Cross-fertilisation: English players going abroad is a progressive move

I t is amazing how swiftly perceptions can change in sport. Remember how English cricket once revolved around the County Championship until Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League came along? Or the days when the most famous footballers in England ran pubs in retirement to help make ends meet? Progress can sweep aside old-school certainties quicker than you can say leather balls and neat side partings.

The same is true in rugby union. Even without the chilly financial draught blowing through many clubs in England and Wales there is no ignoring the rise of the French Top 14 as an attractive rival to the Premiership. Salaries are higher across the Channel, crowds are growing steadily and the rock stars of the national team are increasingly rubbing shoulders with bright-eyed English émigrés.

It now looks as if the England squad members Jack Willis, Sam Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, David Ribbans and Joe Marchant will play in France next season with Christian Wade, Dan Robson, Paolo Odogwu, Joe Simmonds and Harry Williams among the supporting cast. Anthony Watson, it is said, is weighing up his options. Zach Mercer, about to join Gloucester after winning the French league player of the season award with Montpellier, risks being knocked over at Dover by the hordes heading in the opposite direction.

So far, so understandable. Market forces are market forces. The only catch is that barring the little-used “exceptional circumstances” clause that has enabled Willis to represent England this season after his former club Wasps went bust overseas-based English players cannot turn out for their country. If this sounds like old-fashioned protectionism it is because it is.

This inviolate rule works only one way.