English rugby players moving to France - good or bad thing?

[Kermit power]

So, a number of English players have decided to head off to play for French clubs, as they'll get more money, and given the short nature of a professional sporting career, who can blame them?

What I'm wondering is whether this is a good or a bad thing for the national side as a whole? There's plenty of comment suggesting that this is some sort of disaster because Johnson will have less player availability, but the current crop of England players don't seem to be all that hot anyway, and one of the reasons frequently stated for that is the lack of opportunity for homegrown players, given the number of foreign players in the GP.

Now, if the French clubs are able to pull in top flight English players, is there any reason to assume they won't also be pulling many of the other top flight players from other nationalities who until now have been heading for this country? Move forward 10 years, and will we see the editorial in L'Equipe bemoaning the dearth of French players due to the number of foreign players in their top division preventing the development of new young stars? Will England have a rejuvenated squad allowing them to crush all before them, or will the Old Farts be bleating on about insufficient access to players still?

It seems to me that you can't have it both ways?

[Fittster]

As they say Money Talks. Players have far more interest in their wallets than the national team and who can blame them.

Edited by Fittster on Saturday 21st February 00:50

[Derek Smith]

Kermit power said:

So, a number of English players have decided to head off to play for French clubs, as they'll get more money, and given the short nature of a professional sporting career, who can blame them?

What I'm wondering is whether this is a good or a bad thing for the national side as a whole? There's plenty of comment suggesting that this is some sort of disaster because Johnson will have less player availability, but the current crop of England players don't seem to be all that hot anyway, and one of the reasons frequently stated for that is the lack of opportunity for homegrown players, given the number of foreign players in the GP.

Now, if the French clubs are able to pull in top flight English players, is there any reason to assume they won't also be pulling many of the other top flight players from other nationalities who until now have been heading for this country? Move forward 10 years, and will we see the editorial in L'Equipe bemoaning the dearth of French players due to the number of foreign players in their top division preventing the development of new young stars? Will England have a rejuvenated squad allowing them to crush all before them, or will the Old Farts be bleating on about insufficient access to players still?

It seems to me that you can't have it both ways?

The reason that players are moving across the ditch is the parity of the pound and euro. We creamed off the cream of the world when the pound was high and we are about to suffer now it's gone in reverse. But foreign players are a fact of life through much of the league. When my team moved up to National League South we had to get rid of four foreign players so at the moment we have more home grown talent than we had in a lower division.

Look at it from a plerpoint of view. It's a chance to live abroud for a while, experience different methods of training and coaching, avoid a lot of the mud and to civilise the natives. It's a great opportunity for them and one can't criticse them for making the most of their talent. From a spectator's point of view it is a shame though.

I can't help thinking that the drop in value of the £ will mean more opportunities for home grown talent. If the England team has to suffer, well so be it. I'd much prefer more English, Welsh and Scottish players in the premiership even if quality might not be quite as good.

[Kermit power]

I don't blame the players for an instant. What for us is merely weekend entertainment is for them their career and their future, so of course they should be making the most of it.

It just strikes me that a lot of people were quick to complain that the influx of foreign players into the premiership was bad for England because it stifled home grown talent, yet now that it looks likely that this is no longer going to happen to anything like the same degree, people are complaining that it will be bad for England because they won't have as much access to the players.

Looking at the current crop of England players, with a few notable exceptions, it seems to me that we are suffering from that lack of home grown talent, and no matter how much Johnson gets access to the best English players of the moment, that's not going to make England World beaters again if there aren't enough sufficiently talented players to start with.

It's all well and good saying that there are over 1,000,000 players eligible to play for England, but as of next year, my 6yr old daughter will be one of those, as she will then need to be registered with the RFU for insurance purposes for her Sunday morning mini sessions. If the top echelon of the domestic game is having to go back to developing more players from scratch, I think that can only be a good thing.

Sure, some of the top players may well follow the Wasps trio to France in the future (although who knows which way the exchange rates will flow in 5-10 years from now), but there's nothing to stop the clubs from negotiating different sorts of contracts earlier in a player's career, is there? If a player knows from an early age that there is less chance of his employer bringing in a declining Kiwi to take his place, he's also going to be less inclined himself to give up that place.