I guess that Arundell might also have found that a lot of the clubs in the Premiership had already done their transfer deals for the new season, and that the sort of terms and conditions that he was looking for were not on offer in English club rugby.
The big drawback at the moment is that the RFU’s current international eligibility ruling means that only players in the Premiership can play international rugby for England. This could well result in Arundell, one of the country’s most exciting young backline talents, not being available to them after the World Cup.
Arundell may be in Steve Borthwick’s 41-man training squad for the World Cup because he was registered with London Irish this season, and has yet to play for Racing, but as soon as he joins the French Top 14 club after the tournament ends, the England head coach will be unable to pick him. That means he will be unavailable for the 2024 Six Nations unless something changes.
The reality is that England can still pick players who are playing overseas “in exceptional circumstances”– and I would argue that Arundell’s case is exactly that. What is a player expected to do when his last club has gone bust, through no fault of his? You say, ‘these players need to be employed, so we will make them exceptions’.
The Premiership has always wanted to keep its England internationals in the league, but there was a danger that it was often at the cost of them earning bigger wages abroad, and also being enriched as rugby players and people, by being in a new environment.
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