Eddie Jones weighs in on the biggest debate in English rugby currently

Former head coach Eddie Jones believes it is the “next step” for England to pick players from abroad, saying it is “just a matter of when” it happens.

While the current Japan coach feels the RFU have been right in only selecting Gallagher Premiership-based players for England, he recently explained to Jim Hamilton on The Big Jim Show that the natural progression as rugby becomes more professional is to allow players to play anywhere, copying the “most mature professional sport in the world,” football.

The exodus of English players to the Top 14 in recent years has meant that this issue is as pressing as ever. While the Australian had to contend with a handful of players who were excelling in France yet unable to represent England, Steve Borthwick currently has far more players that he cannot select.

Toulouse’s Jack Willis is the headline player who is barred from playing Test rugby, who, at the age of 28, is in the prime of his career. Jones, who gave Willis his first cap in 2020, said that the flanker “would give anything to play for England,” after talking to him last year, and believes he has “exploded” while in France, much in the same way he says Finn Russell did while with Racing 92, which has in turn helped Scotland.

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The 2016 Grand Slam-winning coach used reigning world champions South Africa as the example that England should follow, who scrapped their overseas policy and have reaped the rewards with their best players being paid abroad and their clubs developing younger players.

“I think England rugby has probably been right in not allowing players to play overseas, but I think now as the sport gets more mature professionally, they’ve got to let them got and they’ve got to be able to pick them,” he said.

“A player like Jack Willis, at the end of the day, the only thing you’ve got to be worried about is whether the player is getting better and Jack Willis has definitely got better at Toulouse. If he’s not one of the best back-rowers in the world now, then you and I probably aren’t sitting in this room, it’s AI.

“He is exceptional. I saw him come up and I might have picked him for his first Test. He was a good player but nowhere near the player he is now. You just look at him, his body shape has changed. It’s tough [in France], and if he doesn’t play well, he doesn’t get picked, so he’s fit.

“His game’s been exposed to a different game. Everything in France is about the ball carrier keeping the ball alive and that’s changed Jack’s game, because he’s much more agile on his feet, he’s a much more dynamic ball carrier because he’s thinking he’s got to offload. His game’s just really exploded.

“The Premiership don’t want to lose their best players, which you can understand, because if they then lose their best players the marketability of the competition goes down. I reckon the next step is let them go and produce better younger players.

“I tell you, [Willis] would give anything to play for England. I caught up with him in November, had a quick chat with him, and he wants to play for England. It will come, it’s just a matter of when it comes.

“Look at South Africa. South Africa got beaten by Japan in 2015, 2016 changed their Currie Cup, moved out of Super Rugby, go to the URC, told their players to go anywhere in the world they wanted to play. They developed all these young players, their best players are at good clubs and they get better. I reckon for England that’s going to be the next step.”