England is currently drawing up a formal policy for picking heritage players in the women’s World Cup - but coach Stuart Barrow wants candidates to commit beyond the tournament.
Tiering has been removed from the international women’s game - allowing Kennedy Cherrington and Shannon Mato to switch from Australia to New Zealand, while other players are considering doing the same.
Barrow will attend the NRLW Magic Round at Geohex Park in Wagga on August 1-2 to run a rule over possible England recruits and meet as many of those players as possible.
“Because of the rule change, it’s quite unique so the RFL didn’t have a policy for this,” said Barrow.
“The board have had a meeting and they’re just perusing over a couple of papers that have been written to them about it. Then we’ll come up with a policy decision so that I can be governed by that as the head coach.
“But I think ultimately that it will come down to me and my staff as to what we want in that squad.”
Players linked to England include Sydney Roosters secondrower Jasmin Strange and playmaker Jocelyn Kelleher, Bulldogs halfback Tayla Preston and Wests Tigers fullback Caitlin Turnbull.
But Barrow’s stance - he wrote much of that submission to the RFL board - might be considered hard-line by some, long-termist by others.
“That’s the difference with the men’s game,” he explained. “If a heritage player is deciding to play for England men, that means they’re making a commitment whereas with the rule change now, if someone commits to England women, they can play for Australia next year or the year after in the build-up to the next World Cup.
“So when we talk about balance, I’ve got to try and find out what their long-term commitment is.
“If I’m not taking someone who’s come through the pathway, a young girl who might be needing this World Cup for experience for the 2030 World Cup, (I must ensure) that that pathway isn’t being blocked by someone who only wants to use us as a stopgap to try to get into Australia.”
He described the removal of tiering as a “shock” to English officials. It may have been intended by legislators as a quick fix after the Jillaroos’ 90-4 win over his side in Las Vegas last year - but the evidence is he’s not going to use it that way.
“It’s a difficult situation because we’re separate to the Pacific Islands and the Southern Hemisphere in that we have our own domestic competition and we also run a really successful pathways,” the man also in charge of female pathways at the RFL said.
“Emerging in the last four or five years, we also run the Under 15s, 16s girls hubs and the DISE (Diploma In Sporting Excellence) programmes, our 16-to-18 years programme. And that’s starting to produce players for Super League and for the England national team as well.
“When we played Wales last year, I think we had eight DISE graduates in the team.
“What I’ve got to be careful of is the balance, to make sure we don’t block the pathways or show that we’re only looking at Australians because the NRLW is a stronger competition and we’re going to fill England with that and discredit our own competition and our own pathways.
“It is a balance, we’ve got to get the numbers right but then again we’ve got to make ourselves competitive and make us as strong as we can possibly be.
“We’re a long way from Australia over here in England so we’ve got to make sure our competition is thriving and we’re developing players for that competition.
“Ultimately people start on the journey in any sport because they want to play internationals. We don’t want to put blocks on that.
“If people genuinely want to play for their heritage and are committed then I’m very keen to speak to them and ensure we give them that opportunity as well.”
Having picked a performance squad in January, Barrow will do no more whittling down or tweaking of the list until a 24-person tournament line-up is selected the day after the Women’s Super League grand final on September 27.
Barrow's team open their World Cup campaign against Wales on October 17 before facing the Jillaroos on October 24, with both games at Perth's HBF Park. They then take on Samoa at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on October 30.
Each of the three pool matches are double-headers with England Men's team, while England's Wheelchair team also kick off their World Cup defence in Wollongong on October 30 at the adjoining WIN Entertainment Centre.
