Fiji wing Rupeni Caucaunibuca's hopes of playing for the All Blacks have been dashed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) who said on Friday there would be no change in its rules prohibiting players from representing more than one country.
"There will be no change in the eligibility rules," an IRB spokesman told AFP following a meeting of rugby union's world governing body at its Dublin heaquarters where France were named as 2007 World Cup hosts.
Earlier reports from Television New Zealand reported that Caucau, as the wing is known, wanted to switch his allegiance.
Although Caucau plays rugby in New Zealand for Super 12 side the Auckland Blues he is ineligible for the national side as he played Commonwealth Games sevens for Fiji.
Auckland Blues management have ordered Caucau away from the media, but the franchise coach Peter Sloane told television the player has no doubts.
"He has said to me personally that he definitely wants to play for the All Blacks, but he cannot play as he played in the Commonwealth Games Seven. He is disappointed... he sees his future here."
Both New Zealand and Australia exploited loopholes in the previous regulations which allowed them to play previously-capped Pacific Island players.
And the IRB finally moved to tighten the rules following the 'Grannygate' incidents of 2000.
In similar news, Paul Thomson, the Borders prop, has lost his fight to play for Scotland. The New Zealand-born player was ruled ineligible by the International Rugby Board (IRB) yesterday during their annual meeting.
The Scottish Rugby Union had asked for the ruling body to give him permission to play, rather than apply the letter of the law which bans him from playing for Scotland because he sat on the bench for New Zealand A in July 1999 but did not actually play for them. Later that year, the IRB changed the rules and made the switch retrospective, preventing players like Thomson from switching to a different union.