England overseas selection policy criticised by Nick Abendanon

European Player of the Year Nick Abendanon believes England's policy of not picking overseas-based players proved to be a big mistake after they bowed out of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The post-mortem will begin in earnest after England's final pool game against Uruguay, with their stance on overseas-based players sure to be high on the agenda.

RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie has already said that England will stick to their guns and will not look at selecting players who play abroad unless there are exceptional circumstances, which has left former England full-back Abendanon asking exactly what exceptional circumstances are.

"If a World Cup in your home country is not an exceptional circumstance then I am not sure what is," Abendanon said on Sky Sports News HQ.

"I rule myself out of this debate straight away - I think Mike Brown was the best back that England had throughout the whole tournament.

"But Steffon Armitage is another matter. You could see that in this modern-day game how important it is to have a No 7 who can get over the ball, slow the ball down and do a job like we saw Michael Hooper and David Pocock did for Australia. They caused so many problems.

"To have a rule in place that does not allow someone like Armitage, who is playing in Europe's best team, to play, well he is an exceptional circumstance and they should have brought him in."

Abendanon does not think anyone from outside England automatically deserves a place in the squad but says it would have been nice if him and his European Player of the Year predecessor, Armitage, were given a chance.

"Mike Brown showed his class throughout the last four years and you have the likes of Anthony Watson, who can play full-back as well," added Abendanon, who plays for Top 14 heavyweights Clermont Auvergne.

"I have come over to Clermont to play and have played well myself and managed to get European player this year - I would have loved to have given the chance to come into the England training squad and competed for a place. They didn't have to pick me but I would have liked the chance to compete and push the guys.

Learn from the best

"It is not a coincidence that every year in the Champions Cup the French teams are the ones who get to the knockout stages and get to the final. It is because in France you have the best players playing. How can learning from the best players in the world not be something of value to an England team?"

"Australia coach Michael Cheika has done everything in his power to change rules, to bend the rules to make sure he can pick the very best players playing around the world.

"For me [Stuart] Lancaster did the complete opposite, he chose not to take Steffon Armitage and he also chose not to take Dylan Hartley and Manu Tuilagi - both over incidents that could have been rectified.

 "Not having huge players like that available is something that I am sure he will regret looking back on this World Cup."