Wales head coach says club badge does not matter as English-based players dominate Japan squad
Wales head coach Steve Tandy says he does not think about which club a player represents when he picks the national side. He says the selection is based on who is playing the best rugby and fits the way Wales want to play, not on where they play. BBC Sport
The squad for the Nations Championship match against Japan in Cardiff shows how far that thinking has gone. Tandy has named 12 players from English clubs in the group. Nine of them are in the starting XV, the 15 players who begin the match, and six of those nine are forwards. Forwards are the big players who contest the scrums and lineouts, the set-piece restarts that give a team its platform.
It is understood that the 23-man squad for Japan contains a record number of players based outside Wales. The 23 includes the replacements on the bench as well as the starters, so the list goes beyond the team on the field.
The change is not an accident. Wales altered its rule for overseas-based players in February 2023, cutting the threshold from 60 caps to 25. A cap is one appearance for the national team. At the 2023 Rugby World Cup, only six England-based players were in Wales' 33-man squad.
Tandy knows the Welsh game well from both sides of the border. He left Wales in 2018 for coaching spells in Australia and Scotland, then returned as head coach in 2025. In that time his record stands at three wins and nine defeats, according to Yahoo Sport.
Some of the names at the heart of the debate have recently switched clubs. Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan left the Ospreys to join Gloucester, while Aaron Wainwright moved from the Dragons to Leicester. All three are now playing in England.
Tandy first named a 39-player squad for the Nations Championship, the wider group that will be cut to 33 for the tournament in Australia. Three of those 39 have yet to win a cap. Taulupe Faletau, who has won 109 caps for Wales, has not played under Tandy.
For supporters who want to see home-grown players at the centre of the team, the numbers will make uncomfortable reading. For others, the argument is simpler: the best form earns the jersey, wherever it is played. Tandy's view is clear. Whether the results follow will be the real test.
