Westie85 wrote: McGinty has been capped at full international level, Heenan has not. That's the difference. Plain and simple
AFAIK, its not so simple, unfortunately. World Rugby's Regulation 8 governs a players eligibility to play international rugby.
Among other things, A player cannot represent a national team if h/she has already represented another national team at senior level. The complication, however, is that different countries have different rules on what constitutes a senior level. Sevens counts, providing he/she plays against another national sevens (this rule excluded the chance of Paul Warwick getting capped for Ireland as he played Sevens for Oz). The senior 15-a-side national representative team is obvious: play in a
Test match and you are tied to that country
In addition, if a player plays for a country’s ‘next senior 15-a-side national representative team’ they are committed to that nation. This is where it gets confusing: The Wolfhounds are Ireland’s second team and the Saxons are England’s but Wales and France have designated their U20 teams as their next 15-a-side representative team. This rule prevented Steven Shingler from switching to Scotland after he had been capped for Wales at U20 level.
