SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: Head coach Steve Borthwick should be allowed to pick his best team... the RFU's overseas player ban is archaic and devalues the England shirt

• e-mail

As an international head coach, you cannot be constrained by external factors around selection because they don't allow you to pick your best team and therefore create a readymade excuse.

That's what the RFU's policy, which means you can't play for a club outside of England and also represent Steve Borthwick's national side, does. I've long been of the view it is an archaic ruling which doesn't work in the society we all live in today. I look at it through a very blunt lens.

Does the overseas rule make England more competitive? Or, as an Olympic rowing team would say: 'Does it make the boat go faster?' For me, the answer is an emphatic no.

I cannot imagine not being able to select a single player I wanted. If someone had told me I couldn't have picked Jason Robinson because he played in France, I'd have gone mad!

As the man in charge of the country's men's team, Borthwick should be able to pick the best side he can without exception. 

England boss Steve Borthwick is unable to pick players based overseas due to RFU policy

Former England captain Owen Farrell is set to join French side Racing 92 next season

But the RFU's dictat means he can't do that. Instead, he can only select the best Englishmen who happen to play in England. To me, that devalues the international game and the England shirt immensely. 

If you're George Ford or Marcus Smith, you want to know you're being picked as England fly-half because you're the best in your position and not because Owen Farrell isn't available due to him signing for Racing 92. 

But you also need to know you are lining up alongside the best your country has to offer, not the second or third best. You need to know competition for selection is relentless and ruthless, not dictated by overseas rules or the type of contract you're on.

The RFU should be encouraging and working with English clubs to compete with those in France, not isolating them and encouraging a narrow-minded culture of fear and protectionism.

There must be an acceptance that moving to France can make players better and therefore improve the national team. Even someone as good as Jonny Wilkinson went to another level when he left Newcastle for Toulon. There have been other similar examples too. My mindset would be one of: 'Right. Game on. How do we get the very best French players playing for our English clubs?

Professional sport is a global enterprise. But the RFU is trying its best to localise it. England's football team this summer will field the world's best young player in Jude Bellingham and the world's best striker in Harry Kane. 

Both are playing overseas. In rugby, South Africa have been the biggest beneficiaries of their overseas player policy. 

RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney is not concerned by the exodus of English stars to France 

English rugby must compete on and off the pitch but clearly Bill Sweeney, the RFU Board and Premiership Rugby do not see it that way. I find this lack of vision very predictable but nonetheless disappointing and typically defensive.

Whether you're a professional rugby player or work in an entirely different occupation, the reality is that today we live in a truly global world with immense freedom of movement.

If I was Borthwick, I would be tearing my hair out that the likes of Henry Arundell and Jack Willis currently can't be selected for England. In pure and simple terms, that weakens the national side significantly. Make no mistake at the very top level one player can make the world of difference. Robinson is a good example.

On the back of such a promising end to the Six Nations, an announcement that the overseas rule was being scrapped with immediate effect would have woken the rugby world up and let them know England mean business. The fact the status quo is being maintained is a huge, missed opportunity.