RUGBY:Clubs like Northampton, who lost their last five matches in succession prior to the weekend, are paying a high price for having produced so many English internationals

IT’S A curious dynamic that clubs who develop players, transforming them into accomplished internationals, may from time to time see those efforts as counterproductive from their perspective. The Northampton Saints had lost their last five matches in succession up to the weekend just gone, struggling to cope in the absence of Dylan Hartley, Chris Ashton, Ben Foden, Courtney Lawes (injured but would have been with England) and Tom Wood.

They would not have envisaged that when they signed these players all would make the grade with England at the one time. It was interesting to note the comment of Saints’ coach Jim Mallinder that in the light of the club’s current losing sequence, he would have to look at the recruitment policy. It’s not a surprise the Saints’ most recent signing for next season is Samoan, George Pisi, and they have also agreed terms with Tom May, who will arrive from Toulon in the summer.

The English RFU compensate clubs financially who produce home-grown internationals but even that comes with a codicil. A club will lose their England internationals for one third of the season: that doesn’t equate to having them for two thirds as the equation is a little more complex.

Even when players return from international duty there is the bedding-in period; they are not instantly the same mentally and physically as they were prior to their departure. Circumstances weigh heavily. If the club is struggling, players can invariably try and take on too much in an attempt to rectify the situation.

If on-field results are going well, it can sometimes be difficult for an individual to instantly attune to a different mindset. There is a mental time-lag in most cases when a player returns from international to club duty.

The Leicester Tigers embarked on an unbeaten nine-game run – that record came to a halt last Saturday when they lost at home to Saracens – during a period when several rivals have been in freefall. They absorbed the lessons from last season and recruited intelligently.

The team is built around top-quality players like Thomas Waldrom, Craig Newby, Scott Hamilton, George Chuter, Marcus Ayerza and George Skivington, all of whom possess the quality and experience to guide the club when the international contingent is absent. The Tigers have a large squad of 45 to 50 players and one that’s admired by their rivals.

The English RFU has tried to replicate a similar system to the IRFU with regard to international players, albeit fitting it in around the fact that there can be no central contracting regime, as in Ireland. The English RFU and the Aviva clubs have come to an arrangement under the Elite Player Squad (EPS) agreement.

The English RFU can pay a club up to £146,500 per player (dependent on number of players and how long they’re absent from the club) that plays international rugby, which seems a handsome enough recompense until you factor in the time that the player will spend away from his club and that the money received does not increase the salary cap by which all the clubs are bound. The payment allows the English union to impose mandatory rest and release periods.

Clubs will play 22 Premiership matches in the regular part of the season with a quarter of those coming during the Six Nations Championship window and a seventh during the November Test series. Strict controls are imposed by the English RFU with regard to the international players regulating rest periods and training camps.

The timing can produce some ludicrous anomalies for clubs as was the case with London Irish’s Delon Armitage, who was eligible for a LV=Cup match but could not play in a Premiership match the following week.

Northampton’s travails will be encouraging for Ulster ahead of next month’s Heineken Cup quarter-final meeting. A run of defeats can weigh heavily on the mindset of players and it’s impossible to avoid a certain negativity in attitude permeating the squad. No losing dressing room is a happy place and the longer that sequence continues the lower the fug descends.

When the international contingent are away, younger or fringe players get a chance to make their mark. In clubs that struggle during those periods, the players coming in can quickly lose confidence and coaches make judgements about someone’s mental and physical capacity to cope in adversity.

That’s why it is so important that squads maintain a winning culture when the internationals are away: Munster, Leinster and Leicester Tigers are prime examples.

Returning international players don’t necessarily provide an immediate panacea. It can take a match or two for them to mesh and a team to rediscover its rhythm. There’s no doubt the Saints are victims of their own success in terms of producing players for the national team. Just using one of their players as an illustration, Chris Ashton has played just six Premiership matches for the club this season, compared to 13 this time last year. He has played for Northampton just once in the last four months.

Stade Francais’ colourful owner Max Guazzini has said he will not employ any more England internationals because he hasn’t been compensated for the absence of James Haskell and Tom Palmer. The latter wasn’t in the EPS squad when he signed for the French club.

The salary cap in England means that as wages increase then squad size must go down: French clubs are not similarly encumbered but they may think twice about employing English players. Max, if you’re reading this, I am Irish, not as yet required by my national squad and providing a little airbrushing was permitted would be willing to forego my intellectual property rights and appear in the saucy Stade calendar.

The Foxhills golf professional Roger Hyder is in the shape of his life thanks to my fitness programme but the quid pro quo, my golf game, leaves a great deal to be desired; a grown man, with all his limbs intact taking about 150 shots to negotiate 18 holes needs no elaboration. I might have too many fast twitch muscle fibres for such a sedentary sport.

At the moment though I am just glad to be back playing again following the calf tear, especially after I got one or two enquiries asking me if I had retired on the quiet. The cheek!