So near and yet so far. Steffon Armitage is still in Toulon, Bath are still short of back-row cover and England, as things stand, do not have the luxury of having another top-quality Premiership flanker to select. It is a shame because Armitage’s proposed return to English club rugby was one of those rare stories that would have suited everyone, give or take his besotted fans at the Stade Mayol and England’s incumbent Test back-row.
Even in Toulon there might have been a silver lining. Richie McCaw, the All Black captain, has been strongly linked with a move to the south of France following next year’s World Cup; the club’s owner, Mourad Boudjellal, would not even have entered into preliminary discussions with Bath had he been totally averse to the convenience factor of Armitage departing now. On Planet Toulon they know their galaxy of stars will continue to twinkle even if one of the brightest drifts north.
Nor would the England management object massively in a World Cup year if the current European player of the year moved back to Blighty. Not only would it strengthen their possible options but it would add credence to the Rugby Football Union’s stance on not selecting England players who go overseas. Look at Armitage, they could have said, even he had to retreat back over the Channel in the end.
Now everyone is in limbo, not least Armitage. Clearly the penny has dropped that if he wants to play in next year’s World Cup he is living in the wrong country. The excitement generated by the mere suggestion that he might be heading home, however, will also have rippled its way to Stuart Lancaster’s doorstep. Connecting with the public is a big deal for Lancaster and it is clear a big chunk of the population would love to be cheering on a white-shirted Armitage next year.
While the 29-year-old would not have been rushed straight back into the squad for the autumn series, the move to Bath would also have suited the England management perfectly in terms of encouraging les autres. Lancaster would not have had to say a word to Chris Robshaw, Billy Vunipola or Tom Wood but simply stood back and silently invited them to show him why Armitage’s potential return was no big deal. If they were unable to do so, Lancaster could then have unleashed a similarly motivated Armitage in next year’s Six Nations in pursuit of the extra spark that England will assuredly need to triumph at the World Cup.
That could still be the case, of course, if he were to invoke the “exceptional circumstances” clause governing players based abroad and pick Armitage anyway. That course of action now comes freighted with a huge amount of political baggage; instead it is the exiled flanker-cum-number eight who once again finds himself cast as the outsider, having made clear to Bath he was interested in coming home. As Bath’s head coach Mike Ford said: “I feel a bit sorry for him that it hasn’t happened.”
So what next? If Toulon are only going to release him for a king’s ransom – which even the richest English club cannot afford – he really is in a tricky position in terms of World Cup participation. If Toulon insist on playing him against the Scarlets in their opening game of the European Champions Cup this weekend, any chance of a return to the England fold will effectively be on hold until next summer when, theoretically, he would be available for England’s training camp, if they want him.
It is a slender thread. While Armitage has toyed with the idea of representing France, having previously lived in Nice between the ages of 10 to 15, he was unequivocal when the Guardian last asked him how good it would feel to wear the white jersey again: “Playing for your country is still a big thing for me. You can’t get any bigger than that and I’d love to play for England. If I do get another chance I’m definitely going to take it with two hands.”
He has also repeatedly made the point that playing in France and rubbing shoulders with Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith and Chris Masoe has made him a better player and matured him as an individual. That may be true but, at this precise moment, it is not getting him any closer to playing in the World Cup. Unless he can somehow persuade Boudjellal and Toulon’s coach, Bernard Laporte, to have a change of heart, he is going to have to watch Robshaw et al try to win the Webb Ellis Cup without him. It is the downside of signing a lucrative new three-year contract with Toulon only a year ago; had he contacted Bath then he would have saved himself a load of hassle.
