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<blockquote data-quote="Mr Ruggleby" data-source="post: 918302" data-attributes="member: 41553">I think you&#039;re possibly missing the point slightly. The RFU doesn&#039;t recruit non-English qualified players to premiership clubs with a view to them qualifying on residency. Other nations, e.g. Scotland have a programme specifically for this purpose. The RFU also doesn&#039;t actively finance the recruitment of english-qualified players from other nations and has limited influence in facilitating those decisions. Sure, players may contact or be contacted by the incumbent national team head coach, but there isn&#039;t the same level of planning that you see from some other nations. The players who have played for England through residency in recent years either qualified as children and then came through the system: (Tuilagi, Vunipolae, Clifford, Yarde) or they were independently recruited by clubs, played well and then came onto the England radar (Harrison, Hughes, Rokoduguni, Rhodes, Solomana). The most obvious instances where players were ear-marked for international honours before being eligible (based on England selection criteria of playing in England, not international-eligibility) were Shields and Te&#039;o, but both of those players qualify for an English passport, which in my eyes make them different from a pure mercenary like CJ Stander, Cornell Du Preez, Bundee Aki, WP Nel, Tim Visser or Hadleigh Parkes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mr Ruggleby, post: 918302, member: 41553"] I think you're possibly missing the point slightly. The RFU doesn't recruit non-English qualified players to premiership clubs with a view to them qualifying on residency. Other nations, e.g. Scotland have a programme specifically for this purpose. The RFU also doesn't actively finance the recruitment of english-qualified players from other nations and has limited influence in facilitating those decisions. Sure, players may contact or be contacted by the incumbent national team head coach, but there isn't the same level of planning that you see from some other nations. The players who have played for England through residency in recent years either qualified as children and then came through the system: (Tuilagi, Vunipolae, Clifford, Yarde) or they were independently recruited by clubs, played well and then came onto the England radar (Harrison, Hughes, Rokoduguni, Rhodes, Solomana). The most obvious instances where players were ear-marked for international honours before being eligible (based on England selection criteria of playing in England, not international-eligibility) were Shields and Te'o, but both of those players qualify for an English passport, which in my eyes make them different from a pure mercenary like CJ Stander, Cornell Du Preez, Bundee Aki, WP Nel, Tim Visser or Hadleigh Parkes. [/QUOTE]

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