Rugby: Tasman Taffs create Welsh flush

By WYNNE GRAY

Who really thought there would be any other finding? The Tasman Taffs are not Welsh - the International Rugby Board has ruled that Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson must complete three years' residency before playing again for Wales.

Two days of discussion in Dublin before an IRB judicial panel comprising South African lawyer Jannie Lubbe and former Lions John Spencer and Ronnie Dawson left Wales severely embarrassed and having to pay the costs of the Grannygate hearing.

While Howarth and Sinkinson were convinced they had Welsh-born grandparents, neither New Zealander could produce documents to support their beliefs.

However, Howarth, a former All Black fullback, was undeterred before the committee hearing. "Although the three feathers may be off my chest, I am completely Welsh and will be until I die," he said.

After 33 caps for Wales between them, the pair had their international careers halted when a newspaper investigation disputed the players' ancestry. Scotland also suffered for fielding English-born prop David Hilton.

Both unions were severely reprimanded after the panel heard the Welsh Rugby Union admit fielding ineligible players at test level.

The Welsh union was relieved to get off with paying the costs. "We are very pleased with the verdict - the decision is a very fair one," said secretary Dennis Gethin.

"We've held our own internal investigation into the matter and errors were made, but not on a deliberate basis.

"The whole episode has been a chastening process."

The Welsh coach, New Zealander Graham Henry, refused to comment.

The problem for the unions was that they accepted the players' ancestral claims. It was amateur management in a professional sport.

When Howarth's agent, Roger Mortimer, sent the fullback to play for Sale in England, he made sure Howarth had the necessary papers to play there.

"Before he transferred I asked and saw the documents which showed he could play in England," Mortimer said yesterday.

"I had to sight those to make sure everything was in order, and I would have thought Wales would have gone through a similar process when he was to play for them."

If we took the ancestral beliefs of Howarth, Sinkinson and Hilton as valid, Wales and Scotland should not have. They were the employers and they should have checked the veracity of their employees' qualifications.

It took this ruckus for the IRB to finally deal with an issue that has gathered festering pace since the 1980s when New Zealand became more involved with players of multiple eligibility.

It started with Jamie Salmon and John Gallagher coming out from England, then a year after playing for Samoa, Michael Jones and John Schuster played for the All Blacks at the 1987 World Cup.

The success of the Samoans in the last decade has brought Frank Bunce, Stephen Bachop, Alama Ieremia, Ofisa Tonu'u and Dylan Mika into All Black colours, while Joeli Vidiri swapped from Fiji.

Those moves were deemed legitimate, though the speed of the All Black switches, in particular, helped to prompt a three-year stand-down rule. The IRB ruled that from last January 1, players can only represent one country.

That move came too late to stave off Grannygate. The line has now been drawn, and the warning is: transgress at your peril. Any other ruling would have created more muck than profit.