France to stop picking 'foreign' players

France rugby federation boss Bernard Laporte has announced that his national team will no long select foreign players.

Laporte was speaking after meeting with World Rugby chief Bill Beaumont and confirmed that France will no longer pick players under the controversial three-year residency rule with only foreign-born players with French passports to be considered in future.

World Rugby rules allow a player to represent another country if he has lived there for three consecutive years and has not played for anyone other national side, but the organisation is now looking to extend the period to become eligible to five years.

Laporte has confirmed however, France are changing their own criteria.

"I told Bill that we've taken the political decision to stop playing foreign players in the national team," he said.

"Obviously, it's not retroactive. Those playing can continue playing but it's a strong signal for French academies and our youngsters that we'll play a maximum number of Frenchmen."

The decision means many current international players who qualified to play under the three-year residency rule such as South Africa-born full-back Scott Spedding and Fiji-born wings Noa Nakaitaci and Virimi Vakatawa will continue to be available for Les Bleus.

French rugby has been in the doldrums recently, finishing fifth in the Six Nations on four of the last five occasions, and coming rock bottom the other time.

Most of the top international sides have taken advantage of this rule for the last number of years and pacific island nations such as Samoa, Fiji and Tonga have lost numerous talented players to the richer rugby-playing nations.

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