I say, boyo, are you sure that you’re Welsh?

Wales squad contains nine English players, four of whom are tonight due to face their countrymen

TONIGHT’S Rugby World Cup clash between England and Wales has been described as the biggest match the two nations have ever contested – but there could in theory be only seven Welshmen on the pitch.

The 31-man Wales squad includes 11 foreign-born players, nine of whom are English, who have qualified to play for the team through residency or ancestry, making it one of the most cosmopolitan squads in the tournament.

Only Samoa, with 13 players born in New Zealand, and Tonga, with 12 foreigners, have more. In contrast, England has only three foreign-born players.

The World Rugby rules on eligibility state that players can represent the country of their birth, of their parents’ or grandparents’ birth, or a country where they have been resident for at least three successive years, as long as they have not played for any other country. English-born players make up a third of Wales’s 31-man squad and a quarter of their starting line-up for tomorrow’s match – in the so-called Pool of Death – against England.

George North, who was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, to a Yorkshireborn father and a Welsh mother, is one of four Englishmen to step on to the pitch at Twickenham today for Wales.

The others are Hallam Amos, who is from Stockport but was raised in Wales; Tomas Francis, from York, who has a Welsh grandmother, and Dan Lydiate, who was born in Salford but grew up on a family farm near Llandrindod Wells.

Other Englishmen among the reserves who may be called on to play today include Exeter-born Aaron Jarvis, whose grandmother is Welsh; Luke Charteris who was born in Cornwall but grew up in west Wales, and Gloucester-born Alex Cuthbert, whose mother is from Wrexham.

English-born players opting to desert their fellow countrymen for Wales, and vice-versa, is a longrunning practice. Tony Copsey, a former player from Romford, Essex, who had “Made in England” tattooed on his posterior, went on to enjoy a successful career as a lock for Wales.

The selection of foreign-born players is not the only issue of national pride at play. Warren Gatland, the Welsh head coach – and himself a New Zealander – has been criticised for selecting such a high proportion of players from foreign clubs. Dai Young, director of rugby at London Wasps and a former Welsh captain, implored the Welsh Rugby Union, which has the Duke of Cambridge as vice-patron, to follow England’s lead of refusing to select players once they have moved abroad. “I’ve seen it from Wales and it’s done much more harm than good. England’s stance is by far the best,” said Young. “I’ve come through that system in Wales and it certainly wrecked and put regional rugby under a hell of a lot of pressure.”

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