"Guns for hire" - Chief sports writer slams eligibility rules during the 2024 Six Nations

RUCK’s 2024 Guinness Six Nations content 

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He began: "Your best versus our best: it is the sacrosanct precept on which all international team sport is built. And yet even a competition as enmeshed in tribal identity as the Six Nations has drifted from these moorings.

"Take last weekend’s Calcutta Cup, a contest electrified by Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe, whose name hardly suggests a rugged clan from the Cairngorms. Not that the issue can ever be reduced to a single player.

"Of the 39-man squad selected this year by Gregor Townsend to wear Scottish blue, an astonishing 23 were born elsewhere.

He concluded: "‌It is strange these patterns have not yet aroused a more urgent discussion in rugby. In football, many have a fit of the vapours at the mere thought of choosing a successor to Gareth Southgate who is not English.

"But at the Calcutta Cup, the fact that man-of-the-match Van der Merwe honed his craft in South Africa, not Scotland, passed virtually without mention. Your best versus our best? Increasingly, the Six Nations seems less about blood ties than the enlisting of guns for hire."

Uini Atonio (New Zealand)

Paul Willemse (South Africa)

Émilien Gailleton (England)

Archie Griffin (Australia)

Will Rowlands (England)

George North (England)

Nick Tompkins (England)

Ethan Roots (New Zealand)

Manu Tuilagi (Samoa)

Sam Underhill (USA)

Marcus Smith (Phillipines)

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Wales)

Tom Roebuck (Scotland)

Finlay Bealham (Australia)

Jeremy Loughman (USA)

Joe McCarthy (USA)

Jamison Gibson-Park (New Zealand)

Ciarán Frawley (Australia)

Bundee Aki (New Zealand)

James Lowe (New Zealand)

Marco Manfredi (Germany)

Sebastian Negri (Zimbabwe)

Ross Vintcent (South Africa)

Martin Page-Relo (France)

Stephen Varney (Wales)

Ignacio Brex (Argentina)

Monty Ioane (Australia)

Ange Capuozzo (France)

Ewan Ashman (Canada)

Johnny Matthews (England)

Alec Hepburn (Australia)

Will Hurd (England)

WP Nel (South Africa)

Pierre Schoeman (South Africa)

Sam Skinner (England)

Josh Bayliss (England)

Andy Christie (England)

Jack Dempsey (Australia)

Ali Price (England)

Ben White (England)

Ben Healy (Ireland)

Rory Hutchinson (England)

Cameron Redpath (Scotland)

Sione Tuipulotu (Australia)

Arron Reed (England)

Kyle Rowe (England)

Kyle Steyn (South Africa)

Duhan van der Merwe (South Africa)

In the storied history of Rugby's Greatest Championship, exceptional leaders have emerged—warriors of various forms, be they agile half-backs, towering second rows, or fearless flankers.

Our latest quiz invites you to identify those who have captained their nations to Guinness Six Nations glory. It's worth noting that in certain instances, there may be multiple captains from the same year due to factors such as injuries and rotation.

Surnames only will be accepted.