Rob Andrew hopes new incentives will encourage clubs to produce more English qualified players.
Teams to be rewarded for selecting English players
Rob Andrew hopes new incentives will encourage clubs to produce more English qualified players.
Twickenham's director of elite rugby believes the progress of future England internationals has been blocked by the number of average foreign signings in the Guinness Premiership.
As part of their new agreement with the clubs, the Rugby Football Union have introduced a scheme whereby teams will be financially rewarded for developing and selecting Englishmen.
The composition of the Premiership is currently 35% foreign and Andrew wants to see the balance continue to shift in favour of home-grown players.
"There will always be foreign players and coaches and we don't have an issue with that if they're of high quality," he said.
"What we do have an issue with is the run of the mill foreign player who is standing in the way of the development of some very good English youngsters.
Balance is shifting
"The balance is shifting back to English players now and that's something we need to protect because long term if that starts to fall then we're in trouble.
"If you don't have the number of players coming through the English system that are qualified then that will affect the performance of the England team.
"There's no doubt about that and we're seeing it happen in football."
From next year clubs can earn £15,000 per annum for each English player they select if their matchday squad contains a minimum average of 14 throughout the season.
Larger numbers yield greater rewards and Andrew pointed to the examples of Wasps and Leicester - the Anglo-centric superpowers of English club rugby - as an example of what can be achieved.
"In time the scheme will have the desired affect because you will have chief executives looking at the figures and asking why aren't their academies producing good quality players?" he said.
"Clubs such as Wasps and Leicester have seen the benefits of relying on English qualified players, while Gloucester and Harlequins are moving in that direction.
"If you rely too much on foreign players who come for the money they will take the money and go two years down the line, but what have they left behind?
"That's one of the big lessons the clubs have learnt over the last five years.
"We need to work with the schools, clubs and academies because if we're providing better qualified English players the clubs will benefit.
"They will benefit because the players are cheaper initially but those players are also generally very loyal, driving a culture within a club like we've seen at Leicester and Wasps."
While Andrew has been working to improve the prospects of the England team, the RFU have been confronting a growing menace at the other end of the game.
Poor behaviour, including the abuse of players and officials, by parents at midi and mini rugby has proliferated in line with the increase in the sport's popularity post-2003.
To combat the problem, the RFU have drawn up a code of conduct that will be distributed among clubs with child exclusion the ultimate sanction for offending parents.
At today's RFU media briefing, Andrew also stressed there would be no more big-money signings from rugby league and highlighted the growing role of agents in the game.
