.
Oyonnax have 2 Czech forwards in their squad too.

French club rugby is very cosmopolitan.

Yes there a few Romanians arent there Pete. And im sure a couple of Polish in France.

Its good to see Vince...only helps the growth of European ....and thus world rugby.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Its good to see Vince...only helps the growth of European ....and thus world rugby.

Yes it's definitely one positive from the French Top 14. Georgia would never have beaten Samoa recently without it and it's very welcome.

The 2nd row for Montpellier (Watchu?) is from Cameroon. There are a good few African players in the Top 14 and Pro D2 now.

Are they French qualified L4L or do they actually represent their African countries?

There were quite a few Ivorians playing in france when they made the WC if i remember rightly.

Tchale-Walou has Cameroon nationality. Julien Bardy (clermont) plays for Portugal.

[url=Grzegorz Kaca%C5%82a]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Kaca%C5%82a[/url]

Has to be the bext Polish player ever, remember him in the HEC against Leicester at the old National Stadium and playing for Cardiff RFC

http://www.barbarianfc.co.uk/archive/profile/2167/g-kacala/

Well there are quite a few Georgians and Romanians about, although most dual nationalities end up playing for the bigger country though don't they. A future unintended consequence of the focus on a certain % of players being home qualified will only increase this problem I think sadly.

Going the other way, I know a few people who have gone from county level in England to playing international rugby for some of the 'lesser' teams.

Thats the guy i remember.Wasnt he a monster back rower?Or am i thinking of another one?

Cant get into those links.

Bathman_in_London wrote:Well there are quite a few Georgians and Romanians about, although most dual nationalities end up playing for the bigger country though don't they. A future unintended consequence of the focus on a certain % of players being home qualified will only increase this problem I think sadly.

Going the other way, I know a few people who have gone from county level in England to playing international rugby for some of the 'lesser' teams.

You mean like Bermuda, Singapore etc?

I've got a mate who played Wotton Bassett 2nd team, but is very nearly in the Singapore 30 man training squad!

GeordieFalcon wrote:Thats the guy i remember.Wasnt he a monster back rower?Or am i thinking of another one?

Cant get into those links.

Try them 'raw' Geordie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Kaca%C5%82a

That would be great...arent singapore in divison 5 or something of the Asian 5n leagues.

PenfroPete wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:Thats the guy i remember.Wasnt he a monster back rower?Or am i thinking of another one?

Cant get into those links.

Try them 'raw' Geordie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Kaca%C5%82a

Yup thats the guy i was thinking about.

Bosnia - Kenan Mutapcic is a Bosnian prop playing for Grenoble.
Algeria - Salim Tebani plays for Oyonnax
Ivory Coast - Silvère Tian plays for Oyonnax
Cameroon - Robins Tchale-Watchou, Montpellier
Morocco - Abdellatif Boutaty, Biarritz
Uruguay - rigo Capo Ortega, Castres
Zimbabwe - Dave Ewers, Exeter, Mike Williams, Worchester
Germany - Rob Elloway, Cornish pirates formally Gloucester
Moldova - Vadim Cobîlaş, Sale, Dmitri Arhip, Ospreys
Hong Kong - Vaughan Going, Formerly with Saints
Japan - Takashi Kikutani, Saracens
Cyprus - Chris Dicomidis, Cardiff

There are too many Spanish, Russian, Georgian, Romanian, Fijian, Tongan, Namibian, Canadian, USA, Argentinian etc. players to bother listing them.

I didnt realise there was actually so many Guns....cheers for that.

No problem Geordie, you're welcome.

Widening away from Europe slightly.

There are a huge number of players of African heritage..particularly in France...but certainly in other countries aswell. Do you think they might start representing their African countries which could lead to them improving the standards and we will see another African Country (excluding SA and Namibia) making the Wc some time.

Id like to see the Baltic countries and maybe Belarus taking up the sport a bit more. Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Basketball is possibly too popular but there is already a bit of a grudge element amoungst these countries and they could probably make a decent 6 nations of their own.

GeordieFalcon wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:Well there are quite a few Georgians and Romanians about, although most dual nationalities end up playing for the bigger country though don't they. A future unintended consequence of the focus on a certain % of players being home qualified will only increase this problem I think sadly.

Going the other way, I know a few people who have gone from county level in England to playing international rugby for some of the 'lesser' teams.

You mean like Bermuda, Singapore etc?

Exactly, plus a couple of eastern Med. countries.

http://www.espn.co.uk/2015-rugby-world-cup/rugby/story/211251.html

Madagascar has to be a target for the IRB, it seems as if rugby is so popular there and Namibia are certainly there for the taking as the second best/WC qualifying African team. You'd think even just a player or two experiencing real pro rugby would be of benefit.

Couple of famous Namibians of course - Jacques Burger for Sarries and Tinus du Plessis for Wasps.

Nobody's mentioned North America yet (too vanilla?) but of course there are loads of guys over here:

USA - Lamositele, Smith and Wyles (Sarries), Manoa and Dolan (Saints), Niua and Isles (Glasgow), Suniula (Waps), Ngwenya (Biarritz) and Scully (Tigers).

Canada - Ardron, Hassler and Mack (Ospreys), Mackenzie (Sale), Sinclair (London Irish) and DTH van der Merwe at Glasgow.

