It was one of those days as rare as hen's teeth.

Everybody was otherwise engaged, including the cleaning lady, so the rugby league hat was thrust in my direction.

I was sent out to meet the new Bulls signing at the travel agents who had sponsored his flights; Lesley someone or other.

Funny name for a rugby player, I thought. Not out loud, obviously, as he strolled in, his sheer size blocking out the advertising hoarding that had been strategically positioned behind him for the photo.

He struck me as very tall, very wide and very scary. But not, in the slightest, as English.

Then again, Lesley Vainikolo was proudly Tongan born and bred, though he did play his international league for New Zealand where both his parents came from.

But his first experience of England? The damp weather as he stepped off the plane at Leeds-Bradford.

And yet, six years on from that opening interview on these shores, he is being lauded as the new secret weapon for English rugby union.

Forget the Tongan ancestry and certainly don't worry about playing international sport for another country. C'mon down, Lesley, your (new) country needs you.

I don't blame Vainikolo. After all, any Bulls fan would tell you he is good enough to make the ra-rahs' first 15 on talent alone.

If he fits the criteria, then why shouldn't he be picked?

It's the whole "flag of convenience" system that is a nonsense.

Twickenham's top brass refuse to open their eyes to the immoral practice, hiding behind the rules of residency and the ludicrous claim that rugby league is a "totally different sport" so therefore does not count.

Had the Volcano been an international-class rower or conker champion, maybe they might have a slight point. But hang on, aren't the dazzling rugby skills he honed in the 13-man game the reason he has got fast-tracked to the top of the union version?

Totally different, eh I'm not just having a pop at rugby here. Every sport is at it.

England cricket selectors do not bat an eyelid when they pick Kevin Pietersen and Tim Ambrose for the tour of New Zealand.

One might hail from Natal and the other New South Wales but, hey, what's that got to do with it? We've been doing it for years - think back to Allan Lamb and Robin Smith.

Pietersen chose England only to make his point against South Africa's selection policy; Aussie-born Ambrose didn't arrive here until he was 17. Though both at least have English mothers, unlike Vainikolo.

In football, we have calls for Manuel Almunia to solve England's goalkeeping crisis.

Almunia was born in Pamplona; not Plumpton. He is as British as paella.

But players see international call-ups not so much as an honour but a career move. Almunia willingly admitted that he only thought about England because Spain were not interested.

"If other people want me, I have to study my situation," he said this week, with the air of someone looking for regular football in the transfer window.

Then again, he's lived in London since 2004 so he ticks all the boxes. Let's chuck him in and not worry what the passport says!

After all, other countries do the same. That's why you have Argentinian rugby players representing Italy and Australia and Kiwis in Scottish colours.

Not forgetting that well-known Croatian Eduardo de Silva spearheading his adopted country into Euro 2008.

It will never change unless the rule-makers say so; and why should they?

We might as well go the whole hog and be allowed to pick anyone playing in our country. Do away with international countries as such and just pit the representative leagues against each other.

Who knows, we might even manage to find a decent goalkeeper then.

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