RFU urged to ditch overseas player ban

PAUL Gustard believes the RFU should look at scrapping the overseas player ban and allow Steve Borthwick to pick players based outside the Gallagher Premiership.

- JON NEWCOMBE

Gustard coaches Joe Marchant at Stade Francais and, as things stand, the 28-year-old centre/ wing is not eligible for selection for England.

Marchant, below, won the last of his 26 caps in the bronze medal match against Argentina at last year's World Cup and has been in French exile ever since.

"Pick them. I'm English and I want England to do well," was Gustard's forthright assessment.

While appreciating the rationale that the ruling protects the league by keeping its best players on board and helps to give Borthwick and his coaches increased access time, Gustard has no doubt that playing in France makes better players, citing Toulouse's double winner Jack Willis as the prime example.

"Fundamentally, some of the players who have come across to France are much better players now than they were playing back in the Premiership," he said.

"The consistent level of excellence here is higher.

You are playing Bordeaux in front of 32,000 every week, you are playing La Rochelle, who have sold out for 85 games in a row or something with 25,000 there, you go to Toulouse, 28,000... the cauldron and the atmosphere is so big, so the pressure to perform is so high.