England's pool of players is big enough without Maori invaders.

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There's been a lot of columnA space devoted to Wasps centre Riki Flutey this week, most of it centering around his qualification as an England player and his chances of getting into the team come November.A Flutey's quality is not in doubt. But as he himself admitted, "I will never forget where home is (Wairarapa, to be precise) and I will always end up at home. I am a staunch Maori, and nobody can take my culture away from me.

"When people first told me I could play for England, I asked myself if I could do that. I never got the chance to test my skills for the All Blacks at international level. If I did get the chance to measure my skills with England, it would be a fantastic honour, an awesome experience."

Does this seem a mite unfair? Flutey is in fine fettle, but Anthony Allen, for one, has hardly been a shrinking violet this season. He was born in England to English parents. He worked hard to cement his place in a superb English club's back-line, but somehow will miss out to a New Zealander.A Poaching is a big issue, mostly because it is nearly impossible to quantify. Everybody cries foul at New Zealand's Islanders, but Samoa had the largest number of foreign-born players at the last World Cup.

Flutey has neither birthright nor lineage, and this is where a problem is beginning. The three-year residency rule has served its purpose, certainly for rugby's developing countries. Japan has benefitted from being able to 'repatriate' a few Kiwis, and Italy would never have been able to develop a quality home-grown squad had it not been for a number of Kiwis and South Africans during the earlier part of this decade. Canada and America have also benefitted in the past. But for top countries such as England to join in undermines the ethos of international sport. England doesn't need developing.

The scepticism over Lesley Vainikolo proved well-founded, and it's not like any disappointed fans found any empathy for his performance. How could they? He's not English like them. And lest we forget, he's already played for New Zealand, even if it was a different sport.

But don't you think Tonga would like him? Don't you think, somewhere in his heart, he'd like to play for Tonga? Don't you think England already has a couple of English wings ready to step up? The top countries ought to leave alone. Tongans should play for Tonga, Fijians for Fiji, and New Zealanders for New Zealand. And if, like Flutey, they can't crack their own national team: tough. That was the luck of the draw. And if, like England seem to feel, there is not the right player to fill a certain position: tough. That was the luck of that draw too.

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