Nick Easter of the reigning Aviva Premiership champions Harlequins FC has slammed the English rugby authorities for their over reliance on foreign born players for the England national team and the no. 8 believes that this tendency is ultimately bringing about the downfall of the English game as a whole.

Easter, who has himself won 47 caps for his country, has not been selected by the new head coach Stuart Lancaster after the team’s disastrous Rugby World Cup 2011 campaign when they were knocked out in the quarter finals stages.

Lancaster has turned to the likes of young heads in the form of Thomas Waldrom of the Leicester Tigers, who was born in New Zealand. And Easter has been particularly irked by the way in which the Kiwi was fast tracked into the England setup as soon as it was discovered that he qualifies to play for the English national team by virtue of having and English grandmother. The no. 8 for Harlequins FC went on to state that he doesn’t have any problems with the likes of Manu Tuilagi, born in Samoa as well as Dylan Hartley, born in New Zealand because these two were brought up in England and passed through the various age group levels in the country itself.

However, Easter believes it is an absolute insult to English rugby as a whole to fast track someone into the English game without him knowing anything about how the game is played in the country.

And the 34 year old, who has been in fine form for Harlequins FC believes he still has it in him to be a better player in the squad than these young players will ever be, and still hasn’t given up hope of playing for England in the Rugby World Cup of 2015.