Maro Itoje calls on Premiership Rugby to halt player exodus to France

Maro Itoje has called on Premiership Rugby to halt the player exodus to France as he refused to rule out moving overseas when his Saracens contract expires next year.

Itoje’s clear preference is to remain in north London but he is concerned by the number of England internationals signing for Top 14 clubs in deals that begin when the World Cup is over.

Sam Simmonds, David Ribbans, Joe Marchant and Luke Cowan-Dickie are some of the players in the prime of their careers to have accepted the better financial rewards available across The Channel.

While Premiership clubs operate under a £5million salary cap, in France the limit is much higher at £9.4million.

England’s restriction on picking players outside the Premiership is now coming under growing pressure, but neither the Rugby Football Union nor Premiership Rugby are willing to relax this rule as negotiations over the new Professional Game Agreement continue.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall recently called for joint contracts to be considered, allowing clubs to share the cost of their England players with the RFU and Itoje insists a solution must be found.

“First and foremost I love playing for Saracens. I love Saracens. In an ideal world I would love to spend the majority, if not the rest, of my career at Saracens,” Itoje said.

“Saracens is a club that I love being a part of. I want to stay here, I want to stay in England, I want to keep playing my rugby in England.

“I think it’s good for the game to have English players in England. I think it’s good for the game to have a situation where the Premiership is thriving, English players are in England, the clubs have their English players…I think that’s a situation where all parties win.

“But unfortunately, at the