Leicester Tigers
Stuart Lancaster urged to resist picking France-based players
ESPN Staff
May 6, 2015
Stuart Lancaster
Stuart Lancaster© David Rogers/Getty Images

Stuart Lancaster has been urged to resist picking France-based players for England's World Cup squad.

Lancaster has been under increasing pressure to consider Toulon's Steffon Armitage and Clermont's newly-crowned European Player of the Year Nick Abendanon for his World Cup training squad, but has so far remained unmoved.

Under current Rugby Football Union guidelines, Lancaster can only pick players based outside the Aviva Premiership in 'exceptional circumstances'. However, despite seeing Australia recently reverse their stance on selecting overseas-based players, Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill believes it would be "hugely damaging" to the domestic game if England followed suit.

"It's essential that it stays the way it is," said Cockerill. "You want English players playing in the Premiership. If you take that away and allow players to go anywhere in the world and still get picked for England, then I think it would be hugely damaging to the Premiership - there's no getting away from that.

"Why wouldn't you go to France for five, six, seven or eight hundred thousand euros and then get the best part of £20,000 a game for playing for England? Most players in the England side have made conscious decisions to stay in England with their clubs.

"Maybe those players think morale would be different if you go and play wherever and come back and play for England. You could go out and play in Japan in the first part of the season and come and play the Six Nations in England and double your money. I think it's going to be hugely damaging if it becomes an open market."

© ESPN Staff

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