1
Henry Arundell may be unavailable for England until 2026 but Exeter boss Rob Baxter insists the restriction on selecting overseas-based players must remain in place.
ADVERTISEMENT
Arundell has signed a two-year contract extension with Racing 92 after turning down a move to Bath that would also have included one of the Rugby Football Union’s 25 ‘hybrid contracts’.
It means the English game’s most exciting talent, who plundered five tries in the World Cup match against Chile in September, is off-limits to Steve Borthwick for over two years.
Arundell’s decision has renewed the spotlight on the RFU’s rule that only those players competing in the Gallagher Premiership can be considered, but Baxter insists it is necessary for a healthy league.
“How will we promote our competition as being at a very high level if you’re wide open to the best players playing outside the country?” the Chiefs director of rugby said.
“That will never help promote the Premiership and without promoting the Premiership I don’t think you’ll ever get a successful England side.
“The best way to keep young players in this country is by letting them know that staying in this country gives them the best opportunity to play international rugby.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Baxter is preparing Exeter for Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup clash with Munster at Sandy Park as the Devonians look to build on their impressive one-point victory at Toulon in round one.
The triumph on the Cote d’Azur was among the highlights of a superb weekend for the Premiership, whose clubs recorded seven wins in eight games, including four against Top 14 sides.
The results come amid concerns over the league’s ability to compete on the European stage, not least because of a smaller salary cap, and at a time when a number of England players including Arundell and his England team-mates Jack Willis and Joe Marchant have headed across the Channel.
Baxter suspects the Premiership teams may have been underestimated in round one and will reserve judgement over what it means until deeper into the competition.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Because of the negativity surrounding the Premiership lately, it would be very easy to take the Premiership clubs lightly. Maybe that’s what happened,” he said.
“There’s not a first-team player in the Premiership who is not a good, determined professional rugby player and you’ve seen that in how competitive the games have been.
“We should be talking positively about the Premiership and the results at the weekend bear that out. There should be more positivity around the Premiership than there is, but also we need to back that up.
“English teams will be competitive, our challenge going forward is how we maintain that. We’ll know the answer a little bit down the line, it’s a little early to tell after one round.
“If we get to the latter stages and there are a few Premiership clubs involved, then we can start to look at the reasons why that’s happened.”
Shouldn’t Baxter keep out of it?
Besides, isn’t he poacher turned gamekeeper? When Exeter cane up wasn’t the conservative Baxter all for stifling English rugby then too with ring fencing?
At the end of a day it’s a job and Arundell has made a decision about his career based on his own reasoning. We don’t berate bankers for moving to Singapore or a lawyer for deciding to move to New York, so I don’t get the polemic around a player who clearly doesn’t suit the playing style of the current England set up deciding to better himself in another environment, spend a few years living in Paris, learn a new language and play with some of the biggest names in world rugby in a competition that blows the premiership out of the water for intensity and atmosphere, under a head coach in Stuart Lancaster, a backs coach in Joe Rockococo and an attack coach in Fred Michalak… in exchange for about a million euros over the course of his contract. The sacrifice? Warming the bench on yet another 4th or 5th place Six Nations campaign with an England team who’s attack is governed by the Borthwick / Wigglesworth principle of booting the leather off the ball because the data says so.
Pour moi, c'est une évidence.
Disagree, players should not be stopped by wanting progression and also its insane to think that paying for England is the be all and end all for a player. With the disastrous Jones gone the ripple effect of his management lives on, why should a fabulous player like Arundel not take a lucrative deal the French clubs offer when he is not guaranteed a place in a very Negative and Turgid England style? The premiership is a joke, and we still have one of the most competitive leagues in the world and time and time again shock and compete and beat teams with values dwarfing our funding. Its time for change, we need to look at franchising and flooding the game with intelligent money, then we will keep the odd great prospect, but let’s be honest, who in Europe is really a world beater that England have lost? Arundel yet to be tested properly but could be great, Itoje may go, but we have tons of awesome second rows coming through, and all the others really have not been mist that much. Im not sure we have much of a issue really. What the conversation should really be about is why do we keep funding, training and coaching Foreigners like the SA team… this needs to stop..
The best way to keep young players in this country is by having a decent competition, one with real jeopardy that actually pays players well. These arbitrary rules just weaken the competition and clubs.
I am surprised at Mr Baxter's hypocrisy. If the Premiereship, especially Exeter Chiefs, consisted of only English players I'd agree with him. The fact that every team has players from all over the world pretty much negates his argument. Sauce for the goose etc.
Baxter is wrong, plain wrong. England suffers for two reasons, 1) the restrictions keeping mediocre players confirmed to England's coaching standards without allowing them the potential to blossom in another culture's league and 2) by allowing so many foreigners from South Africa, Argentina, the Pacific Islands etc., and in key positions too thereby giving them the opportunity to improve their own country's quality. One Example? Faf de Klerk. Look at Baxter's own team. Plenty of NON-English last time I looked.
Absolutely FUMING with this comment from Baxter.
How is it any different to what he has done with Joe Hawkins stealing him from Wales.
He missed the World Cup because Baxter signed him.
Cannot blame Arundell or any other English players leaving England. Ignored by both Jones and Borthwick and frankly Borthwick choosing Farrell at 10 meants any creative winger would hardly see any ball. Add the “attack” coaches lack of any attacking background and it is no wonder the backs prefer to play in France.