Opinion - You could just about call it the 'Sonny Bill Williams Clause'.
Sonny Bill Williams playing Rugby League. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) chairman Peter V'Landys is reviewing the eligibility criteria for the code's showpiece State of Origin series, with an eye to making players such as Williams available.
Williams is too old for that level of football now but, once upon a time, administrators were urged to relax the rules and allow people with his background to play State of Origin.
Williams, like so many New Zealand and Pacific Island players, was recruited to a club in Australia as a teenager.
He represented New South Wales at age-group level, before choosing to play test football for the Kiwis.
Many argued that Williams would have thrived in the State of Origin environment, but that pathway was blocked as soon as he pledged his international allegiance to New Zealand.
Now V'Landys wants to change all that.
To say players such as Tonga captain Jason Taumalolo, signed by the North Queensland Cowboys as a 13-year-old, can play State of Origin without jeopardising the chance to play for their nation of heritage.
Taumalolo's old Cowboys teammate, now-Penrith captain, James Tamou faced that dilemma.
Born and bred in Palmerston North, Tamou was wooed by New South Wales once in Australia and chose to go down that route, rather than represent the Kiwis.
"The NSW coach [Brad Fittler] has been vocal with me that we should have the best players in the State of Origin and I agree with him. So we need to look at that,'' V'Landys said this week.
"I think it's a pretty stupid rule where we force all our players to play for Australia. If they want to play for Tonga or Samoa let them, because that only strengthens the international game.
"But don't stop them playing State of Origin and the New Zealand players for that matter.''
V'Landys has shown himself to be an administrator of rare conviction, stating categorically that the NRL competition would emerge from Covid-19 isolation on 28 May this year and then making it happen.
ARL chairman Peter V'Landys Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The code's main rival in Australia - AFL - were looking at re-starting their competition in September, but quickly changed to June once V'Landys paved the way.
Rugby league have endured the odd hiccup since the resumption but, through it all, V'Landys has shown exemplary leadership.
He was also instrumental in ensuring that one of the game's great minds - Phil Gould - took on a developmental and advisory role at the New Zealand Warriors.
More self-interested people than V'Landys are already up in arms about the proposed changes to State of Origin, but history suggests the ARLC chairman won't be deterred.
It's a rare administrator who can look at the wider picture and recognise that making your rivals better will only make you stronger in turn.
But from the time he was appointed chairman in October last year, he's maintained that the ARLC must do everything in its power to raise the profile and standard of the code in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.
That's why Gould's been entrusted with that gig at the Warriors and why State of Origin is set for an overhaul.
Eighty-six players have represented the Australian Schoolboys rugby league side and then gone on to play test matches for other nations.
Men such as Taumalolo, Benji Marshall, Kieran Foran, Tony Puletua, Nathan Cayless and Martin Taupau, who were all good enough to play State of Origin but put their heritage first instead.
Others, such as Tonga stars Andrew Fifita, Michael Jennings and William Hopoate, only felt comfortable making that choice once their State of Origin careers were over.
V'Landys' vision would change all that and give international rugby league some much-needed impetus.
Tonga's rise, on the back of Taumalolo and Fifita declining selection in New Zealand and Australia's sides - respectively - has been remarkable, but the Kiwis have opted not to play tests in 2020 and might not be sighted again until June next year.
Seeing New Zealanders, who've been on the books of NRL clubs since their teens and meet the relevant criteria, play State of Origin might be the unexpected vehicle for interest in the Kiwis to increase.
It would certainly add momentum to talk that Eden Park might host an Origin game one day.
Most of all it's just nice to know not everyone involved in Australian rugby league is entirely inward looking and that a pathway might soon exist for Pacific players to participate in the interstate pinnacle of the game.
