Comfort in ‘clarity’ of exiles ruling

from which head coach Warren Gatland could only pick three, but was exempted on the grounds that he had already committed to join Bath when a counter-offer came in from Wales.

The small print worked for him but, despite the sympathy he feels for the primary loser in the rule change, Toulon-bound Rhys Webb, he prefers the new arrangement. “To be honest, even the players didn’t know whether they were going to be captured or not before,” said Charteris.

“It was pretty tough to work out. Now I suppose you can plan a bit easier. It does give clarity going forward.

“When I moved to France I didn’t have 60 caps but I benefited massively from that experience of playing overseas. If you look at the nucleus of the Wales squad now it is quite young but they have a lot of caps. The boys who are wanting to have that experience will have a sufficient number of caps to do that.

“Hopefully it won’t end up restricting too many players but it will also be a good way of keeping players in Wales to strengthen the regions.” Charteris, 34, who spent four seasons with Perpignan and Racing 92, before moving to England last season, thinks there could be a direct benefit to Wales if it means Bath team-mate Rhys Priestland coming in from the cold.

Priestland, who last played for Wales 16 months ago, only has 48 caps but is now available until his current club contract runs out in 2019. With the next squad due to be named on Tuesday, he is understood to be back on Gatland’s radar. “Rhys has been playing quality rugby this year. On form I’d say he deserves to be there,” said Charteris.

SARACENS have seen off competition from Wasps and Exeter to re-sign England back Alex Lozowski until 2020.