Top 14: Steffon Armitage display makes a mockery of England selection policy

Steffon Armitage has been in impressive form

I had the privilege of watching two nail-biting climaxes to league games last weekend – one in France, one in England. Both featured players with established England credentials whose conduct and impact in the final seconds of the match should have contrasting implications on their international prospects. Alas, the player who showed weakness in his moment of need was whisked off minutes after the final whistle to join the England camp while the other, cast into the wilderness by short-sighted regulations, was left to toddle off home following another magnificent display with virtually no hope of an England call-up despite having just overshadowed some of the greatest names in world rugby.

I’m talking about Toby Flood and Steffon Armitage.

Twenty-five phases into the final play in Watford on Sunday, Leicester’s Flood looked so uncomfortable at the prospect of having to take a drop goal from straight in front of the posts to beat champions Saracens that his captain Geordan Murphy pushed him to one side and did the job himself. It was the kind of situation in which cool heads like Ronan O’Gara and Jonny Wilkinson thrive. But not Flood. It was a revealing moment.

Twenty-four hours earlier across La Manche and on a pitch which a week earlier was unfit for Six Nations purpose, Armitage demonstrated just why he deserves to return there on March 11 when England play France. Unfortunately for England (and us) Armitage is more likely to be found earlier that weekend scampering around the Stade Aime Giral where a win for Toulon against Perpignan would increase the pressure on second-placed Clermont Auvergne who, hamstrung by Six Nations call-ups involving not only half-a-dozen France players but one each to Italy and Wales as well, have a nine-point cushion over Toulon.

The last half-hour of Saturday’s Stade de France spectacular between Stade Francais and Toulon was a marvellous advert for the Top 14 just as much as it was a sobering reflection of the folly of an England policy which sees France-based players excluded from consideration for international selection in all but “exceptional circumstances”.

The team sheets on Saturday read like a Barbarians Probables versus Possibles trial – only this wasn’t a result-doesn’t-matter contest. Sergio Parisse led Stade out of the tunnel alongside his Toulon counterpart Joe van Niekerk. Following Parisse were the likes of Dmitri Szarzewski, Julien Dupuy, Pascal Pape, David Lyons, Felipe Contepomi, Byron Kelleher, Tom Palmer and Paul Sackey. Tucked into the slipstream of Van Niekerk were Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Giteau, Bakkies Botha, Carl Hayman, Mathieu Bastareaud and Simon Shaw.

And what they served up in that last half-hour was a delight. The early exchanges had been fractious, fists flying between Pape and Botha. The France lock, his face rouging with anger and a sharp injection of testosterone, went for the throat of a bloodied yet grinning Botha. Their spat and Botha’s beaming “boat race” were a running theme.

But through it all the shining star was Armitage – rumour has it that brothers Delon and 20-year-old Guy are also Toulon bound in a special buy two Armitages and get one free deal – and it was Steffon who smashed over in the corner in the final seconds to give Giteau the chance to snatch a draw with the conversion.

With the tee just a matter of inches in from the touchline the odds were against Giteau. But he struck it sweetly and the ball duly sailed between the uprights. The job was done. And it was two points apiece. But it was Toulon who were left celebrating in a manner you’d expect of a team that had just won the Bouclier de Brennus.

It was a stunning end to an exhilarating half-hour which also reflected that England would be wise to consider how much longer they can afford to discount those who, like Steffon Armitage, choose to ply their trade in the Top 14.

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