Wales' new foreign player limit

Six players per team limit delights Ospreys manager

The WRU and the four Welsh regional teams have agreed to impose a new limit of six non-Welsh qualified players per Heineken Cup matchday team for the coming season, and only four per Celtic and Anglo-Welsh Cup matchday team.

The original limit had been two overseas players, but regions soon found the loophole which allowed EU-qualified players born overseas to not be counted as overseas players and rendered the two-player limit unworkable.

For example, the Scarlets were able to sign up All Blacks centre Regan King, who has a British passport, while the Blues brought in Aussie threequarter Mark Stcherbina from Northampton.

The Scarlets now have the full quota of six, according to the new limit, while the Blues have five.

The Ospreys and Dragons, who both profess to be more interested in playing a development role, each have two, as they had already complied with the original limit. Both regions had voiced concern that they would be at a disadvantage if the loophole continued to be exploited in that way.

Ospreys team manager Derwyn Jones was particularly vocal in his support of the new move, calling it good news for Welsh rugby, and praising WRU Chief Executive Steve Lewis for his role in the negotiation.

"We went to Steve to discuss the situation because we felt we could be disadvantaged by having stuck to the guidelines that were originally given," said Jones in the Western Mail.

"We won't hide from the fact that we were annoyed by what had happened and we expressed our concern to the WRU.

"The whole point of going regional was to concentrate on Welsh-qualified players and to provide them with a high standard of competition to prepare them for international rugby.

"What good is it to Welsh rugby if you've got a starting XV where seven or eight of those players can't play for Wales?

"By meeting halfway and having this four-man limit for Celtic and Powergen matches, I think that is fair.

"We are very supportive of the union's efforts to restrict the number of non-Welsh players playing in those competitions.

"I think the limit agreed on is definitely a positive thing.

"What's important is that when we play the Blues during the Six Nations, they can't have any more than four overseas players in their match squad."

Jones said that the Ospreys may still be at a slight short-term disadvantage compared to some of their regional rivals during international periods when they will be without a large number of senior Welsh players, but that the future potential far outweighs any short-term detriment.

"We are looking at the long-term view of developing home-grown youth, whereas other regions have gone out and recruited overseas players," said Jones.

"Maybe they will have the benefit during the autumn internationals and the Six Nations.

"But we feel that in two years' time we will have the benefit from young players getting the exposure of playing now.

"We have a squad of 35 players and we have only got two non-Welsh which is exceptional.

"Ourselves and the Dragons have been pretty meticulous in just picking two."

The regions will be allowed to field six non-Welsh qualified players in the Heineken Cup to enable them to compete with the cosmopolitan French and English clubs.