Ross Moriarty being one who played for England U20 and Glaws before heading back. Similarly Underhill (who was born in the USA iirc)was at Swansea uni and signed to the Ospreys before heading back the other way. Must be loads of examples of this. Underhill was very much on the England radar at Uni whilst with the Ospreys, went on tour to Arg before even playing for Bath.
Seems a pity they can't sit down and sort it a little better so that settled players stay settled and challenge for international honours, whilst avoiding poaching and protecting clubs/regions to an extent....
I think Moriarty and Underhill were always understood to be Welsh and English respectively. I’m pretty sure both Gloucester and Ospreys understood that and were happy with the arrangement (Gloucester in the case of Moriarty - I’m sure they weren’t happy about losing Underhill).
Underhill yes, indeed. It was a bit of a surprise he developed so well at the Ospreys, according to local reports. Moriarty was also known to be Welsh- you can't get more classically South Welsh than Morriston comp and Gorseinon rfc- don't tell the Scarlets' fans - but I read that there was a hope from England that he may go down the English route as he had started down it. No idea if that was true. He was with Glaws for ages. My wife works with a couple of relatives, she could ask but I suspect the answer might not be printable!
Yup, Moriarty did play England U20s but even then I don’t think he hid the fact he wanted to play for Wales, and with his family background no one was surprised or bothered by that - and back then we were desperately short of flankers and England would have probably been an easier option for selection.
I did see an article a Welsh mate forwarded me in WOL counting down Underhill’s time left to qualify for Wales in days 😆. I deeply suspect it was tongue in cheek for a bit of a wind up. Underhill was a probably a surprise in Wales but if you follow the England pathway squads (which I do), he wasn’t. He captained England U18s.
There’s a few examples around at the moment of players who have come through premiership academies but have been obviously and committedly Welsh such as Louis Rees Zammitt and Ioan Lloyd. A bit like with Thiebaud Flament in those situations the clubs know they are going to end up losing those players in the end but do it anyway, so I can’t say that’s an issue. Exeter have even poached a young lad Christ Tshiunza into their academy from Wales so they must be accepting of that eventual fate.
It would have been nice to keep Thiebaud at least another season or two though