Wales’s four regions are seeking assurances that the agreed selection policy for the national side will be enforced by Warren Gatland, who could face having to pick a weakened squad after the World Cup as a result.
The regions were alarmed by last week’s statement from Gatland that unlike England, Wales did not have a hard-and-fast policy when it came to the selection of players who were based outside the country. The regions argue that Gatland is bound by the service agreement signed between themselves and the WRU last year, which allows him to pick only two players from outside Wales this year unless others can prove that they fulfil one of the criteria for an exemption.
While England’s rule is that anyone who does not play for a Premiership club will only be picked in “exceptional circumstances”, the rugby service agreement signed after a long stand-off stipulates: “The fundamental principle of the WRU senior player selection policy is that … only players who play in Wales will be eligible for selection to the senior national squad.”
Five of Wales’s starting line-up in the final match of the Six Nations were based in England or France while the No8 Toby Faletau has missed a deadline to sign a dual contract and is free to leave Newport Gwent Dragons next year with Cardiff Blues’ Alex Cuthbert in the same position. The issue has come to a head because the Lions centre Jamie Roberts is on the brink of signing for Harlequins.
Last week, Gatland had said that if Roberts, who is leaving Racing Métro, turned down an offer from Cardiff Blues and joined Harlequins as expected, he would still be available for selection. “There is not a hard-and-fast rule as there is with England. There are exceptions with players playing outside Wales and one or two wildcards we could pick. The long-term goal is to have a policy where, ideally, we pick players who are playing in Wales.”
The regions insist this is already in place because the service agreement includes the clause: “The selection policy will be considered at the rugby management board on an annual basis and contain appropriate and reasonable safeguards [as agreed by the national head coach] but will, at all times, reflect the principles set out in paragraph 9 [which lays out the selection policy]” in the service agreement.
Wales’s policy has even become known as Gatland’s law with the implication that selection of players outside Wales is down to the head coach’s discretion, but the regions will make the point at the next management board meeting that it is part of a written agreement they want enforced.
The exceptions in the policy mean that it does not apply to: players yet to be picked in the squad; players whose dual, or regional, contract is bettered by a club outside Wales; players who at the start of the service agreement were based outside Wales; and players who come out of contract with a region and are not offered one by any of the four.
Under the service agreement, Gatland is allowed to pick two players from outside Wales in its first two years, three in the third, four in the fourth and fifth years (which takes in the 2019 World Cup) and two in the sixth. Roberts would be a test case if he joins Harlequins – leaving Racing Métro means he would lose the exemption of having already been based outside Wales. Cardiff Blues felt they had secured his return last month, but Gatland would only be able to pick him if the player proved to the satisfaction of the management board that he had received a better offer from the London club or that no more than one of the other players in the squad who were playing outside Wales (currently Leigh Halfpenny, George North, Jonathan Davies, Richard Hibbard, Luke Charteris, Roberts, Mike Phillips and, from next season, Rhys Priestland) was not an exception under the selection policy rule.
There is a clause that allows another exception to cover injuries, although Gatland would need the agreement of the four regional head coaches, as well as a player deemed to have given exceptional service who moves outside the country, but the regions insist that the nature of the policy means that Gatland is bound by it.
They point out that it is reviewed at the end of the season and that while its core aim is to decrease the number of senior squad players who earn their livings in England or France, the number is going up.
