THE decision of former England tighthead Henry Thomas to become a Welshman is a relatively minor example of the Test rugby ‘circus’ described by former Wales captain Paul Thorburn in last Sunday’s Rugby Paper.
Back in 2019 when World Rugby with characteristic muddled indecisiveness extended the absurd three year residential qualification period to five years, Thorburn advocated the real solution namely a ten year residence qualification to end players with no family links switching countries.
World Rugby in the professional era has lamentably failed to enable the...