THERE has been a fair bit of stick in the past given out to players who have suddenly become Irish or Scottish for international matches.

And this week I see that Wigan's Australian stand off Greg Florimo has made himself available for Italy. If you have any chance of playing for Australia you're not going to declare yourself for Italy. Five years ago Florimo was in the Aussie squad and I don't think he would have been claiming he was Italian then.

But now he's seen a window of opportunity and you can't knock him for taking it, just like you can't knock a lot of the England lads who are claiming Irish and Scottish nationalisation because international football is what it's all about and it's a great experience.

And there are positives to this. Six years ago when there was Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia there were only 39 starting spots for international football. There was the French team too but not many people claim to be French other than the French.

But opening it up to England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and also the Islands like Samoa and Tonga has given added interest to people. I think it made the World Cup interesting in 1995. The tournament was great and the next one in 2000 will be even more so.

I think it becomes tough when you've been playing for England and Wales and then declare yourself, for example, as Irish. But if you haven't played for anyone before then you can't really argue. As far as I am aware in the last couple of years players' choice of national team has been pinned down to as far back as grandparentage.

Transitional periods are called that because that is what is happening. In 10 years' time when all these teams are hopefully still going, players are going to be asked at the start of their careers which country they are selecting and hopefully this will make for stronger and stronger World Cups in the future.

On a different note, there are less players being sent off at the top level of Rugby League nowadays and more being put on report.

Sometimes it can be tough and there was an instance in our game on Sunday which supporters may point too. The Warrington fans were shouting for Peter Gill of London Broncos to be sent off after a challenge on Lee Briers. Warrington were awarded a penalty and Gill was placed on report.

Possibly though it is a better way to handle incidents on the field. The referees have a lot of responsibility on the park and they have to make a split decision.

Before 'on reports' the referees had to be 'judge and jury' in the space of a minute. Then later if a player who had been sent off had been found 'not guilty' people started questionning the referees.

It is a pressure job for them and it surely has to be easier looking at the video and making a decision from that after the game. Having the videos is good because they don't miss too much.

'On reports' is for dangerous play but the confusing aspect of it is the varying degrees to which different referees stipulate the rules. One week you get hammered and then the week after a referee will let it go.

But as players hope to find good consistency in their game, that's all they want from referees and in disciplinary adjudications.

It has been interesting following, as an outsider, what has been going on at my former club St. Helens because it has been a bit like a Soap opera and I think everyone was interested to see how they would resolve it.

Obviously, everyone is aware now of what coach Ellery Hanley said and he stood by what he said, he did not deny it. I can't say anything other than I agree with him.

I do think they are an ignorant board in general. I'm not saying that everyone on the board is like that but when you class yourself as a board you class yourself as one.

I don't have a lot to do with Ellery. He was my coach for a short period and came across as a good coach, who knows his rugby, is well spoken and intelligent.

Some of the comments made at St. Helens I found hard to believe. There seems to have been a lot of debate over what had and hadn't gone on other than the statement made by Ellery.

I knew one thing though, I knew the board would not be leaving. Coaches have come and gone, some that the fans asked to be sacked. I know that the fans have asked for the board to be sacked many times but that never happens.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.