The challenge of overseas players

Sir — Your correspondent Neil Francis (Sport, Sunday Independent, November 5) makes a case that any Irish international rugby player that chooses to make a career outside Ireland deserves to be ostracised from the national squad and will not play for his country again. In doing so, he ignores the fact that this may be considered a restrictive practice, particularly given the relatively short career of a rugby player often cast adrift at age 34 or earlier through injury and, most likely, without any qualification to sustain a future career and with little career guidance from their province or country.

I suspect that this “policy” will be challenged in the courts sooner rather than later.

He certainly ignores the fact that three members of the current Irish squad are foreign nationals who qualify for Ireland under a dubious three-year residency rule, each of whom have explicitly ignored the wishes of their home union to ply their trade abroad. It is an extraordinary double standard that he and the IRFU seem to condone and by default encourage.

It is difficult to categorise these players as anything other than mercenaries.

Unless something changes, we may see a majority of Ireland and other international teams made up of such players and the game we all cherish changed irrevocably.

It is in the interests of all rugby unions and clubs across the world to address and embrace the issue and ensure their players can ply their trade as is their right wherever they wish and still be valued by their country with the necessary infrastructure and support in place to sustain the integrity of the game of rugby union. Derek MacHugh,

Bray, Co Wicklow