5 Players Who Could Move to France If England Lift Their Overseas Ban

Stuart Lancaster faces the toughest decision of his coaching career as he ponders his England squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Chief among the issues to wrestle with is whether to scrap the Rugby Football Union’s rule prohibiting the selection of players based overseas.

The debate has centred on Steffon Armitage since the Toulon back-rower was crowned 2014’s European Player of the Year.

Yet that achievement was still not deemed worthy of Lancaster invoking the "exceptional circumstance" rule that would have allowed him to bring the former London Irish man in from the international wilderness.

The recent European Champions Cup quarter-finals reignited the discussion about England’s stance on overseas players, with Nick Abendanon joining Armitage as a candidate for selection.

The Clermont Auvergne full-back was inspired as his team demolished English champions Northampton, creating and scoring tries for fun.

If it was as simple as boosting England’s chances by having the freedom to judge these players in the same way he assesses those playing in the Premiership, it’s highly likely they would already be penciled in for at least this summer’s extended training squad.

But it’s not. It never is.

The key unintended consequence of scrapping the rule would be fresh conflict between the RFU and English clubs, who are restricted by a salary cap that allows French club sides to attract the best players on much fatter contracts.

The body currently compensates clubs for use of its England players, and players picked for England collect a healthy amount of cash that somewhat balances out the money they miss out on by not hopping across the water to earn the mega money on offer from the likes of Toulon.

But there would be little incentive for those clubs to rear so much young English talent if they couldn’t stop them leaving for the bigger bucks over the Channel with no fear of missing out on England duty.

Former England international Austin Healy wrote in The Telegraph:

The Premiership directors of rugby will have said to Stuart: 'If you realise this clause then we are going to stop signing English players and you are going to spend a lot more time in France watching those English players play in a league that does not play the same way as the English rugby team.'

It could, as Healy intimates, open the floodgates.

So who would this affect? Which England stars could be poised for a move to the big boys in the Top 14 if the shackles come off?

Here are our five top candidates.

Danny Cipriani spurned the advances of Toulon at the turn of the year to commit to Sale, per the Manchester Evening News:

The thing that swayed it was obviously getting the opportunity to play for England but you look at the youngsters we have coming through here at Sale and it’s exciting.

It feels like me when I was younger and they’re probably the most talented group in the Premiership - there are a good six of them.

The Toulon offer was tempting because out of all the clubs in the world, Toulon does tempt you with the set-up.

The former Wasps man has already exiled himself once with his stint in Melbourne. He returned to battle his way back into the affections of the England coaches and has done just that.

However, the recent Six Nations provided him with little more than fleeting cameos in the England shirt he so publicly craves.

The writing seems to be on the wall for his prospects as a starter under the Lancaster regime.

Just weeks after agreeing a new deal with Sale in a bid to boost his England chances, he could now see the rulebook shredded and the door opened for players from the very club who wanted to sign him to wear the red rose again.

You wouldn't blame him for casting envious glances down at the Med.

Tom Croft has had a horrible time with injuries but is another to have signed back on with his club, Leicester Tigers, per Dan Schofield in The Telegraph. It was a move that that even Tigers boss Richard Cockerill revealed was partly down to sentiment.

His chances of forcing his way into the England side for this year’s World Cup, however, are slim.

With back-row options including the trio who started this year’s Six Nations plus Nick Easter, Ben Morgan, Tom Wood and now possibly Steffon Armitage, there are a lot of bodies to fight through, even if the two-time Lions tourist does regain full fitness.

Croft, who featured twice off the bench for England in this year’s Six Nations, will be nearing 34 when the next World Cup arrives and, in all likelihood, nearing the end of a career pockmarked with nasty injuries.

Austin Healy says in his Telegraph piece:

Most people look at this as an England v clubs issue, but it actually is a three-way dynamic including the players who want to maximise their earnings. That is their right. When a lot of these guys finish, they will need to have built up a big pot because many of them will end up in jobs that will not pay anywhere near what they earn now.

Approaching 30, Croft may well surmise that with an England career that could be fast fading into history, the route to filling that pot is through the ferry terminal at Dover.

And let’s not forget he would not be the first player to land on French soil and see his injury troubles melt away.

Jonny Wilkinson was scarcely able to leave his house in Newcastle for fear of picking up another knock, but no sooner did he pull on a Toulon shirt than he was enjoying long, uninterrupted sun-soaked runs in the team and his England career took off again.

Food for thought for this talented back-rower.

Jonathan Joseph has exploded onto the international scene this year with a hatful of tries and dazzling footwork.

His Six Nations performances have all but guaranteed the Bath man the starting No. 13 shirt at the World Cup.

It was Joseph’s performance for his club on French soil, however, that propelled him into the team.

The former London Irish player ripped Toulouse apart during Bath’s away win down on the banks of the Garonne.

That would not have gone unnoticed by Guy Noves or the other top club sides in the Top 14.

With his England place secure and the overseas ban lifted, why would he not take up the chance to play alongside Gael Fickou at Toulouse, Wesley Fofana at Clermont or Matt Giteau in Toulon?

Dave Attwood is one of a clutch of England players under the management of new "super agency" Esportif, a body that recently merged with English agency Big Red Management and has an impressive roster of talent on its books, per Gavin Mairs in The Telegraph.

Attwood is the second-oldest England international signed to the group after James Haskell, who has already sampled the Top 14, among other overseas leagues, and he may well be ready to tread a similar path. Big Red chief executive Mark Spoors told the paper:

A number of players often speak to James Haskell who was criticised in some camps for travelling the world, playing in top leagues in Japan, France as well as Super 15, but look at him now. He is captain of one of the top clubs (Wasps) in Britain and back in the England squad. He was the anomaly but soon could be the norm.

After starting the Six Nations in the team, Attwood was dropped entirely by its conclusion, making way for Courtney Lawes and Geoff Parling.

If he is honest, he faces a fight for inclusion in the 2015 squad once Joe Launchbury has proved his fitness and will not make another World Cup.

Having extended his deal at Bath in 2013, he could now be thinking about his next move—one that brings in the maximum possible reward.

Northampton skipper Dylan Hartley rejected a move to Montpellier to sign back on with the Saints in December, stating in his column in The Sun (h/t Sky Sports) that England honours were a factor in his decision.

So what if that incentive to stay was no longer there?

Hartley may well feel a deep sense of loyalty to a club who stuck by him through thick and thin, but a rugby player’s career is a short one. Another huge offer from a club in France–in the full knowledge that it wouldn’t affect his England prospects–may be harder to turn down.