Bath flyhalf Butch James. An apparent oversight by South African Rugby Union officials may well cost Butch James his chance of pressing for a place in next year’s Springbok World Cup squad. James has been named at inside centre in the South African team to play Wales in a one-off Test in Cardiff on Saturday. However, SARU and James’s club, Bath, are now in a stand-off over the World Cup-winning Bok’s availability – the sticking point being whether this match falls inside or outside the International Rugby Board’s window for June Test matches.

The Article thanks to Louis De Villiers and Rugby365

Following rugby365.com’s earlier report that Premier Rugby, the umbrella organisation responsible for managing the 12 professional clubs in England, instructed Bath to pull James out of the Bok team, this website can now also reveal that SARU may have erred when they suggested the Test was inside the IRB’s June window. Simon Lewis, the media spokesman at Premier Rugby, was adamant that the Boks and SARU were in the wrong. “This Test match is outside the IRB window and we have instructed Bath to call him back,” Lewis told rugby365.com.

He added that it has always been their protocol to work through the clubs and directed this website to IRB Regulation 9.7 (a) – for Global Release Periods. The regulation, on the IRB website, reads: “9.7 Global Release Periods. There are two Global Release Periods.

(a) The June window: “The Right to Release for Matches shall apply to each of the senior National Representative Team, the next senior National Representative Team and the Under 20 National Representative Team of a Union in respect of all International Matches, International Tours and International Tournaments played over a period of three weekends in June each year, save in a Rugby World Cup year, during which year the June window shall not operate in respect of Unions that qualified for the Rugby World Cup. Unless Council approves otherwise the three weekends in June shall be the second, third and fourth weekends.

” It may well have been an oversight on behalf of SARU, who may not have noticed the “… the three weekends in June shall be the second, third and fourth weekends.” Andy Colquhoun, the Strategic Communication Manager at SARU, confirmed that they received communications from Bath suggesting that James is not available for the Test in Cardiff. “However, we’re happy he is eligible to play,” Colquhoun told rugby365.com, adding that communications between the two groups are ongoing. James, despite the drama surrounding his selection, made it clear that he wants to play for South Africa against Wales.

James, who has not played for South Africa for more than two years and is looking to put himself in contention for next year’s World Cup, said he was “hungry” to play for the Boks again and has left the matter in the hands of the South African management to resolve. Scotland head coach Andy Robinson has also voiced his disappointment over Premier Rugby’s decision to bar four of his players from taking part in Scotland’s warm-up game against a Japan XV at Murrayfield.

Gloucester was happy for Rory Lawson, Alasdair Dickinson, Alasdair Strokosch and Scott Lawson happy to take part, but Premier Rugby ruled them out under a regulation which Robinson hopes will soon be re-evaluated. The hardball stance of Premier Rugby and Bath over the James issue has been questioned. England received to all clear to name all of their frontline players – with the exception of those who played in the Premiership[ Final between Leicester Tigers and Saracens – for the encounter with the Barbarians at Twickenham last Sunday.

However, it has been pointed out that that was an “internal arrangement” between Premier Rugby and the Rugby Football Union. The other overseas-based Boks named in the side to face Wales on Saturday – Frans Steyn, Joe van Niekerk, BJ Botha and CJ van der Linde – are based in Ireland or France and their clubs don’t fall under the jurisdiction of Premier Rugby.