
Share
16th May 2017
10:36am BST

This August will mark six years since Payne has been in Ireland and he has been welcomed by so many in his adopted city. Fiancée, baby, house, dog, favourite coffee shop, knowledge of all the surf spots less than 90 minutes' drive away. He's as local as he'll ever be.
And yet, just because Payne has excelled for Ireland - literally pissed blood for Ireland - and got called up to the British & Irish Lions, he is told by columnists and Twitter trolls that he is not Irish.
What a welcoming, integrated society we are.
World Rugby has moved to extend the residency rule from 36 to 60 months so any player wishing to represent a country other than their own, without a maternal or paternal link, will have to pitch in for five years now.
It can't be easy for the likes of Scott Williams, James Haskell and Garry Ringrose to have missed out on the Lions because someone like Payne or CJ Stander has got the nod. However, ask just about any player that plays and trains with those two men and they will tell you they have fully bought into this country and so many of its values.
Payne calls himself 'a converted Irishman' and who are we to argue. Anyone that comes to this country, invests themselves fully in it, works hard, engages with the wider community and contributes is entitled to call themselves Irish.
As a nation, we have travelled to the four corners and sought welcome, refuge, work and friendship within foreign borders. We have taken citizenship tests and new passports, proudly claiming a new nationality while retaining that unique Irish spirit.
Asked about Stander possibly keeping him out of the Ireland team, earlier this season, Leinster's Jack Conan told us:
"Those lads come in and have been here for the right amount of time to get Irish qualified. "They are bringing a different standard. If they are bringing it and upping that standard then everyone else has to react to that and be better. That, then, increases the talent around them and makes everyone up their level."Well said by Conan but still the drum is beaten by the disgruntled and the ones in possession of soap-boxes. "People are entitled to the opinions," Payne told Kiwi journalists in a Monday evening conference call and he is a bigger man for it. He has nothing to prove even to those that keep insisting he'll never be one of us.
Explore more on these topics: