James Haskell facing England axe unless he can find new Premiership home

Rugby Football Union chief executive Steve Brown has reiterated that Haskell will be ineligible for selection if he is playing abroad next season

James Haskell will be unavailable for England duty if he moves abroad this summer (Getty)

James Haskell will not be selected to play for England even if he is forced to move abroad, with the outgoing Wasps forward currently without a club for next season.

The 33-year-old flanker, who started England’s last Test in the Six Nations defeat by Ireland, will leave Wasps after five years with the Premiership club. Haskell has already left Wasps once before to move abroad, plying his trade with Stade Francais in France, the Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and the Otago Highlanders in New Zealand, but this time around he has made it clear that he wants to remain in England to keep alive his 2019 Rugby World Cup hopes.

But with Haskell’s Wasps career having a maximum of four matches remaining, it emerged this week in The Times that he is yet to receive an offer from any Premiership club as well as recently-promoted Championship side Bristol, meaning he could be forced into an unthinkable move to the second tier our seek opportunities abroad.

Should Haskell choose the latter, the RFU’s chief executive Steve Brown announced that he will no longer be eligible for selection, even though the move would be through no fault of his own.

“If a player plays abroad and is contracted abroad, the default is we don’t select them,” Brown said. “He may be in the same situation lots of players get to when they get to a certain stage of their career. There is history to this with players moving abroad and not being selected.”

Former Saracens wing Chris Ashton is currently the most notable Englishman abroad, with the Toulon back the Top 14’s leading try-scorer this season with a French league record of 22. But while Ashton is firmly out of England head coach Eddie Jones’ thoughts, there is one player abroad who Is not.

The current Wellington Hurricanes captain Brad Shields will move to Wasps later this year to replace Haskell and, via his English parents, will qualify to wear the red rose. But Jones looks set to bring the flanker into his squad ahead of schedule, with the 27-year-old expected to be named in the squad that will tour South Africa this summer that will be named on 10 May.

“That is the fundamental part of our agreement with clubs but occasionally English qualified players, born and bred and qualified to play for England, will play in a different way,” Brown said. “I think we shouldn’t constrain ourselves from a performance perspective by not picking those players.

“But we are clear that if a player permanently plays abroad they are not going to be selected because they are not in the English system.

“I don’t think it is something they are unfamiliar with. It happens across the Premiership. It is a natural part of that arrangement. It is always on the fringes. It is not the majority of players. The core of players are selected from the system that we have created which is an English qualified player system which ensures we have English players throughout the Premiership and Championship.”

That prospect in itself has triggered plenty of ill-feeling in New Zealand, with Shields once ear-marked as an All Black in-waiting, but Brown believes that the RFU will have no issues in calling up Shields should Jones wish to do so as he believes it meets World Rugby’s Right to Release regulations.

The RFU will not relax their stance if Haskell is forced abroad, says Steve Brown (Getty)

“Regulation nine is clear and understood by everybody,” Brown said. “If we find ourselves in that situation we will rely on the World Rugby regulation.

How that will sit with Haskell is yet to be seen, should he lose his place this summer to a player who is still contracted to a club in New Zealand, but in the programme for this weekend’s Premiership visit of Northampton Saints – likely to be Wasps’ final home game unless they beat Saracens to a top-two finish – Haskell addressed what will be his second – and final – Wasps farewell.

“We all dream of finishing like Ma’a Nonu or Richie McCaw by lifting the World Cup and going out on your shield, but sadly quite a few players go out the back door on a stretcher instead,” said Haskell, who has reportedly gained interest from Northampton Saints but is yet to see an offer.

Haskell has stated his intention to continue through to the 2019 World Cup (Getty)

“When you reflect on how things will finish, you always hope it will be on your terms, but unfortunately for most guys it’s not like that.

“Getting the chance to come back to Wasps was amazing, and I always hoped I would see my career out there with a Premiership final and a trophy, which could still be the case.”