Armitage because he would bring the quality England need in his position. He is a dynamic player who is better than anything else we have.
I understand why the rule is in place, I understand why people want to adhere to it. But in my opinion it is holding the team back from picking it's best players.
Australia changed their rule to allow Mitchell, Giteau and Genia to play and they were all big parts of the WC success.
...what success was that ??? - coming second is failing at the last hurdle ...not to mention Joubert's error which would otherwise have seen Australia eliminated by Scotland...had they used homebased players they may have gone one better - Christian Lealiifano for instance was part of the Aussie team that beat the ABs in Sydney this year but left out of the RWC squad - better than Giteau IMHO... Nic White, the hero in the same forementioned test win against the ABs this year also left out of their RWC squad - arguably a better halfback than Genia who sucked all SuperXV rugby season for the Reds...
Drew Mitchell had a good tournament and probably justified his selection, but my concern with picking overseas based players is that you sacrifice future long term success, for short term gain; you get the benefit of being able to select from a wider pool of players, but you lose more players to the overseas clubs, thus weakening your own domestic competition, plus you have to deal with those clubs who understandably have their own interests at heart, when it comes to player availability/player peaking etc.
England has a strong domestic player base, and is in a better place domestically than Australia, so the non-eligibility of overseas based players is the right call for them I think.
It sounds like Jones will bring in new players gradually as he builds to the next RWC, which is the right approach IMO. (
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...ans-to-keep-the-door-shut-on-overseas-players.)
Should be interesting to see who he initially brings in and who he retains though.