NEWS that Hurricanes’ Brad Shields will be considered for England’s summer tour to South Africa defies belief.
He is a Kiwi who qualifies for England through parentage, yet has never played for an English club.
The RFU’s agreement with Premiership Rugby not only precludes any player being selected for England from any club below the Premiership – no matter how good he is – it precludes overseasbased players.
Yet Premiership Rugby appears to have cleverly inserted a clause by which an overseas-based player can be chosen, as long as he has signed terms to join a ...