Joe Marler offers alternative to England’s ‘ban’ on overseas players as RFU resist change
Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney and England prop Joe Marler.
Harlequins prop Joe Marler has called for the RFU to lift the ‘ban’ on selecting overseas-based players for England.
England head coach Steve Borthwick is currently not permitted to select overseas-based players despite a host of star players plying their trade in the French Top 14.
An exception was made for Toulouse flanker Jack Willis last year during the Rugby World Cup following the collapse of Wasps, but he is no longer eligible under current policies.
Likewise for the likes of Sam Simmonds, Joe Marchant and Henry Arundell, with several Premiership stars set to join in France next season, including Saracens captain Owen Farrell, Sale Sharks’ centre Manu Tuilagi, Northampton Saints’ skipper Lewis Ludlam and Bristol Bears tighthead Kyle Sinckler.
Lift the ban!
Despite the exodus of talent, Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney says that there is no chance that their eligibility rules will be changed.
“Where we currently stand on the policy of only selecting players based in England stays as it is,” Sweeney stated. “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?'”
Sweeney’s comments have not been met well on the whole, with 93-Test cap England prop Marler urging that RFU should change their tune and suggested an alternative.
“Lift the bloody oversees ban!” Marler wrote on social media platform X, fomerly Twitter.
“Get a “minimum cap rule” in place and let the boys play!”
Marler’s suggestion is similar to the current policy Wales have in place with Welsh with their threshold set at 25 caps, having dropped in 2023 due to the financial difficulties in Welsh Rugby.
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With Premiership clubs struggling to retain the services of some of their top players, adopting this kind of policy would still make it possible for the likes of Farrell and Tuilagi to still be eligible for selection.
Farrell has played over 100 Test matches for England and will be joining Racing 92 next season, while Tuilagi earned his 60th Test cap for England during the 2024 Six Nations.
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Resisting change
Regardless, Sweeney added that the RFU are happy with the current policy even if it has been successful for double World Cup winners South Africa who he believes is an outliner.
“If you look at the number of players going abroad, it doesn’t really impact our core group of England players quite so much,” he said.
“There are maybe one or two that you think we would rather have over here. Joe Marchant is rumoured to be coming back to the Premiership this year, so from our perspective, we are okay with it.
“We think there is a performance advantage to having those players based in your own country.
“New Zealand do it – I know there has been coverage about whether or not they should do it going forward – France do it, Ireland do it. The obvious outlier is South Africa, they don’t do it and they’ve won the past two World Cups.
“So the way things currently stand, we are sticking to that overseas rule.”
Quiz: Can you name the ten most capped England rugby players of all-time?
