None of us can help where we are born. But once the ink is dry on your birth certificate it is up to you: do you still feel, say, Welsh even if your birthplace happens to be Beijing? Or English, like Billy Vunipola, even if you were born in Sydney to Tongan parents and reared in Wales?

Professional rugby players seem to wrestle with this awkward personal dilemma more than most.

These days, too, we live in a far more multicultural society. So when Geoffrey Boycott was musing aloud on the radio on Sunday night about Scotland’s lineup against England at the cricket World Cup – “Coetzer doesn’t sound Scottish, Haq’s not a very Scottish name either” – he was years behind the times. The global village means that not all Scotland cricketers are required to wear kilts and hail from Kinross or Kirkcaldy.

International rugby, however, has an intrinsic problem heading its way. The professional leagues in England and France are an increasing lure for players of all nationalities, many fully aware that a mere three years of hitting tackle bags for a club side – in rugby league if necessary – will make them eligible for a Test cap in their adopted country. Even without a long-forgotten granny from the Lake District, you can be qualified for England on the basis of paying 36 months’ worth of rent.

The latest case study is a young Welshman called Mathew Protheroe, who made his debut for England Under‑18s against France in Doncaster at the weekend. He is from Swansea and is precisely what Welsh supporters – and everyone else – have always craved: a fly-half with the hands, feet, wit and pace to win games in a flash. He scored a nice try at the weekend and has also been impressing for Hartpury college. It is his move to Gloucestershire that has made him fair game for England and led to him pulling on a white jersey rather than the red one he dreamt about in his childhood days at Waunarlwydd. “Such a surreal experience getting my first cap for @Englandrugby,” he tweeted. Quite.

From Wales’s perspective, all is not quite lost. Protheroe, who turned 18 in October, is not allowed to commence a three-year residential spell until he has signed for a Premiership club’s senior academy. Assuming that were to happen this summer, he would not be able to represent England at any level until 2018. And as someone has clearly already advised him, representing England U18s does not bind him to the red rose for life because it does not mean participating in an officially sanctioned World Rugby tournament. He can still play for Wales in the future if he wants to.

All of which simply underlines the unsatisfactory nature of the current regulations. Three years? World Rugby says it has no current plans to extend the qualification period to four or five years but surely it should consider doing so, for the sake of all parties. There are 30 Fijian wingers alone now plying their trade professionally in France, for example. The Fiji sevens coach, Ben Ryan, has even become concerned about countries such as Sri Lanka recruiting Fijian players – although some are already returning – in an effort to fast‑track their way to Olympic success and, in the longer term, World Cup participation.

The next big prize for England could be Nathan Hughes, the talented Wasps No8, who by next year will be eligible to choose between England, Samoa or Fiji. The 23-year-old has already served a three-year residency period in New Zealand but things didn’t quite work out for him so he headed for Europe. He is clearly entitled to play where he likes but nationality is an increasingly portable concept. France have capped an increasing number of South Africans and only this week Scotland have admitted they are looking at recruiting the former Kiwi rugby league player Kevin Locke – who has Scottish ancestry – for their World Cup campaign.

The downside is that local products can become disillusioned at being shunted aside and some supporters struggle to bond with the latest bussed-in newcomers from New Zealand – Gareth Anscombe, Hugh Blake and Michael Bent, come on down – despite their Celtic heritage. To be clear, free movement of individuals is a perfectly fine concept. No one wants rugby union to become a Ukip playground. It’s just that this particular arms race is so heavily weighted towards England and France that it threatens to skew Test rugby completely, unless Wales, Ireland and Scotland conjure up sufficient funds to purchase sufficient reinforcements. Which is not quite what international rugby is supposed to be about.

World Rugby, for its part, has already moved to close the loophole that might have allowed players to fast-track a nationality switch via the Olympic sevens route. This week, though, it has reiterated there is no immediate prospect of one-cap rejects from, say, New Zealand subsequently being allowed to represent a tier-two nation after a cooling-off period, a move that could make the Pacific island nations significantly stronger.

For sides such as Italy and Scotland that really would be like turkeys voting for Christmas. You can understand their concern but, ultimately, international rugby needs to look 20 or 30 years ahead. To retain its integrity and charm, the Test model needs talented Welshmen to play for Wales and for the number of mercenaries looking to kiss any old national badge to be reduced.

Much was made of the stirring image of young Harry Westlake, the six-year-old mascot at Twickenham for the Italy game, lustily belting out God Save the Queen. Harry’s obvious patriotism, however, does not necessarily reflect the socioeconomic landscape. More than a quarter of a million Romanians and Bulgarians, for example, now live and work in the UK, with the number of workers from those two countries up by 15% on the previous year. The Romanian full-back Catalin Fercu, who is on Saracens’ books, could be blazing a significant trail.

Which is wonderful in some ways, but of limited wider value for rugby’s global development if the next generation of Catalins and Constantins end up playing for England rather than the Mighty Oaks. Raising the Test residency qualification period to five years would at least separate the genuinely committed migrants from the opportunists.

SPACE INVADERS

As we crane our necks for a better view of the Six Nations, spare a thought for clubs further down the pyramid who are merely struggling to retain a pitch for their junior sections to play on. Cullompton RFC in Devon have been advised that the owner of the field containing one of their three pitches has placed the land on the open market for sale by tender at the end of March. Developers, naturally, are circling. The club chairman, Phil Shere, describes it as “one of the best natural pitches in Devon” and believes building on it would be “as big an act of vandalism as erecting a tower block in the middle of Exmoor”. Watch this space.

ONE TO WATCH

Sunday’s Six Nations game between Ireland and England has all the ingredients of a potential title decider. Will it be Croke Park revisited?

Or are England, who have beaten Ireland in the past three meetings between the sides, increasingly a side capable of who coping with almost any challenge? Ireland have not lost in nine games but this one may prove to be as hard-fought as any.