The Toulouse flanker Jack Willis believes England’s eligibility rules should be relaxed and is hopeful of remaining available for selection after the Rugby World Cup, revealing a swift return to the Premiership “was not feasible”.
Willis has prospered with Toulouse since joining the Top 14 side after he was made redundant by Wasps and recently signed a new contract through to 2026. While Steve Borthwick can select him this season because the Rugby Football Union allowed displaced players from Wasps and Worcester to be available through to the World Cup, as things stand it appears Willis will be unavailable after the tournament in France.
Willis may argue, however, that the exception should still apply next season on the basis that the reduced salary cap in the Premiership and the financial outlook for most clubs meant it was not realistic to find an English team. Moreover, with a raft of England teammates heading abroad after the World Cup, Willis believes permanent change is needed.
“It is something I think should be discussed and has to be discussed,” he said. “Where the current salary cap lies it is not feasible for things to carry on the way they are and also for clubs, with the salary cap being so tight, being an England player or being involved in the England setup, is not appealing to clubs at the moment because if you are involved in the England stuff you are away for half the season and [the clubs] don’t really get the financial benefits for it.
“You get caught in between in that zone, you are almost less valuable to them. I think something has to change. Hopefully they think it through and things can change to a degree and open up a little more on the leniency.”
Of his lack of options in England, Willis said: “[They] were incredibly limited because of the salary cap issues and everything that was going on, I got to a point where I couldn’t really believe how great a club I was at, I’d have felt stupid to be turning that down.
“With everything that happened at Wasps and what happened at Worcester, there were a lot of players who filled a lot of the slots that were still available. We know how the cap is tighter next year [because] there are teams that have been backloading contracts for the following year after that. There’s a lot of stuff going on with the salary cap which meant the cap had been maxed out for numerous clubs. Other clubs who didn’t do that still didn’t have the money to necessarily spend. Between those two things it just wasn’t feasible for me to stay [in England].”
Last week the Harlequins fly-half Marcus Smith detailed ways that the Premiership can become a more attractive place for England players to stay and cited an ability to be competitive in Europe as chief among them. Willis, for his part, believes that Toulouse’s place in the Champions Cup semi-finals, where they face Leinster in Dublin on Saturday, vindicates his decision.
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“The main thing for me came down to the quality of rugby that I would be playing and developing as a rugby player,” he said. “That’s what it really came down to.
Day in, day out here I realised the quality that I am surrounded with in the players and the staff. I felt silly turning that down.
“I couldn’t have picked a better club to be at and I think playing in a game like this at the weekend shows I feel like I’ve made the right decision.”