Even before Manu Tuilagi was airbrushed from England’s Rugby World Cup plans this was always going to be a tricky few days for Stuart Lancaster. A once-in-a-generation opportunity is looming in four months’ time and the head coach has to get his training squad right on Wednesday. He needs to cover all his tactical bases, not least around the ever-crucial breakdown. So how come the leading turnover specialist in Europe is destined not to make the cut?
To lose one potential match-winner, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is unfortunate. To jettison a second in the shape of Steffon Armitage, albeit in very different circumstances, would seem more than a little careless.
Just imagine the reaction if England trail in third behind Australia and Wales in the World Cup pool stages having clung to their jobsworth selection policy on overseas-based contenders. They will be a laughing stock in two hemispheres.
What is it about English sport and its handling of non-conformists? One of the Premiership’s leading overseas imports believes the national psyche has much to answer for. “I’ve noticed they don’t like change in this country, do they?” he murmured, adding his voice to those who believe it will be a major omission if the dynamic Armitage is not written into Lancaster’s notebook. “There’s absolutely no doubt he would improve the squad.” It was hard to disagree with him on either point.
Because, at the very least, too many people connected with English rugby seem to be missing the bigger picture. The Rugby Football Union and its leading clubs are tiptoeing towards a PR implosion. People can talk all they like about legacy but mess up a home World Cup campaign and a rosy future for club and country is immeasurably harder to construct.
My neutral mole, who has been canvassing the Premiership dressing-room mood, is particularly unconvinced by the argument that activating the exceptional-circumstances clause in this instance would seriously undermine the domestic league and lead to a mass exodus of English talent to France. He points out success across the Channel is far from guaranteed – “The grass looks greener in the Top 14 but very often it isn’t” – because training regimes are haphazard at certain clubs and restrictions on the number of non-homegrown étrangers have also increased. Some opportunists will always try to inflate their existing salaries by proclaiming a lifelong ambition to play for Oyonnax but there are plenty who have found rugby life in France less than fulfilling.
As for the bleating that it is not fair for France-based players to be considered for England in a World Cup year, take a look around. Wales do not ideally want their players playing abroad either but they know a hard and fast rule is increasingly unworkable.
It is 2015 and the world has moved on. Global commuting is now a reality. It’s not dissimilar to an outstanding British actor making a movie in Hollywood only to be told he cannot attend auditions back at home until he relocates permanently from Los Angeles to Cricklewood.
So let’s put the scaremongering in perspective and recognise an exception always exists to every rule. All that is required in eligibility terms – and it could be done today – is to make one single modest adjustment.
In a World Cup year – when the pressure to achieve is at its most intense – the national coach would be given the freedom to select one wildcard pick from outside the domestic game. To be eligible an overseas-based player would already have to be a capped England international, have made his Premiership debut a minimum of 10 years previously and played in England’s domestic competition for at least half the intervening period.
Armitage, who turns 30 in September, would fit those criteria, having first played for Saracens off the bench against Newcastle on 28 January 2005 and represented London Irish as recently as May 2011. In contrast Clermont’s Nick Abendanon, who did not make his Bath league debut until November 2005, would narrowly miss out.
Convenient? Maybe. Realistic? Certainly. It is a whole lot tighter than the exceptional-circumstances clause that has been causing so much kerfuffle. It would also reinforce the policy the RFU and the Premiership clubs are so keen to maintain by keeping younger players at home and effectively favouring only elite overseas-based players in the final years of their careers.
Lest we forget, it would also enhance England’s chances this autumn.
Australia, Wales and South Africa will all be whistling up overseas-based players themselves to ensure the best possible chance of success. For Michael Hooper, David Pocock, Sam Warburton and co, Armitage’s absence from England’s wider squad would be great news. And what will be the hosts’ back-up plan if Chris Robshaw – heaven forbid – injures himself between now and mid-September and leaves them short on the openside flank? Sporting bodies who entangle their national teams in a surfeit of red tape tend to receive little sympathy.
Lancaster, in short, has to be the sole master of his own destiny, regardless of the pressure some have sought to exert. Being told, as national head coach, who he can or cannot pick by union officials, the leading clubs or even his own players is totally unacceptable. If he does not want Armitage in his squad, either on tactical grounds or because of a perceived risk to team unity, that is absolutely fine. This is a career-shaping choice with potentially major ramifications and he must make it for himself. Better that than being hoist with someone else’s petard.
