{"id":11118,"date":"2024-10-04T16:10:38","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T16:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=11118"},"modified":"2024-10-04T16:10:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T16:10:38","slug":"england-no-change-in-eligibility-rules-expected-as-test-players-should-be-playing-in-the-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=11118","title":{"rendered":"England: No change in eligibility rules expected as Test players &#8216;should be playing in the Premiership&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta content=\"uuidVoFjvrREHMNi\" \/><meta \/><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Steve Borthwick will not be able to select players based abroad this season or next as England will keep current restrictions, according to Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Premiership CEO claims that there is no desire among the clubs and RFU to relax the current eligibility rules despite several top talents departing English shores after the Rugby World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">No change in England\u2019s eligibility rules<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The current eligibility rules are designed to keep the country\u2019s top stars in the Premiership and give the England head coach greater control over his players. However, there is an \u2018exceptional circumstances\u2019 clause which saw Toulouse\u2019s Jack Willis picked during the Six Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Willis is the lone example of the clause since 2011, with dispensation only granted due to Wasps\u2019 financial collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This means that from next season, Willis will be ineligible for selection as he is set to re-sign for the Top 14 club. The flanker recently called for a\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">change in the rules.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f \u201cI have made up my mind; I need to get the last couple of things finalised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f Jack Willis hopes England will change their eligibility rules as he makes a decision on his future.https:\/\/t.co\/9HSeb40MN6<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) March 21, 2023<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Borthwick wants the overseas policy eased to pick the \u201cbest players available\u201d. A good chunk of his expected Rugby World Cup squad will head to the Top 14 next season, including Luke Cowan-Dickie, Sam Simmonds, David Ribbans and Joe Marchant.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201c<\/span>International players should be playing in the Premiership<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">However, the prospect of relaxing the eligibility rules has been ruled out as talks continue over the new Professional Game Agreement that comes into effect in July 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cHaving our English players playing within the Premiership is important for England and for the Premiership,\u201d Massie-Taylor told the PA news agency at an event for Funding Circle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cFrom the RFU\u2019s, ours and even the players\u2019 perspective, we all see the importance of England internationals playing domestically.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cProvisions exist for exceptional circumstances that will probably still carry on going forward, but we all agree England international players should be playing in the Premiership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cThere will always be an international market for players, and players have that choice to go abroad and not play for England.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Central contracts<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall stated on Wednesday that central contracts should be \u201ctop of the agenda\u201d at the PGA while also tabling the idea of a \u201csalary share\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cIt should be top of the agenda, central contracts,\u201d McCall said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cIf there is an opportunity to do something a bit differently and for club and country to work very closely together over a particular player.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cMaybe share his salary? We all know the top international players will be unavailable for half your programme anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cProbably down the years, it has been unfair on the club to pay that player his full salary if that\u2019s the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cYou need to understand as well that as soon as the RFU start to contribute towards someone\u2019s salary, then you lose a bit of control over that player, but I think that\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">McCall added: \u201cIt is a potential solution when you see how well the Irish system works. Central contracts work very well for both provinces and Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Success for England and English clubs<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cIt is a bit different here. There are more clubs, but I am sure a sensible, reasonable solution to it can be arrived at if there\u2019s will on both sides to allow that to happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Massie-Taylor says that the PGA negotiations are being driven by a \u201cdesire to see a winning England and winning English clubs\u201d and added that middle ground is being sought to mitigate the risk for the Premiership teams after Wasps&#8217; and Worcester\u2019s collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cWe have an existing system in place in terms of access, and historically that\u2019s worked pretty well. We are discussing how that can be improved,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cAlongside that \u2013 and I think this is perhaps what Mark is alluding to \u2013 is generally around financial risk because we have a system where the principle financial burden of the system falls on the people who are funding the rugby clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cThat\u2019s clearly in quite a fragile state at the moment, so we need to have a discussion around sharing more risk and around England stars as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Striking a balance<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cWhat Mark is describing I probably wouldn\u2019t define as central contracting; it\u2019s more shared contracting. It\u2019s been discussed \u2013 those types of things are always on the table.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cClubs invest into these players from a very early age, bringing them through the academy system and developing them to the point of England selection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cRightfully, clubs need to be able to reap the benefits of developing England players, and you also want to properly incentivise clubs to develop and pick England players. You don\u2019t want to make it a disincentive to develop a top star.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cThere are certain things in place already, and that\u2019s another obvious thing to look at \u2013 to make sure that Saracens still want England players in their team while recognising they\u2019re not going to be there the whole time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cWhen we were doing the rounds with clubs last summer to talk about the future PGA, central contracts were mooted, but I don\u2019t necessarily see them as a shared belief amongst other clubs as well. There\u2019s a balance to be struck here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">READ MORE:\u00a0<\/span>State of the Nation: Change of coach fails to have desired effect for England leaving Steve Borthwick with much to ponder<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Click Here: <a href='https:\/\/www.jerstores.com\/United-Kingdom-Rugby-Jerseys\/Northampton-Saints' title='northampton saints rugby jerseys'>northampton saints rugby jerseys<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Borthwick will not be able to select players based abroad this season or next as England will keep current restrictions, according to Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor. The Premiership CEO claims that there is no desire among the clubs and RFU to relax the current eligibility rules despite several top talents departing English&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}