Aviva Premiership Rugby 13/14 Nationalities
England 307
Wales 29
New Zealand 21
Scotland 17
Ireland 16
Samoa 14
Tonga 13
Argentina 12
Australia 10
South Africa 10
Fiji 6
United States 4
France 4
Russia 3
Italy 3
Canada 2
Namibia 1
Austria 1
Moldova 1
Zimbabwe 1

RaboDirect PRO12 13/14 Nationalities
Ireland 150
Wales 146
Italy 81
Scotland 63
South Africa 25
New Zealand 20
England 17
Fiji 7
Australia 5
Argentina 4
Tonga 4
Canada 3
Samoa 3
2
France 2
Georgia 1
Romania 1
Japan 1
United States 1
Other 1

Whats the other? Cyprus?

French Top 14 13/14 Nationalities
France 333
South Africa 53
New Zealand 36
Fiji 23
Australia 18
Argentina 17
Samoa 14
England 13
Georgia 13
Tonga 12
Wales 9
Scotland 7
Italy 5
Spain 4
Ireland 4
Romania 4
3
Portugal 2
Algeria 2
United States 2
Cameroon 1
Morocco 1
Namibia 1
Czech Republic 1
Norway 1
Uruguay 1
Iceland 1
Poland 1
Canada 1

Bathman_in_London wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:

Bathman_in_London wrote:Well there are quite a few Georgians and Romanians about, although most dual nationalities end up playing for the bigger country though don't they. A future unintended consequence of the focus on a certain % of players being home qualified will only increase this problem I think sadly.

Going the other way, I know a few people who have gone from county level in England to playing international rugby for some of the 'lesser' teams.

You mean like Bermuda, Singapore etc?

Exactly, plus a couple of eastern Med. countries.

http://www.espn.co.uk/2015-rugby-world-cup/rugby/story/211251.html

Madagascar has to be a target for the IRB, it seems as if rugby is so popular there and Namibia are certainly there for the taking as the second best/WC qualifying African team. You'd think even just a player or two experiencing real pro rugby would be of benefit.

Mate, ive just done a route to the World cup 2015 on the international side..and they're mentioned! Play the game like the Fijians! Add in teams like Kenya, Morocco etc and i think Namibias standing as Africas "second team" behind SA will be under serious threat.

Details from stabunker. No idea what Other is - plus some players seem to have no nationality.

Oh and this covers every player to have appeared in a matchday squad in the respective leage this season.

GunsGerms wrote:Id like to see the Baltic countries and maybe Belarus taking up the sport a bit more. Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Basketball is possibly too popular but there is already a bit of a grudge element amoungst these countries and they could probably make a decent 6 nations of their own.

Guns,

Alot of these countries have weight lifting as their national sports. Get a few of those in the rugby teams and they'll be a physical battle.

GunsGerms wrote:Whats the other? Cyprus?

It's a Rabo player, so presumably refers to Niko Matawalu being from A World Of His Own. Or Ed Kalman being from Plymouth, which when I went for a stag night, was certainly a unique part of the world.

Yes they tend to feature in strongman competitions too. I follow Lithuanian basketball and have been to the siemens arena in Vilnius and I can tell you some of the Lithuanian basketball players are incredible athletes.

GunsGerms wrote:Whats the other? Cyprus?

Chris Dicomidis at the Blues? Welsh born and bred but decided to play for Cyprus, does that count as his nationality in Rugby terms?

There's a bloke from the Cook Islands I think

That is quite heavy looking at SA and New Zealand, considering a squad of 32 players for Super Rugby, SA can almost fill three teams, New Zealand two teams with players to spare and Australia a full Super Rugby team.

I think its interesting to see that for all England have a large population of African and Asian heritage theres no countries represented.

Asians i can understand maybe Cricket etc is more popular in their societies.., but i know alot of lads of African nationalites who play rugby.

ChequeredJersey wrote:There's a bloke from the Cook Islands I think

Stan Wright, Stade Francais. Formerlly leinster.

My school rugby team first-third teams, in my final year, contained as well as mostly English people or English pseudo-scots/Welsh/Irish, a couple of Hong Kong Chinese, a Russian, a person from Gambia, a half-Columbian (who was British though), a Nigerian, and the year before a Bahamian. My med school club has an Iranian-Pole, several 3rd/2nd generation Indians, some Hong Kong Chinese and a few others so there is definitely diversity out there, just I don't think rugby as a career is seen as an option for lots of people

Jocelino Suta is from an Island called Wallis and Futuna.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Jocelino Suta is from an Island called Wallis and Futuna.

He is French now though.

Well he was hardly going to play rugby for the nation that he was born in!

LondonTiger wrote:Aviva Premiership Rugby 13/14 Nationalities
England 307
Wales 29
New Zealand 21
Scotland 17
Ireland 16
Samoa 14
Tonga 13
Argentina 12
Australia 10
South Africa 10
Fiji 6
United States 4
France 4
Russia 3
Italy 3
Canada 2
Namibia 1
Austria 1
Moldova 1
Zimbabwe 1

LT,

Whos the Austrian?

GunsGerms wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Jocelino Suta is from an Island called Wallis and Futuna.

He is French now though.

Wallis and futuna is French!

I see Sarries back rower Justin Melck has been selected for the Germany squad for the upcoming WC qualifiers.

Interesting that across the 3 leagues there is c.1 Asian player. And they get a RWC.

So the Pro12 has 440 home players, England has 307 home players spread across a similar number of teams while the french have333 home players though they have 2 more squads than the other leagues.

LT, great stats by the way.

Japan has its own profesional league so they won't want to send there best players abroad. There are 3 Japanese players in Super rugby though.

I think its great that Japan are hosting the WC...hopefully it will create additional interest in the surrounding neighbours and countries.

There is already an Asian 5 nations and leagues like the European 6n and Euro nations.
Japan is the undisputed king of that region...and it would nice if Korea , China or someone could put up a consistant challenge

Bloke from HK used to play for the Dragons..forget his name