England"s overseas player-rule is right and Steffon Armitage should be called ...

For instance, if three openside flankers, including captain Chris Robshaw,

were to be injured between now and England’s first Test against New

Zealand in early June, it would be pure common sense to call up

Steffon. It would be mad not to use his experience and the form he has been

showing.

As it stands, the policy is there for a very good reason. As an international

coach, you need a certain level of stability about your preparation. You

need to know that you will have sufficient time at the right times with your

players ahead of Test matches.

Once you select a player based abroad, it is a step towards losing control of

the players because you are relying on the goodwill of somebody in another

country.

Say Lancaster picks Armitage as his first-choice openside. Do you know what

will happen the weekend before England’s first match of the RBS Six

Nations next season, against Wales

in Cardiff on Friday Feb 6?

Armitage will have to play for Toulon, that’s what. As it is, most of Wales’s

back line will have to play for their French clubs on that weekend too.

That happened to a lesser extent this season before Wales’s first match

against Italy,

with the likes of Jamie Roberts, Dan Lydiate and Mike Phillips playing for

Racing Métro. For Wales it was a difficult situation. It is not what England

want, or need.

This all stems from the fact that at the moment the relationship between the

England coach and the Aviva Premiership clubs is the best it has ever been.

There is an agreement in place over release and remuneration for clubs, and

at the moment everyone is very happy with it, even if there may be some

interesting debates around its renegotiation.

Lancaster has a known base from which he is working. If he needs the time with

the players, he knows what that time is. As soon as you get players who are

not in that agreement and you are talking to people who do not have English

rugby at heart, that is when it becomes a lottery.

That is when a player finds himself stuck in the middle of a difficult

situation. And that is when, as an international coach, it affects your

planning, because you cannot have the players when you want them and that in

turn will affect their best preparation for international rugby.

Where Lancaster is very good is that he is very flexible at looking at the

best needs of a player and he is aware of the clubs’ needs as well.

You speak to people at the Premiership clubs and they will say that Lancaster

does not even look at the contractual obligations. He is just sympathetic to

the needs of all sides.

As an international coach, you will always lose one or two players. What you

want is players who will give their eye teeth to put on the international

jersey. Attitude is everything.

Before the 2011 World Cup you could look at some of the England players

putting on the jersey and see that everything was about them and not

England. That was pretty obvious by their body language on the field and

some of their behaviour.

That was why Lancaster was so strong in laying down what he wanted in terms of

attitude and character. Now, everything is about the end result for the

group. Nothing is about enhancing the ego of any individual.

Yes, there will be the temptation for some players to leave and take the money

after the World Cup next year.

But when Lancaster came in, he went with the youngsters and he has built a

team up over two years.

There may be some players in their late twenties who decide to go, but it will

probably be that their time in international rugby is limited anyway because

their attitude has shifted slightly.

Other countries are not as fortunate as England. New Zealand can operate the

same policy, simply because you have got the tradition and ambition of the

All Blacks. You have to go to New Zealand to understand that level of

ambition, but, believe me, it burns strongly in every player coming through

the system.

But take Scotland.

They simply have to pick their players based outside of the country.

It is actually of benefit for those players to be playing outside because you

need to be playing at a certain level and there are only two sides in

Scotland.

The national team will be better for their players playing at the highest

level and spread over five or six clubs.

Money is also the issue in Wales. There is not the relationship between the

Welsh Rugby Union and the four regions as there is in England. They have

lost so many players and more are on their way.

The one-off central contract for Sam Warburton is, for me, an example of the

misguided policy there. Warren Gatland, the head coach, wanted to restrict

his selection to home-based players – the so-called ‘Gatland’s Law’ of many

years ago – but it has just not been possible.

He was not supported by a proper agreement that helped the regions and the

players. Warburton was very open last year in saying he wanted to stay at

Cardiff, but there was not the arrangement in place to keep him there.

So now there is that strange situation where he is centrally contracted, but,

as things stand, the regions still say they will not play centrally

contracted players. It is messy.

South

Africa also pick their foreign-based players. But it was interesting

that before the British

and Irish Lions tour there in 2009 they said they would only pick

players based in South Africa and they all came flooding back the season

before.

Ireland,

with their tax breaks, have done well to keep so many players at home over

the years, with only Jonathan Sexton’s move to France this season beginning

to alter matters.

I remember when I was at Wasps and scrum-half Eoin Reddan had a huge dilemma.

He was playing superbly for us and it was obvious he was coming into

contention for Ireland, but was told he had to be playing back in Ireland.

I had a sit down and a heart-to-heart with him and said to him: “Look, what do

you want most?”

He said to me: “In my heart of hearts I want the opportunity to go for an

Irish jersey.”

So I said: “Fine. We will not force you to stay at Wasps.” He went to Leinster

with our blessing.

And therein lies the rub. If a player really does want to play international

rugby, he will abide by his country’s wishes as to where he can play.

Article source: http://www.premiershiprugby.com/matchcentre/fixtures/31324.php

England"s overseas player-rule is right and Steffon Armitage should be called ...