Summer sensation can keep on ruling in a Wales shirt – even if he stays in England
SUMMER sensation Tommy Reffell won’t have to return to Wales at the end of next season to continue his international career.
The Leicester openside flanker was a huge hit on the Welsh tour of South Africa, taking to Test rugby like a duck to water. His outstanding performances have inevitably led to increased interest over where he will be playing his club rugby in future years.
Under WRU rules, Welsh internationals with fewer than 60 caps who join teams outside of Wales or sign new deals with them become ineligible for Test rugby. So that will lead some to ask whether three-cap Pencoed product Reffell will need to head home in the next 12 months or so. But that will not be the case.
The 23-year-old signed a longterm employment contract with Leicester while he was still uncapped and it’s understood that deal includes an option in favour of the Welford Road club which would not impact on his eligibility for Wales.
There have been previous examples of rolling contracts, notably in the case of tighthead prop Tomas Francis, who stayed at Exeter for six years after making his Test debut before joining the Ospreys last summer.
As for other exiled Welsh squad members, winger Louis Rees-Zammit and centre Nick Tompkins signed long-term deals with Gloucester and
Saracens respectively before they were capped so will remain eligible for Test rugby for the duration of those contracts.
In terms of Bristol duo Callum Sheedy and Ioan Lloyd, they are both still tied to the club for a couple more years, according to head coach Pat Lam, while young Christ Tshiunza is on a lengthy arrangement with Exeter. And Wales skipper Dan Biggar is not captured by the rule as he already had more than 60 caps when he joined Northampton.
So it doesn’t seem that any current internationals will be faced with having to join a region at the end of next season in order to remain eligible for Test rugby. In the case of Reffell, he has now been with the Tigers for some eight years. Having began his rugby journey with Pencoed RFC, he moved away, aged just 15, for a new life in the east Midlands at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College and with the Leicester Academy.
Meanwhile, the much-debated WRU 60-cap rule continues to divide opinion. Long-serving rugby journalist Peter Jackson has made his views clear in relation to 20-times capped Saracens scrum-half Aled Davies, who is ineligible for Wales under the regulation.
He tweeted: “Something troubles me about the fate of Aled Davies. He spends nine seasons in his native Wales, seven at the Scarlets, two at the Ospreys, leaves in the hope of improving himself, does so, but can’t play for Wales because of their 60-cap rule. What’s fair or just about that?
“Sarries director of rugby Mark McCall, not one given to extravagant claims, says Davies has been ‘outstanding, we’re lucky to have him.’ Who’s to say he isn’t currently the best Welsh No 9? Unless Wales find a pragmatic solution, they will end up punishing themselves as well as the player.”
PA rugby journalist Andrew Baldock echoed Jackson’s comments: “Don’t agree with the rule. Never
have and never will. Three of Wales’ best players in South Africa - Dan Biggar, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tommy Reffell.”
But others take a contrasting view, pointing to the fact that Englishbased players can miss a significant number of Wales training sessions, impacting upon squad preparation. Some also point to the fact that Davies would have been fully aware of the 60-cap rule when he decided to join Saracens.
Stricter-still eligibility policies apply in England, Ireland and New Zealand where players effectively have to ply their trade on home soil to play international rugby, no matter how many caps they have.