This has suddenly made the RWC even more nail-biting

This has suddenly made the RWC even more nail-biting

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irocfan

Original Poster:

40,153 posts

189 months

kritter86

170 posts

134 months

Friday 1st May 2015
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It certainly has but I really don't want to get in to the debate of England allowing overseas players in to the mix.

Challo

10,043 posts

154 months

Friday 1st May 2015
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kritter86 said:
It certainly has but I really don't want to get in to the debate of England allowing overseas players in to the mix.
I don't see the issue. They are Australian but play Rugby outside their home country. This ruling of not picking players just because they play for an overseas club is stupid.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Friday 1st May 2015
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Challo said:
I don't see the issue. They are Australian but play Rugby outside their home country. This ruling of not picking players just because they play for an overseas club is stupid.
The problem is that England are now almost compelled to do the same. That causes a problem for English rugby because any player who wanted to earn big money in France was held in England, making the domestic game a much better spectacle.

What will happen without this ban is that a lot of English players will move to France, or wherever else there's money. So either the salary cap will need to be raised to the French level (and that's a dangerous game to start playing) or the English game will suffer in the long term as the level of club rugby will go down.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Friday 1st May 2015
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See Welsh domestic rugby as an object lesson here.

prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Friday 1st May 2015
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hornetrider said:
See Welsh domestic rugby as an object lesson here.
I think a better comparison would be to the French national team. Is it because the major teams are favouring foreign players that the national team are so poor? I'd actually disagree because there is some awesome French talent but they just can be managed and coached to be the world beaters they should be.

I'd say the Welsh issue is largely of scale and the size of the player pool. You have the usual mismanagement at the very top, lose a handful of top talent and the whole thing collapses. That is not likely to happen in England as the big pool allows for some talent to always be ready to step up, and in a way, why Lancaster is probably not losing too much sleep when he has a queue of more than adequate (perhaps not quite world class) back row players he can call on. Then again I can't seem England being World champs or regular Grand Slam winners the way they want to just trundle along...

Personally, being a LI and England fan, I would love to have Steffon and possibly even Delon Armitage (although with his temperament he really rules himself out) playing for England again. They are wasted being left out in Toulon, and in the case of Steffon, "could" bring some X factor due to his size and technique that would be enough to make England world champions this time round. I fear though it's all too late - he should have been playing in NZ last summer and in this year's 6N.

Also I'd say that, being a LI fan, I don't see any benefit for this club enforcing the "play in England" rule, as it's not a fashionable club that can retain the best home grown talent once they catch the eye of the selectors.