Rugby: Agustin Pichot sparks online debate after firing shot at Scottish rugby team

World Rugby vice-chairman Agustin Pichot has fired a subtle shot at the Scottish rugby team ahead of Argentina's clash against Scotland on Saturday.

The former Argentine international posted a list of statistics on Twitter ranking the top 11 rugby nations from highest to lowest based on the number of foreign-born players in the team.

The Scottish flag features at the top of the list with 46.3 per cent of the team made up of foreign-born players, while Argentina shares the bottom position alongside South Africa.

Jugadores No nacidos en sus paises/ Foreign-born players en Noviembre 🏉

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 46.3%

🇯🇵 37.1%

🇮🇹 29.7%

🇦🇺 29.4%

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 27.7%

☘ 26.1%

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 24.3%

🇫🇷 12.9%

🇳🇿 12.5%

🇿🇦 & 🇦🇷 0%

— Agustín Pichot (@AP9_) November 20, 2018

The post, which has been retweeted more than 400 times, sparked an online debate, with some Twitter users going as far to say the list was a form of racism.

"The list is absolute nonsense & you should be ashamed of yourself for propagating it, George North isn't really Welsh because he only moved there aged 2 despite having a Welsh mother, heaslip shouldn't be considered Irish because his dad was on duty with the UN peacekeepers?" one user wrote.

"When talking about multi-cultural societies, we generally don't consider people who moved to England as kids as foreign. That's how xenophobia and racism spreads," another said.

The list is absolute nonsense & you should be ashamed of yourself for propagating it, George North isn't really Welsh because he only moved there aged 2 despite having a Welsh mother, heaslip shouldn't be considered Irish because his dad was on duty with the UN peacekeepers?

— Propwinger (@propwinger) November 20, 2018

This tweet

💩100%
👍0%

— Dai Lama (@WelshDalaiLama) November 20, 2018

@BillBeaumont thoughts on this Bill? When talking about multi-cultural societies, we generally don’t consider people who moved to England as kids as foreign. That’s how xenophobia and racism spreads.

— Matthew Wilkinson (@1MattWilkinson) November 20, 2018

It's not the first time that Pichot, who retained top spot as Rugby World's most influential person earlier this year, has slammed the sport's international selection criteria.

Pichot claimed that the sport was "losing something" when New Zealand-born Brad Shields was selected to play for England after broadcaster Keith Quinn posted a photo of the 27-year-old flanker in his English jersey on Twitter with the question: "Is this a sad picture? I think so – what about you?"

"When you have players who haven't lived in the country that they represent, it's not great," Pichot said at the time.

"I think it is very important to keep the identity of our national teams. As a cultural thing, as an inspiration to new kids, I think having on your team players who have not lived [for long] in the country they are [representing] I think it's not right.

"When I see the national anthem and people not singing it, it confuses me a little bit."

New Zealand ranked ninth on the list which claimed 12.5 per cent of the current players in the All Blacks squad where born outside of New Zealand.