Why Cool Hand Luke escapes WRU bite
“The player acknowledged the Cardiff approach but said the Bath deal had been done and dusted”
Luke Charteris is one of the best of a gigantic breed, a second row worthy of serious consideration for elevation to the Lions squad next year. Apart from his basic speciality at altitude in the lineout, the Bath lock offers a prodigious tackle count and therein lies as good an explanation as any for completing 12 years in the Test arena without a try. He has better things to do. Charteris has had outstanding World Cups and won Grand Slams. At 33, he shows every sign of going on and on, of scaling the peaks of endurance set for second rows by Victor Matfield and Brad Thorn. In staying on track, the Welshman has risen above all dangers of being outlawed by his own country.
In doing so, he has provided an unwitting expose of the Welsh Senior Players’ Selection Policy and its basic objective – that only players who play in Wales will play for Wales.
The official declaration of Cool Hand Luke’s eligibility to carry on as normal this season makes it sound as though he’s never been away during the two years since the creation of a document designed as a deterrent against the best players heading for greener fields.
It was approved as part of the peace deal at the end of the wretched wrangle between the WRU, as then headed by the divisive chief executive Roger Lewis, and its four regional teams. That it has taken the Union two-and-abit years to do anything about the document suggested more than a hint of reluctance.
During that time, Charteris has played for three clubs – Perpignan, Racing and Bath. Other exiled Welsh players, notably Jamie Roberts, George North, Talupe Faletau and Rhys Priestland, have fallen foul of the policy because they rejected regional bids to return home, opting for fatter contracts in the Aviva Premiership.
Why, then, does the same rule not apply to Charteris given that last season he had an offer from Cardiff Blues? The Union sidestepped that question in their official statement, leaving others to point out claims on the player’s behalf that he had signed for Bath before the Blues made their move.
The story goes back a long way, to before June 2012, when Charteris’ contract with the Dragons expired. Rather than re-sign, he joined Perpignan. When they were relegated from the Top 14, two years later, he jumped ship and Racing took him on board.
At that stage Charteris made it clear that he would have stayed had he been given a dual Wales-Dragons contract at around £250,000-a-year. “Unfortunately that didn’t work out,’’ he said in early August 2014. “It was not an option.’’
Nobody ought to condemn the Union for considering Charteris, then 31, too old for a dual deal and that the limited amount of money available would be better spent securing the futures of younger players.
The new selection policy, signed off at the end of that month (August 2014), contained many clauses and caveats but no provision for any retrospective action. This time last year, when it became known that Charteris would be moving on from Racing, the Dragons expressed interest but also a resignation that they would be hopelessly out-bid for his services.
The Blues were more pro-active. “They had been talking to the Union for sometime about getting Charteris back on a dual contract,’’ a Regional Rugby Wales source said.
“When Lewis kept stalling, the Blues put their own offer on the table.’’
They were not to know that by then Charteris had finalised his move to Bath, reportedly at £270,000-a-year. The player acknowledged the Cardiff approach but said the Bath deal “had already been done and dusted”.
Charteris did so in the knowledge that it would not affect his availability for Wales. And that was in November last year, fully ten months before the WRU made their first public statement on those affected by the policy.
Clearly, he had been given the nod that it would be Wales business as usual despite his relocating to the West Country. As Charteris said last November: “I won’t be classed as a wild card as I didn’t have an offer from a Welsh team or a dual contract when I signed for Bath. That was a big factor.’’
Exactly when that signing took place has not been divulged. Had it been ‘done and dusted’ a fortnight, a week or even a day before Cardiff Blues made their pitch?
The sceptics will not be surprised if questions of that nature were not asked lest the answers would have put one of Wales’ most valuable players in any jeopardy of Test selection. The Bath move works out just fine for both parties.
In defence of the policy they drew up together, both Union and regions say it will “bite”. Three of the four wild-card picks available to Rob Howley as acting head coach means that only Priestland will be left out in the cold. Hardly much of a bite.
It won’t even come to a scratch should injury rule Faletau out of the autumn Tests. And next season the wild cards, far from reducing, will go up to four, enough to ensure Leigh Halfpenny’s selection should he, for example, spurn the Blues and join Wasps or anyone else in the Aviva Premiership.
How can a policy document be taken seriously when it has as many holes as St Andrews, Royal Birkdale and every other golf course on The Open rota put together?