The desire to succeed at the World Cup sometimes makes national team administrators do funny things. Often that means going out and trying to find any player with a connection for your country and convincing them to play for you. You don't have to look any further than Warren Gatland's wooing of Gareth Anscombe to see just that. The U.S. certainly isn't immune to this. Every World Cup cycle we see a different player come into the fold. Last cycle it was James Paterson entering the set-up just prior to the World Cup.
(Note: This isn't to debate whether someone is "American" or not. If you are eligible to play for the U.S. or even another national team than it shouldn't matter where you were raised of if you have an accent. If you are eligible according to the rules you have the right to play for that national team.)
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The odds are that this next year and half before the World Cup we will see a number of players with connections to the U.S. have their chance at the national team. One of those players may be Hanno Dirksen. The Ospreys winger certainly wouldn't be a complete stranger to the team having already been capped in a non-test match (thus not locking in his eligibility). His brother Cornelius has been capped for the Eagles.
For those who don't know, Dirksen was born in South Africa and came to the United States as a teen. After a few years here he made the move over to England and then to Wales. Now after three years he is Welsh-qualified. Anyone who has followed his career knows that for the last several years it has been one of his goals to play for the Welsh national team. You can hardly blame him for pursuing that over the Eagles. He has just as many ties to Wales now as the United State and identifies as South African.
Dirksen was well on track to playing for Wales once he became eligible last January but a very serious knee injury in 2012 put that on hold. It's only been the last few months that he has returned to the line-up and only within the last month of so that he has earned serious minutes as a starter. All indications are that he is at full health.
Now that he is fully healthy the next month or so is going to be pivotal in his international career. While he was injured Wales had a number of wings emerge that have potentially bumped Dirksen down the pecking order. Alex Cuthbert and George North are pretty entrenched on the wings. Eli Walker, Tom Prydie, and Harry Robinson are all options at the position. Dirksen will have to ask some serious questions this summer about his future with Wales if he doesn't earn a call into the team.
Helping him is the fact that Walker is injured while other players may be given time off. Still, does Dirksen want to commit his future to a national team in which he may only be a fringe player, playing on tours and in tournaments that don't draw the main players, or does he want to play in the World Cup? It's a tricky question and one that is complicated by contract matters but still something to think about.
If Dirksen is left out of the Wales squad this summer he will only have the autumn internationals and then the Six Nations to really break into the national team picture. If the autumn internationals don't happen for him and he really wants to play in the World Cup than the U.S. would be his best option. That said, he would have to prove that he wants to play for the U.S. and wouldn't simply be able to walk on to the team.
In the end the odds are still very high that Dirksen will play for Wales or simply won't play international rugby at all. But at least something should be decided in the near future. For American fans hoping to see Dirksen in an Eagles jersey they may be closer to getting an answer when Wales announces their summer squad.