Saturday 15 April 2023 9:00 am | Updated: Thursday 13 April 2023 3:18 pm

Leaving the Premiership XV: Talent drain from English rugby laid bare

Deputy Sports Editor

Now you see me: Bristol Bears wing Semi Radrara is among our Leaving the Premiership XV

It’s not uncommon for the world’s various top flight leagues to see quality talent steadily flow in and out, but the Premiership – the top level of rugby in England – is about to see a mass exodus of players to rival leagues.

Leaving the Premiership are a number of individuals who between them have amassed over 1,600 appearances in the league as well as 300 international caps and a number of British and Irish Lions tours. The English top flight is haemorrhaging talent this summer in a sign of things to come.

Some say this is down to the reduction in the salary cap, others suggest there’s a shift towards players wanting to experience new leagues. But it is an issue nonetheless – so much so that City A.M. has drawn up a ‘Leaving the Premiership XV’ to illustrate the point.

Who makes the Leaving the Premiership XV?

Bar loosehead prop – where 20-appearance Robin “Bomber” Hislop, once of Wasps and now of Saracens, is flying north of the border to Edinburgh – there are club and Premiership stalwarts in every position either confirmed or tipped to be swapping English rugby for pastures new.

Joining Hislop in the front row of the fantasy XV are England duo Luke Cowan-Dickie and Harry Williams.

The departure of No8 Zach Mercer from Montpellier has seemingly kickstarted a recruitment drive from the French club’s owner, Mohed Altrad, of Premiership talent.

British and Irish Lion Cowan-Dickie and fellow Exeter Chiefs scrummager Williams will both feature for the current Top14 champions next season, alongside fellow Exeter forward Sam Simmonds – plus Elliott Stooke, who joined mid-season this year.

The loss of current and in-form England internationals in such numbers has allowed the debate surrounding residency rules – whereby you cannot play for Steve Borthwick’s side if you do not play in England except for in special circumstances – to resurface.

In the remainder of the pack you have centurion Wallaby Rob Simmons, who is heading to French giants Clermont, and David Ribbans, the recently capped Englishman giving up his international career for a spell on the Mediterranean shores with Toulon.

Dave Ewers – an uncapped back-row who has nearly 200 appearances for Exeter – is off to Ulster while Simmonds, as previously mentioned, is replacing Mercer at Montpellier.

Jack Willis – who joined Toulouse on a short-term deal following the collapse of Wasps – this week signed an extension, ruling himself out of English contention, and will play with a serious number of the French team gunning for this year’s Rugby World Cup.

Throw in the likes of Premiership winning South African prop Wilco Louw, Argentina international Santiago Medrano and others such as former Newcastle Falcons captain Gary Graham, and the number of quality forwards leaking from Premiership clubs is alarming.

Salary caps have been a topic of discussion for a number of years, with some clubs wanting to scrap the cap altogether and others an even lower cap, which is currently £5m plus one excluded player.

The cap is set to rise to £6.4m for the 2024-25 season but it remains to be seen how many clubs spend up to that level given the current financial crisis gripping domestic rugby.

But the cap costs and the need to lower the average wage across squads hasn’t only hit the forwards.

Darting Bristol Bears scrum-half Andy Uren is off to Challenge Cup semi-finalists Benetton, while Exeter No10 Joe Simmonds is set to depart for Top14 outfit Pau.

In a bid to demonstrate the quality of players not in the Premiership at the moment, Freddie Burns appears in this fantasy XV at inside centre. Kicking the winning Premiership drop goal last year proved a career highlight but Burns is currently in New Zealand, and it’s uncertain if he’s coming back anytime soon.

Fijian magician Semi Radradra is also off, returning to France from Bristol, ending the Premiership’s short love affair with the centre.

In the back three, Joe Marchant is joining former coach Paul Gustard at Stade Francais while British and Irish Lion Jack Nowell is set to join Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.

Harlequins’ Tommaso Allan, too, is leaving to join a French side – the 70-cap Italian is off to Perpignan.

It’s a sad sight when quality players across a number of teams choose to depart the Premiership for personal, financial or career reasons.

But professional rugby isn’t a game players can participate in for decades on end, and the post-career life in the sport offers fewer earning opportunities than football, so who can blame players for choosing money, family security and new experiences when the English Premiership can no longer provide those benefits?

And it’s on the Premiership and its 11 clubs to stop the bleeding and at least paper over the cracks while they get their house in order for the long term.