Interim Wales coach Rob Howley has told his country’s growing number of overseas-based rugby players their international careers could suffer if they remain with foreign clubs.
Howley stunned many observers by leaving out British and Irish Lions halfback Mike Phillips from the Wales starting XV to play Argentina at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
Phillips, now with French club Bayonne, is one of five players in the current Wales squad based in either France or England.
Club commitments meant none of the quintet were involved in Wales’ training camp in Poland last week.
By contrast, Wales’s home-based players did travel to Spala thanks to a participation agreement signed by the four Welsh professional regional teams and the Welsh Rugby Union.
Phillips, James Hook (Perpignan) and Paul James (Bath) are available for Argentina and all three are on the bench.
They can also play against Samoa and New Zealand, but not the autumn climax with Australia on December 1 because the Wallabies match falls outside the International Rugby Board’s window for Test matches, meaning clubs are not obliged to release players.
“The dynamics of the team are important when you spend time together. It’s about those marginal gains that you get,” Howley said.
“When you go to France and England (to play), you take yourself out of that environment. It’s a difficult one because some of those players, in terms of experience, we might lose that.
“I suppose as coaches we have to take the hit because we want to be hugely supportive of our regional game. We want our supporters to watch the best Welsh players in the Welsh game.
“I’ve watched Mike several times with Bayonne, so these players are still under the microscope – it’s not out of sight, out of mind.”
Tavis Knoyle will start in Phillips’ place in the No.9 jersey, with Scarlets half-back partner Rhys Priestland outside him at No.10.
Howley, in charge of Wales while Warren Gatland is seconded to the Lions to oversee next year’s tour of Australia, added: “We want our best players to stay in Wales.”