Why Nick Abendanon Award Shows Folly of England's Selection Policy

Nick Abendanon was crowned European Player of the Year earlier this month as a reward for his form in his first season as a Clermont Auvergne player.

The former Bath flyer has reveled amid the stars of the French giants, particularly in the Champions Cup.

His display in the competition's knockout stages elevated the full-back to the same status as that other much-talked-about English exile, Steffon Armitage, the man he has deposed as the best player on the continent.

That status is "English, over there and not eligible," as far as the RFU is concerned. And it is a policy that has been losing credibility by the day.

The RFU have blocked Abendanon’s—and Armitage’s—way back to the Red Rose in a bid to stop the bulk of their players crossing the channel by the ferry-load to sign for the high-paying powerhouses in the Top 14. Lose them to France and lose control of their release for England duty.

The salary cap in England will go from £5 million to £5.5 million, per premiershiprugby.com, for next season, with the number of "excluded" players permitted to be employed outside that cap going from one to two as the league tries its darnedest to appease players who know what they would be worth in France.

It may help keep most of the best Englishmen on this side of the channel as long as "play here or don’t play for us" continues to be the message from Twickenham.

Unless, as the world and his wife will be aware, we find ourselves in "exceptional circumstances."

In fact, Gavin Mairs of the Telegraph wrote last month that England will be able to invoke those circumstances to allow Stuart Lancaster to pick both men:

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The fact that England are hosting the Rugby World Cup in September and October would almost certainly meet that criteria should Lancaster decide to make a case to the RFU board to include either player in his 45-man training squad that will be announced next month.

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Some squad members have voiced their concerns that bringing these players back would disrupt the mood in the camp.

Really? Forget for a moment whether Abendanon’s capacity for the calamitous in one breath followed by brilliance the next is Stuart Lancaster’s cup of tea.

What if Jonny Wilkinson was a few years younger and had steered Toulon to all that silverware they have gobbled up in recent seasons. How would those players feel about his impact on the harmony of the group?

Abendanon has flourished as a player since making the move, just as Armitage has vastly improved in his four seasons at Toulon.

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Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon will hear on May 20th if they will be involved with England's #RWC2015 campaign. pic.twitter.com/JEMzXd330c

— EatSleepRugby (@Eat_Sleep_Rugby) May 13, 2015"

According to the Guardian, “Both players would be certainties for England’s World Cup squad were they still based at home.”

But rules are rules, say many experts, and that is a fair enough point.

If playing for England was the be-all and end-all for these players, perhaps they would do everything they could to engineer a move back to an English side, as former England hooker Brian Moore intimated in his Telegraph column in March:

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I played in three World Cups and they were all special. To play in even one is an experience that any top player should crave and one for which he should be prepared to make whatever sacrifice is required. If England give Armitage that indication we would find out just how much he wants to play for his country or whether his talk has, as some suspect, been just that. If he makes the move he should be included.

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And World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson, who presided over England's dismal 2011 campaign, agrees, as reported by the Guardian:

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If you’re desperate to come and play, then get yourself in England. There’s any number of calls you could make on picking and not picking in ‘exceptional circumstances’. They’ve got a rule in place, it’s pretty clear, been there for quite a long time.

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However, with Australia’s removal of their own policy not to pick players playing overseas, per the Telegraph, New Zealand and England are the only two countries still applying the principle.

As the paper’s story says, the Wallabies’ decision is one “that recognises the changing dynamics of a global rugby market for professional players.”

New Zealand, on the other hand, operate in their own orbit. The pull of the black jersey continues to outweigh the lure of the lucre for all but a few names who jacked it in early to make a long term commitment to a career in the northern hemisphere (think Carl Hayman, Luke McAlister, Corey Flynn et al).

The vast majority of the first-choice All Blacks time their sojourns overseas so as to be back in plenty of time to earn reinstatement for the next World Cup. If the current restrictions remain in England, English players could follow that template.

A number of high-profile All Blacks have fled the land of the Long White Cloud immediately after a World Cup to cash in on the European market for a season or two before timing their return to their homeland to make a run for re-selection ahead of the next tournament. A fresh crop is doing exactly the same thing this year, per 3news.co.nz.

In England, the cases of Abendanon and Armitage are entirely different.

These are two players who were discarded by England and, believing themselves to be surplus to requirements, took the decision to look after their own careers by earning as much as they can in France rather than operating under the constraints of the salary cap in the Premiership. Their rugby has flourished as a result.

Let’s be honest. If Mike Brown had enjoyed a 2014-15 season in the same form he displayed in 2013-14, the Abendanon campaign would carry far less weight.

But as the Harlequin continues his recovery from a nasty concussion sustained in the Six Nations and with Northampton’s Ben Foden travelling the long road back from knee-ligament damage, England’s options to fill the No. 15 shirt seem to start and end with Saracens’ Alex Goode.

Choosing not to add the European Player of the Year to those stocks seems verging on certifiable.

The smiles spread across the faces of Australian cricketers past and present this week speak volumes for the way Kevin Pietersen’s exclusion from the English national side has been received by England’s rivals, per foxsports.com.au.

A team shorn of its best player is a team they are happier to do battle with.

No one is saying Abendanon or Armitage would be the pivotal players, with England's World Cup destiny in their hands. But the fact is that Stuart Lancaster is staring down the barrel at the prospect of trying to win a home World Cup and could choose to attempt it without the men who have won the two most recent awards for the best player in Europe.

Putting aside the concerns over market forces and subjective opinions on the players themselves, that very notion seems more than just exceptional.

It’s wrong.