A WEEK rarely goes by when a press release from Phil Caplan, on behalf of the Rugby League European Federation doesn’t arrive in my inbox.

And fascinating it is to see our game getting roots in Bosnia, Serbia, Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, Morocco, Malta, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Ukraine, Portugal, Norway and Sweden.

Obviously, the standard in these fledgling nations will be way off, but it is wonderful that someone is trying to grow the game’s appeal in Europe – and as they say from small acorns...

Equally pleasing was reading about Manchester Rangers linking up with the Polish Rugby League with a view to getting eastern European workers residing in the north west paying the game.

You never know, in 20 years’ time we could even have some of these nations doing what Italy have done in the15-man code.

International competition is important, and boosting the competitive nature of fixtures is central to making Four Nations and World Cups a success.

But sometimes the rules on player eligibility hinder rather than help the game.

How often have Australia and New Zealand taken advantage of the residency rules to take players who should be playing for Tonga, Samoa, Fiji or the Cook Islands.

I can see why the individual players want the riches that go with pulling on a Kangaroo jersey, but are we serious about helping the Pacific Islanders establish themselves as an elite force.

The way the rules work it seems a player can start off at Fiji or Tonga as a youngster, get earmarked as a star and switch allegiance to Australia, and then in the twilight of his career return for a swansong World Cup with his home nation.

If that is international rugby then we may as well take a line from John Lennon and ‘imagine there’s no countries’ and play as reds, greens, blues and blacks.

The latest one to switch is likely to be Fijian powerhouse Semi Radradra, who has lodged official papers with the Rugby League International Federation to become an Australian.

If Mal Meninga picks him not only does it strengthen the Roos, not that they need their player pool widening any, but it also diminishes Fiji.

The player stands to earn big bucks if he switches, significantly more than what would be available for representing the nation of his birth, but does it not defeat the point of internationals.

Meninga gave an interview to The Daily Telegraph in Australia in which he described how torn he was on selecting him.

“Selfishly I’d want someone of Semi’s ability in the Australian side, but if I put my unselfish hat on from an international rugby league point of view you want people playing for their home countries,” Meninga said.

It is not like England can take the moral high ground, a couple of years ago it seemed like the national team’s coaching staff were sending out search parties in Oz to find anyone with a link to England, pulling in one player that was no better than what we already had and another that is never fit.

Just imagine what would happen if James Graham did an Aussie Joe on us all and invoked residency clause to play for the Green and Golds.

And over the years we have used residency to raid the smaller nations– Maurie Fa’asavalu, a Samoan rugby union world cup player opted for England when surely his presence would have bolstered his home nation.

We are not going to get a situation where nationality is fixed, and there are maybe there is a good rationale behind that.

But once a player represents a country, that should be it – and it is time to do away with this ludicrous ‘run-around starts now’ which happens between World Cups.