Johnny McNicholl has no Welsh ancestry. Nor has he set foot in Wales, but already he has spoken about his desire to play for Wales by qualifying for the 2019 World Cup.
Confirmation of his transfer from the Crusaders to the Scarlets and a tacit admission that Llanelli offers him a more accessible route into Test rugby will not have endeared McNicholl to the All Black high command.
Steve Hansen has given short shrift to those who leave New Zealand in pursuit of Test status elsewhere. While McNicholl falls into the good-but-not-quite-good- enough category of potential All Blacks, the World Cup holders find themselves short of fit wings.
The irony of McNicholl finding himself an emergency choice against Wales at the start of the three-Test series in June will not be lost on anyone, least of all Hansen. Why give a cap to someone who wants to play for Wales?
Full marks to McNicholl for honesty but imagine if the roles were reversed and Wales were the best team in the world, not New Zealand. Imagine a Welsh wing signing for the Crusaders for three years because they were paying him more money and talking about playing for the All Blacks?
World Rugby has created this global market for caps by refusing to acknowledge their mistake that three years is far too short a period to change nationality. Still they do nothing about it.
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