No incentive for Strettle to be local hero

CLERMONT wing David Strettle could have been running out at Murrayfield in the Champions Cup final tonight a local hero if he had taken up an offer to ‘become Scottish’.

Instead, the former England international — who takes on a Saracens team with Scots Duncan Taylor and Jim Hamilton on the bench — will largely go unnoticed when he makes his entrance, although he realises things could have been very different.

Strettle revealed to Sportsmail that Edinburgh tried to recruit him to become a future Scotland star way back in 2005 which was years before the widespread ‘project player’ system which has transformed and tarnished Test rugby was introduced.

Twelve years ago when Frank Hadden was Edinburgh coach and Matt Williams was in charge of Scotland, he was an emerging 21-year-old prospect on the wing at Rotherham when he was given the opportunity to move north of the border.

It came with the proviso that he would qualify for Scotland through residency after just three years, but the Cheshire-born flier was clear about his national allegiance and declined.

Speaking ahead of today’s Champions Cup final, when he will line-up against former club Saracens, he admitted to have been left bemused by the approach from the SRU.

But he has never regretted his decision not to take up the offer to switch allegiances which has since become common practice in recent years.

Scotland have made the most of the ruling, signing up overseas talent as ‘project players’ such as the South African trio of Josh Strauss, Willem Nel and Cornell du Preez with a view to picking them at Test level after three years.

With World Rugby’s council this week voting unanimously in favour of extending the residency qualification period to five years, from 2021 the intended consequence will be a decline in the cynical abuse of the system.

‘When I was playing at Rotherham, I got an offer to go to Scotland,’ said the 33-year-old who won the last of his 14 England caps four years ago.

‘Australian Pete Jorgensen, the dual-code 15, came to join us at Rotherham and Edinburgh wanted to sign him and their representatives came to watch us in a game against Bedford.

‘I had a great game — carved it up — and the guy from Edinburgh said: “Who’s the young guy on the wing”, so Pete said: “That’s Dave Strettle”.

‘He said: “We’d be interested in signing him as well” and they offered me a three-year contract, so that I would become eligible for Scotland.

“I just said: “Why would I want to play for Scotland?”. Maybe I was a bit naïve, but I just told them: “I’m not Scottish”.

‘The guy said: “That’s okay, you’ll get in on residency after three years”. Even then, I said: “But my mum, my dad and my grandparents aren’t Scottish either”.

‘He said: “The residency means you can play for Scotland anyway”.

‘I told him: “That wouldn’t be something I would move for” but if he had turned round to me and said: “You will get 30 grand for every game you play for Scotland”, then I might have thought: “Oh, actually, that’s a big incentive”.’

Given the economic factors, Strettle can see why many have been tempted to switch allegiance which he refused to do.

‘You get paid pretty good money to play for England, especially compared to your club salary,’ he said. ‘So there is a big disparity between if you are an England player or if you’re not.

‘Credit to Nathan Hughes (Wasps’ Fijian No 8), he actually came out and said: “Money is one of the reasons why I’m playing for England”.’

Meanwhile, Scotland international Taylor is desperate to get a run off the bench to help Saracens win the European trophy.

‘Murrayfield is like a home from home for me and it would be terrific to be on a winning team,’ said the centre.