overseas player

[wycombewasp]

Joe Marler calling on the RFU to drop the overseas player ruling, must be after a move to France

[Neils]

RFU chief brushes off England player drain to France: ?They?re making a lifestyle choice?

Bill Sweeney, speaking 500 days out from home Women?s World Cup, also confirms Red Roses will play Black Ferns at Twickenham in September
Fiona Tomas 9 April 2024 ? 6:00pm
Related Topics

    England Rugby Union Team, RFU, Top 14


Bill Sweeney, the Rugby Football Union chief executive, has brushed off concerns over England?s talent drain to France, claiming players crossing the Channel are making ?a lifestyle choice as much as anything else?.

Last month, Kyle Sinckler and Lewis Ludlam joined a growing exodus of homegrown players who are swapping the Premiership for the Top 14 when signing for Toulon.

The duo, who both featured for England at last year?s World Cup but were omitted from Steve Borthwick?s Six Nations squad this year, will join Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi in France next season, where a generous salary cap offers greater financial appeal. As England?s leading Test points-scorer and third most-capped men?s player, Farrell is expected to earn close to ?1 million a season when he joins Racing 92.

Billy Vunipola is also understood to be on the verge of signing for Montpellier, while his brother, Mako, is also rumoured to be leaving. A host of other England internationals, including wing Henry Arundell, centre Joe Marchant, flanker Jack Willis and lock David Ribbans, already ply their club trade in France?s top division.

Amid delays over hybrid contracts and the new Professional Game Partnership, which is being negotiated between the RFU and Premiership clubs, Sweeney dismissed concerns that England is leaking talent.

?I don?t think the delay [in sorting the PGP] has had any impact on that,? he said. ?Where we currently stand on the policy of only selecting players based in England stays as it is. 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. If you look at the number of players going abroad, it doesn?t really impact our core group of England players quite so much.

?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.?

Weeks after extraordinary plans emerged that the RFU considered selling Twickenham and buying half of Wembley, Sweeney indicated work to redevelop the national stadium would not begin for at least three years. ?The stadium needs upgrading,? he said. ?It has to be fit for purpose because it?s such an important revenue generator for us. We?re going through all the planning phases and various different options but you won?t see development or work on the stadium until about 2027.?

Sweeney, who was speaking at an event at North Bristol RFC marking 500 days until next year?s Women?s World Cup in England, also confirmed that the Red Roses would host world champions New Zealand in a standalone match at Twickenham this September.

The fixture will act as one of England?s warm-up matches for WXV ? the Red Roses will also face France ? as the RFU aims to build on its growing women?s fanbase ahead of what is tipped to be an ?era-defining tournament?.

More than 42,000 tickets have already been sold for England?s Women?s Six Nations match against Ireland at Twickenham on April 20, which could surpass the 58,648 record attendance that watched the Red Roses? Grand Slam victory over France at the home of English rugby last year.

?If you look at women?s sport, what?s happening with the Lionesses in football and you see it across cricket as well, women?s sport is here to stay and we need to make sure it grows as quickly as possible,? said Sweeney.

[wycombewasp]

Tells you all you need to know about Bill Sweeney, if you had any doubts.

[St Bruno]

Astonishing complacency.

[baldpaul101]

While his word do sound very patronising is he actually wrong?
Out of the English qualified players not playing in England how many would actually be in the squad?
Marchant, Arundell & Willis perhaps, but any others?

[westwaleswasp]

Also worth noting that Farrell will be out there, so French rugby going to give great service in keeping away one of the most overrated England players of the professional era ever to have worn the shirt.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

While his word do sound very patronising is he actually wrong?
Out of the English qualified players not playing in England how many would actually be in the squad?
Marchant, Arundell & Willis perhaps, but any others?

It isn't so much of the situation now, as to where it will lead. With the reduced number of Premiership clubs (and how many more will go under?), and their budgets under great strain, we are going to see more and more talent leaking out at the academy end of the conveyor belt. They will likely not have played for England, and after a few years (say) in France, could qualify under residency rules. Sweeney is actually saying, if the premiership clubs don't want them, or can't afford them, or simply can't find space for them, then we write them off. Forever. Not that I care any more. Not that I ever cared about the RFU, and my dislike for them and their old boys network goes back 50 years, and my views have certainly not improved. When the game went professional, I simply saw bigger, and more, snouts in the trough.

[Egret]

we are going to see more and more talent leaking out at the academy end of the conveyor belt. .... ..Sweeney is actually saying, if the premiership clubs don't want them, or can't afford them, or simply can't find space for them, then we write them off.

Actually I see it as a reverse situation to the current one where huge numbers of academy players every year don't get a premiership contract.

The financial pressures on clubs makes academy players comparatively more attractive e.g. Exeter's recent squad rejuvenation

[NellyWellyWaspy]

we are going to see more and more talent leaking out at the academy end of the conveyor belt. .... ..Sweeney is actually saying, if the premiership clubs don't want them, or can't afford them, or simply can't find space for them, then we write them off.

Actually I see it as a reverse situation to the current one where huge numbers of academy players every year don't get a premiership contract.

The financial pressures on clubs makes academy players comparatively more attractive e.g. Exeter's recent squad rejuvenation

You think they will let (say) a senior player go, to replace them with two or three academy players? Maybe. Which, if true, would mean a lot of senior players being let go earlier in their careers. Where are they going to go? Does it mean an already short career (especially for forwards) becomes even shorter? Would that mean fewer taking up the sport as a career?

From a coaching POV, that would mean you would need more pitches, more coaches, more equipment. More pitches is unlikely, so I guess existing pitches would get more intensive use. Maybe the same with coaches, working more hours with multiple sets of players. A slight increase in equipment costs. But, at some point, this larger cohort would also be 'let go', to be replaced by new, younger players.

Likely this would happen at the age where the player becomes most likely to be selected for the national team, when their 'value' rises above what the club can afford.

And so the drain is shifted. Currently it is those at the upper end of their twenties and into their thirties. But, we could see that lower point shift more towards 25 or 26 years old.

Is there a point to this? Not really. Unintended consequences is the focus of the pessimist (and that is me). There is no 'solution'.

[baldpaul101]

The interesting thing for me is that the French clubs actually want English players. Given that they have quite strict rules on foreign players in each squad & all of the southern hemisphere to chose from I wonder if English players are relatively cheap compared to others & what that says about salaries in the prem!

[Heathen]

Sweeney is a t*at. Totally incompetent. Is there no mechanism by which he can be disposed of, within the RFU structures?

[westwaleswasp]

The interesting thing for me is that the French clubs actually want English players. Given that they have quite strict rules on foreign players in each squad & all of the southern hemisphere to chose from I wonder if English players are relatively cheap compared to others & what that says about salaries in the prem!

The SH players are offered more closer to home in Japan. That is why English players are the new All Blacks vis-a-vis French teams. Ready made source over the channel to replace the one that has been diverted to Japan.