Only picking home based players

Well, I did say this would be an area for me to occasionally let rip on a little rant every so often so here goes!

The RFU have just announced that from 2011, England will only be picking home based players.  I can understand logic in this given the issues involving player release but really, do they have to go to this extent?!  Until the RFU extends the salary cap so English clubs can financially compete with their French equivalents then we're going to see an increasing amount of experienced players leaving for foreign (mainly French) fields.  It's great that there have been a number of young, very talented players starting for England - but they still need the steady hand of the experienced campaigners around them.

And who can blame the players for going somewhere where they can earn a bit more cash?  The popularity of rugby is every growing and with growth will come extra investment from a number of sources such as advertising.  Like all sportsman, rugby players have a very limited time in which they'll be paid for playing and they need to ensure they make the most out of it.  They'll probably never be paid as much as footballers but then in my humble opinion footballers are overpaid anyway (maybe they need all that money to buy scarves, hats and gloves to wear on a Saturday afternoon!).

Lastly - I can't see whats wrong with players going abroad and experiencing a different culture in terms of the way the games played.  Providing he keeps his head down and plays a lot, I can see Danny Cipriani coming back from Australia a much better player.  Players will learn different techniques, other ways of doing things and be able to bring that back into the English game.

And lets not forget - even Martin Johnson spent some time playing in New Zealand.