Wales have sent a warning to anyone considering a big-money move outside the region by ditching their Lions star Mike Phillips.
The Bayonne scrum-half has been dropped from the side to face Argentina at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday as a sign that the country will favour homegrown players instead of those who move to the Aviva Premiership or Top 14.
"Going to France or England could affect international careers," said Rob Howley, Wales's interim head coach. "Only players who are based in Wales can take a full part in the vital 13-day preparation we have before international periods, and while it is difficult leaving the likes of Mike Phillips out because of their experience, we have to take the hit because we are hugely supportive of our regions."
Only one of the five squad members who earn their livings outside Wales will start against Argentina, the Toulon prop Gethin Jenkins. He had, said Howley, secured release from his club for next month's fourth international against Australia, unlike Bath's Paul James, Perpignan's James Hook, who is on the bench despite Jonathan Davies's injury creating a vacancy in the centre, and Phillips. The second row Luke Charteris will be available to face the Wallabies as a quid pro quo after Wales released him back to his club this week.
Three of Wales's grand slam winners this year who will be out of contract with their regions at the end of the season, Jamie Roberts, Alex Cuthbert and Dan Lydiate, are being chased by Top 14 clubs, who seem immune from the economic recession. With Wales chilling out in Poland before the autumn series, the Six Nations and World Cups, excursions for which French and English clubs are not obliged to release players, the preparation will become counter-productive if many more render themselves unavailable.
"This makes you think a lot more about what you want to do next season," said Roberts, the Cardiff Blues and Lions centre, reflecting on the damage playing in France could do to his Test career. "Whatever decision I make has to be the right one for me: there are a number of factors to consider, including international rugby. It is a huge call."
Although it was Howley who was articulating the counter-attack on French and English clubs, he was speaking with the assent of the Wales coach, Warren Gatland, who is on secondment to the Lions for the season, apart from later this month when he returns to take charge of the Tests against New Zealand and Australia. He has long warned players of the consequences of playing outside Wales, but the financial problems besetting regional rugby is threatening to generate a mass exodus.
Wales have chosen the Scarlets' Tavis Knoyle, who missed the Six Nations after having shoulder surgery, at scrum-half, the fourth player they have used in the position this year, because of the integral part he played in last week's Poland camp.
"Team dynamics are important and when you take yourself out of them, as some have done, it affects preparation. It is important that when players go abroad they have to take a judgment on the financial aspect or wearing the national jersey," Howley said.
He admitted it was easier for Wales to make an example of a player in a position where they have strength in depth than one who is short of rivals. The one new cap against Argentina will, ironically, be an Englishman who plays for Ospreys, the Exeter-born Aaron Jarvis who qualifies through a grandmother who was born in Merthyr Tydfil and replaces the injured Adam Jones, the player he understudies at regional level.
Wales considered moving James across from loosehead but, as in the back row where one of their options in the absence of the injured Ryan Jones and Lydiate was to play two open-sides as flankers, Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric, they have opted for a specialist: Josh Turnbull will wear the No6 jersey, and cover the second row, but Jarvis, despite being 26, is a player whose experience of senior rugby has largely been on benches.
He made his debut for Bath in 2007 but, up against Duncan Bell and then David Wilson, he only made eight starts for the club before moving to Ospreys last year where 17 of his 32 appearances have been made from the bench. "I am ready," he said. "Although I played for England at Under-16 and Under-19 level, it has long been in the back of my mind that I would play for Wales. My wife is half-Welsh and her father used to take me to the Millennium Stadium where the atmosphere made a big impression on me; I want to keep the jersey for as long as I can."
Wales team to play Argentina Millennium Stadium, 2.30pm Saturday 10 November
L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Scarlets), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), G North (Scarlets); R Priestland (Scarlets), T Knoyle (Scarlets); G Jenkins (Toulon), M Rees (Scarlets), A Jarvis (Ospreys), AW Jones (Ospreys), I Evans (Ospreys), J Turnbull (Scarlets), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).
Replacements R Hibbard (Ospreys), R Bevington (Ospreys), P James (Bath), R McCusker (Scarlets), J Tipuric (Ospreys), M Phillips (Bayonne), J Hook (Perpignan), L Williams (Scarlets).