I need to preface this article with the fact that it is impossible for me to separate my own experience and choices from comparison with those involved in the furore with Overseas players and the unfortunately titled “exceptional circumstances”.

I am an actor – I decided (madly) that money would come second to feeling happy, and that occasionally I would be sacrificing financial gain for doing something worthwhile. Of course, sometimes you aren’t doing anything worthwhile, like when you find yourself in a stock room above a pub in Camden that’s masquerading as a studio theatre, being shouted at by a mad Russian for not “bringing the party”, whatever that means. Anyway, I digress. The point is, that I am doing something I love for a total pittance, because I enjoy and believe in it.

I would have given anything to play professional rugby, and would have given whatever I had left to play for England. We talk a lot about professional players needing to maximise their assets, to earn as much as they can before their short career is over, before they have to find a place in the world beyond playing. That is something I sympathise with completely. The day I hang up my acting boots will be a terrifying one – my degree is in “Acting”, which doesn’t open a lot of post-graduate doors, and I am largely unskilled, so I am going to have to start from scratch.

The thing is, it isn’t like Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon wouldn’t have had good salaries had they stayed in the Premiership. But that isn’t the point. I don’t even need to suggest that money was indeed why they moved. They may have wanted a fresh challenge, a new start, a new league, more sun; Steffon may have wanted á la Billy Vunipola to play alongside his brother (the irony of course being that no one in England seemed able to cope with that concept at the time) and Nick may have wanted to play for a new club but not have to compete directly in a domestic league with Bath.

Either way, whatever their reasons for moving, at some point they signed a contract knowing that it meant they would not, except for “exceptional circumstances” be picked for England – and this is the key point.

At one moment in time, they put playing in France before playing for England. And no one should hold that against them. But, equally, no one should be fooled by their plaintive interviews saying how much they have always wanted to play for England, because they didn’t have to go to France. No one made them. They were getting plenty of game time. Here I cannot stress enough how I hold absolutely nothing against the pair of them. They are playing brilliantly, and are in the form of their careers and I congratulate them for that.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about “exceptional circumstances”. Does a player playing really well warrant exceptional circumstances? Not really. An exceptional circumstance would be Chris Robshaw, who was easily one of the best performers in the Six Nations and all those underneath him in the pecking order being injured leaving, say, only Matt Kvesic available – that would be exceptional. If Mike Brown and Alex Goode were arrested for kidnap and couldn’t play – that would be exceptional. A good player playing well who made the decision, with whatever motivators, to move to France and thus wilfully rule himself out of contention for an England spot is not exceptional. It is an unfortunate circumstance.

Brad Barritt and players like him raise discussions over who should and who shouldn’t be allowed to play for England, and talks of residency rules and what “nationality” means. To me, personally, it is about two things. One – if you consider yourself to be English. No one can take that away from you or tell you that you are wrong. That is your feeling, your decision, and your right. Borders are something we created, not nature, and so when you pull on that white shirt and feel the rose press against your chest, if it means everything to you then you are English, and that is the end of it. No one could question Brad Barritt’s commitment – he has shown how much being English means to him.

The second point is the most important – do you want to play for England? Did Steffon Armitage want to play for England? If he did – why did he re-sign with Toulon?

If Stuart Lancaster had picked those two players, then we would, undoubtedly see an exodus to France. That is beyond dispute. There was nearly a whole team of England World Cup squad members playing in Premiership Final. You could have had an entire England backline out of those two teams. It isn’t greedy or self-involved to want to have all your best players playing in the country they represent – I grew up playing back-row watching Richard Hill at Saracens and it was the single biggest influence on how I played the game. If I had grown up unable to watch players like him and Tom Rees, Tony Diprose, Neil Back, Lewis Moody, James Forrester, Pete Buxton and others playing week in week out because they had all gone to France, as today’s equivalents may well do if those floodgates are opened, I wouldn’t be half as in love with the game as I am now.

Stuart Lancaster made the right call. It was apparently a controversial call, however, being there were no exceptional circumstances, not a particularly difficult one.

Filed under: Rugby World Cup, Six Nations, England

Written by: Peter Randall

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