Wales stars in exile face All Blacks’ tour axe

Wales face the prospect of confronting the All Blacks this summer without four of their World Cup players.
The first victims of the Welsh Rugby Union’s strategic plan to deter more players from leaving will come from a list of six who have all signed for English clubs – Jamie Roberts, George North, Luke Charteris, Tomas Francis, Taulupe Faletau and Rhys Priestland.
All six, with more than 300 Tests between them,  are all due to be reclassified as ‘wild card’ selections from the end of the domestic season in June when the rules allow head coach Warren Gatland to pick only two.
All six are liable for de-selection because they turned down offers to stay in Wales or return there.
The four regional teams who enforce the home-based policy in tandem with the WRU have given The Rugby Paper a solid prediction that there will be casualties before Wales leave for New Zealand.    While it will hit Welsh prospects of winning the three-Test series, the regions say a hard line has to be taken as a deterrent effect against more players leaving.
WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips has also said it will ‘bite’ but a statement clarifying the complex issue which had been expected last week will not now be made until after the Six Nations.
“The rules are very clear,” sources told TRP. “Those players employed outside Wales who turned down offers to return to Wales before joining clubs in England know the consequences.
“The offers to come back to Wales were deemed to be fair in terms of providing market value. Some players have already been told that from the end of this season they will be classed as wild cards. And the head coach can only pick two of those in any squad irrespective of the size of that squad.”
Leigh Halfpenny will not be among them provided he stays at Toulon. The full-back’s proposed move to Wasps would have put him offside with the selection policy because at least two regions made substantial offers to bring him back.
Gatland’s options are in the process of being drawn up by the Professional Rugby Game Board, a joint WRU-Regions body with five members from each organisation under an independent chairman, Sir Wyn Williams.
Individual members have assured sceptics the policy document will contain ‘no loopholes’.
The list of those excluded from automatic availability will almost certainly lengthen when Blues wing Alex Cuthbert becomes a free agent in May. The Lions wing snubbed a dual contract last season.
Another Welsh international will be returning there next season among a batch of reinforcements identified by Blues’ head of recruitment, Billy Millward. After seven seasons at Saracens, loosehead Rhys Gill is returning to Cardfiff eager to further a Test career limited to five often brief appearances in six seasons.
Rhys Webb, removed from the World Cup by a serious foot injury, will now miss the Six Nations. The Ospreys reported yesterday that their scrum-half is scheduled to be back at the end of next month, some four weeks later than the player had hoped.
PETER JACKSON