The WRU then closed ranks the following season and told all players of the situation.They also asked all players to sign a form that stated their eligebility if they played against France.Apparently Shingler refused. Wales then went and selected him anyway !!! The WRU seem to be quite underhand in the way they try to trap players at age grade level.

That's pretty messed up. If someone refuses to sign a waiver and gets picked anyway then I think he shouldn't be trapped again though the problem goes back to the IRB. If they made this clear we wouldn't have these problems. You gotta feel for Shingler that's fairly low by the WRU if true.

As far as I can see the answer is in the title of the said teams, Under 20s !!! how can a cap at an a level which has an age limit commit a player at senior level??????.Also these teams play in the Junior World Cup. None of these Games are at senior level.
It suited both France and Wales as they did not have an A side. Therefore both France and Wales can approach any player from any other country and do their poaching legally while it cannot happen in reverse.
The whole issue is a joke, for the record, I found during some research it appears that the year that Jarvis and Loxton played against France, France had an A team playing in the Churchill Cup, therefore it left the gate open for them to represent another Union.
The WRU then closed ranks the following season and told all players of the situation.They also asked all players to sign a form that stated their eligebility if they played against France.Apparently Shingler refused. Wales then went and selected him anyway !!! The WRU seem to be quite underhand in the way they try to trap players at age grade level.

I think A and senior caps should commit a player, anything prior to age 20 shouldn't count after age 20 sevens should also commit a player.

Jarvis and loxton are now eligible to play for either Ireland or wales,'the outcome of the shingler case won't affect that.

It was pretty poor journalism alright. That said I'd like to see Jarvis get a run out in the Ireland A team sooner rather than later just to rubber-stamp it and stop the IRB backtracking at a later date.

ummm, wrote: Poorly researched.

It's not just a case of who you've played for, but also who you've played against.

I think it's even more compilcated than that. As I remember Loxton and Jarvis played for Wales U-20 against France U-20, exactly as Shingler did.

It was reported at the time (in the Irish Times if I recall correctly, making the article above even more bizarre) that Jarvis and Loxton were not informed that playing in the match tied them to Wales, but one Toby Faletau (sp?) was given a letter stating he was now tied to Wales internationally after the same match. In fairness to Wales it might never have occurred to them that 2 Welsh lads would decamp to ireland (or even that they had any Irish relatives), while Faletau being foreign might have wanted his letter for immigration purposes or the like.

If any of that's true (and only the lads themselves can give you the full story) then our boys got off because Wales were disorganised or playing silly buggers, and not because the law didn't apply to them.

Poorly researched.

It's not just a case of who you've played for, but also who you've played against.

You are tied to a country if you've played for their senior or 'next senior' side against and opposition's senior or 'next senior' side.

In Shinglers case he played for Wales U20 against France U20, both of which are declared to be 'next senior'. Jarvis and Loxton played for Wales U20 against other countries, but those countries have 'A' sides, so they're not eligible.

According to Jarvis himself the iRB have given him the all clear.

This is entirely the iRB's mess, though. The fact that they allowed Wales and France to name underage sides as 'senior' sides was stupid.

Todays Irish Times

Shingler's case: Connacht's two signings keep wary eye on developments

THE STEPHEN Shingler case rolls on and on and on . . . But its resolution could have implications for Connacht’s signings Matthew Jarvis and James Loxton, both former age-grade internationals with Wales, who are not eligible to play for Ireland under the current International Board (IRB) laws.

The Irish province signed the two on the basis that they would be eligible for Ireland because they had not represented Wales at ‘A’ international level.

Shingler (right) played under-20 for Wales too but now wishes to play for Scotland. He claims he’s eligible to make the switch but others say he’s not and the whole thing is an IRB mess.

Some countries have their under-20 side designated as their second senior team and others have their ‘A’ sides and Sevens. How can an under-20 side be senior when they play in a Junior World Cup?

I had thought that this was resolved

The IRB need to take the finger out and give a definitive definition on this otherwise this is just going to come up time and time again.

It seems this sisue is arising again. Thankfully it has nothing to do with us this time, but will be interesting to see the outcome of this one

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/int...tland-and-Wales.html

Good to hear that, Now lets hope they can develop their games a bit.

I got tired of waiting, so I went an got mesel' a twitter account!

ummmrugby ummm,
Good to see you back @MJarv10 Did the iRB ever give an official ruling on your qualification status?

MJarv10 Matthew Jarvis
@ummmrugby thanks... Yeh give us the all clear

Well, now we know! 100% IQ, from the horses mouth

well done ummmm. we finally got an answer. now more reason why he should have fair shot at out half

So, anyway, it's clear we don't know.

Anyone with a twitter account fancy trying the blitz I mentioned in the OP?

I was under the impression that the issue had been swept under the carpet in that they're here, we'll count them as Irish for now, but if they turn into International class players they're off back to Wales quicker than you can sing Bread of Heaven.

An Irish solution to a Welsh problem, as it were.

Robbo, the two players in question came to Connacht of their own free will, so why would they return to Wales if they reach international standard. Maybe, just maybe they might actually want to play for Connacht !! and Ireland. 
Mind you I am suprised that no ruling has been published.

I remember reading while this was up in the air that there was a question over whether the Welsh U-20 team was still officially their no. 2 team (you have to (re-)inform the IRB every 4 years which team constitutes your no.2 team, and Wales had that year announced the re-forming of their A team, only for it to fall threw in a bunfight with the regions over money) and there's also the Fealatu (sp?) issue, where they issued their current international no. 8 with a letter confirming the game would tie him to Wales but did not issue same to Jarvis or Loxton (and given the case of the Ruddocks you'd think they'd be awake to this).

So you'd think it's a closed case, if it weren't for the delay in the ruling.

I remember someone pointing out that Ray Ofisa is considered IQ for this season as he hadn't played for Samoa when the sqaud was finalised this summer, but that from the end of this season he will be (on his way).

This kind of creative accounting certainly lends credence to the "under-the-carpet" theory broached above.

It was reported in the Irish times some time back, albiet in a slightly unclear way, that the irb had ruled in Connachts favour.

A one liner at the bottom of an article about something else.

That's what I was talking about in the original post. The article said something like Connacht and the IRFU were 'about' to be informed about the eligibility. After that... nada, zilch. The lack of publicity is disturbing. Either they still don't know, or the ruling wasn't in their favour and they've kept quiet about it because otherwise they've egg on their faces.