The RFU and Stuart Lancaster make no secret of their selection policy of not picking players that play overseas for the national team. However two words were floating off many peoples lips throughout the Six Nations, and in the build up to the recent tour of New Zealand; “Steffon Armitage”. How long can Lancaster keep ignoring the subject, and not pick, in many peoples opinions, one of the best back row forwards around at the moment.
Since he took over, Lancaster has undoubtedly been a revelation creating a core group of players with a great work ethos, based on loyalty and integrity. He has cleared up the mess that his predecessors had left behind, and has got English rugby going in the right direction again This echoes within the fan base who also share the same optimism going into 2015. Englands policy is very simple and is admired by many: move abroad and take any chances of an international career with you until you return and show the form required. He has been shown to be flexible with that core group, by bringing back Danny Cipriani and James Haskell for the recent tour, both have been deemed to be eccentric characters and potentially toxic to the group. He did take some convincing indeed, and the risk paid off with Haskell unlucky not to be selected for the 2nd and 3rd tests with Tom Wood being present, and Cipriani showing composure and maturity in the ten jersey when given the chance. Therefore the question still remains, why won’t he be flexible with Armitage?
His career really kick started at London Irish, with him going on to make over 50 appearances for the exiles and going on to play for England in the 2009 Six Nations and test series against Argentina. Then for the 2011/12 season he made the move over to France as an understudy to Joe Van Niekerk, and has slowly come into his own, despite playing at eight because of the likes of Juan Smith and Fernandez Lobbe. He is still deadly in defence and predator-like all over the field in carries and breakdown work. In recognition of this he was recently named the ERC player of the year for 2013-2014; this award is one few can argue with.
Despite this, he still hasn’t been given the nod. Experts such as Will Greenwood and Lewis Moody are for the notion of picking him and the recent tour would have seemingly been a perfect opportunity. With an injury-depleted squad, and confusing logistics in terms of player selection, why not just throw him in? However there are many that don’t believe he should be picked and therefore share the opinion of Lancaster. The fear would be if he was picked, then this would create a foreign exodus of players who will still be expect to be picked even though they are playing abroad; therefore ruining the ethos Lancaster has spent the last few years creating. England have very suitable candidates at eight currently in the form of Ben Morgan and Billy Vunipola, however Armitage may add an extra edge they currently don’t possess in the player pool available. If the Heineken cup final was anything to go by, this would certainly be true as Armitage outshone Vunipola in every aspect.
Even though the policy is admirable, every rule can be bent to some extent and Armitage is in such scintillating form that England really can’t afford not to experiment this once. The risk being that this may not be the only case, and in the future more world class talent will be unable to represent England because of this policy. If England are as serious as they say they are about winning the World Cup, exceptions for some players could be a catalyst, especially as it can give the squad a different edge and make it even better.
It will be very interesting to see how events unfold over the next season and into the World Cup, for now I, like many, can only speculate about what may happen.
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