The International Rugby Board has made it harder for players to use the 2016 Olympic Games as a shortcut to changing their international allegiance, sabotaging the chances of the England flanker Steffon Armitage playing for France in next year’s World Cup.
When the International Rugby Board gained Olympic status, it had to modify its strict rules on eligibility. For the past 14 years, once a player has represented one country at senior level, the grade below or on the Sevens circuit, he or she may never appear for another.
The International Olympic Committee has a passport rule and the IRB changed its eligibility regulation to reflect that, but only for Sevens tournaments, which were regarded as Olympic events – there are nine between the beginning of next month and the end of May. It said that, in respect of the Rio Games, there had to be a stand-down period of at least 18 months before a player could appear for a new country and that he could not represent that nation in any other form of the game until he had appeared in an Olympic event.
The IRB set up a regulations panel to look at Olympic eligibility and on Thursday it ruled that a player, subject to the passport condition, had to appear in at least four Olympic events before his or her nationality change was complete. That would mean Armitage, who was last week named in a 74-strong France training squad, would need to appear in four of the Sevens World Series events this season to qualify for Les Bleus at 15-a-side level.
That would mean the 28-year old, who was last capped by England in 2010 and who has applied for a French passport having been with Toulon for three years and grown up in the Côte D’Azur, would need to miss a large part of Toulon’s season at a time when the club’s president, Mourad Boudjellal, is raging about the amount of time some of his squad are spending away on international duty and threatening to dock their wages.
France had been looking to play Armitage in one of the Olympic events to allow the national coach, Philippe Saint-André, to select him. But he would now not only have to play in at least four, with the tournaments held all over the world, but also demonstrate a “genuine, close, credible and established national link” with the country of the union for which he has been selected.
If a player looking to change allegiances plays in fewer than four Olympic events, he will be in international limbo, no longer eligible for the country he was originally capped by, nor the nation he was looking to represent.
“The rulings of the regulations committee will further assist our unions with their preparations and underscore our commitment to ensure a successful and spectacular Olympic Games debut at Rio and beyond,” said Bernard Lapasset, the IRB chairman.
