England have 'performance advantage by not selecting overseas players, says RFU chief Bill Sweeney
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ByOli Gent
Published 09/04/2024 at 18:25 GMT
The RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney has doubled down on the governing body's ruling that English players plying their trade overseas will not be available for Test match selection, despite the growing opposition. Sweeney's comments come after Owen Farrell's departure for Racing 92 from Saracens was announced earlier in the year, with players like Jack Nowell and Joe Marchant also ineligible.
Owen Farrell, the Saracens captain, looks dejected after their defeat during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match against Northampton Saints at Franklin's Gardens on March 29, 2024.
Image credit: Getty Images
The RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney has reasserted that English players who play abroad will not be eligible for Test match selection.
The current RFU ruling means that players like Joe Marchant and Jack Nowell, who play for Stade Francais and La Rochelle respectively, cannot be selected by head coach Steve Borthwick.
The rule has been in place since the 2011 World Cup, but has come under scrutiny with more and more English players leaving Gallagher Premiership Rugby sides after their clubs either went into administration - in the scenarios of London Irish, Wasps, and Worcester - or simply being offered better contracts overseas.
The big story in recent weeks is Owen Farrell, the Saracens fly-half with 112 caps for England, moving to Racing 92 at the end of the season.
Farrell had already ruled himself out of international competition in November to prioritise his and his family’s well-being, and did not feature in the recent Six Nations.
Now, Sweeney, speaking at the launch of ‘Impact ‘25’, the RFU’s new investment plan, reaffirmed the governing body’s position on where English players playing abroad stand in terms of international call-ups.
“Where we currently stand on the policy of only selecting players based in England stays as it is,” Sweeney said.
“If you actually look at the players we’ve got abroad, they probably made a decision in terms of, ‘Where’s my England career currently? Am I in contention for a place in those hybrid contracts? Am I in that core group of England players going forward?
“If they’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not – and most of them have had conversations with Steve [Borthwick] anyway – it’s partly a lifestyle choice as much as anything else. Some of the players that have gone haven’t gone for more money. They’re coming to the end of their professional career, do they want to spend three or four years in France and have a different experience with family or maybe in some cases, maybe it is financially driven.”
Sweeney believes that despite the limitations the rule puts on Borthwick’s squad selection, it doesn’t hamper England’s chances on the international stage.
“If you look at the number of players going abroad, it doesn’t really impact our core group of England players quite so much,” he insisted.
“There’s maybe one or two that you think we’d rather have over here. Joe Marchant is rumoured to be coming back to the Premiership this year, so from our perspective, we’re okay with it.
“We think there’s a performance advantage to having those players based in your own country. New Zealand do it – I know there’s been coverage about whether or not they should do it going forward – France do it, Ireland do it. The obvious outlier is South Africa, they don’t do it and they’ve won the past two World Cups. So the way things currently stand, we’re sticking to that overseas rule.”
Sweeney also spoke about the abuse that Farrell suffered at the World Cup last year, despite England reaching the semi-finals.
He said: “There are certain things we do in terms of monitoring social media and monitoring abuse. The situation with Owen started at the warm up matches going into the World Cup. Some of the coverage around the Wales game accelerated and became fuel. We saw what happened in the World Cup itself.
“We all have an obligation to protect the players. They’re very high profile. Sport is immediate in terms of the result and sometimes I think the players can be put under undue amounts of pressure.”
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