Thomas Young: Flanker signs news contract with Wasps

Thomas Young made his most recent appearance for Wales in Rome in February 2019

Wasps co-captain Thomas Young has signed a new contract with the Premiership club which makes him ineligible for Wales.

The three-times capped Wales flanker - son of former Wasps boss Dai Young - has been with the club since May 2014.

Young was out of contract at the Ricoh Arena at the end of the season and re-signing for Wasps rules him out of playing for his country.

The 28-year-old was not offered a deal by any of the four Welsh regions.

The Welsh Rugby Union introduced a selection policy in October 2017 that meant players with fewer than 60 caps would not be picked if they opted to play outside of Wales although there have been exceptions to the rule.

If a player is uncapped when he signs with a club outside Wales, he is still eligible until the end of that contract. This enabled Young to be selected in 2017, but now this new deal rules him out.

Young was signed by his father after a short stay at Gloucester following his release by Cardiff Blues.

He remained loyal to Wasps in the wake of Dai Young's sacking in March, and his new deal ends any speculation that he might move back to Wales.

"Thomas is a hugely influential member of the squad on and off the field," said head coach Lee Blackett.

"He captained the side on several occasions last year and has developed into a real leader.

"Thomas is one of a number of players who've been here all the time I have, and it's been great to see him develop from being our second choice to being, in our opinion, now one of the best open-sides in the league."

Young has so far scored 30 tries in 111 games for Wasps, but injuries have restricted him to only 21 appearances in the last two seasons.

He is the latest Wasps player to extend his contract with the club over the last few days, following the lead of Marcus Watson, Rob Miller, Tom West, Sam Wolstenholme and Biyi Alo.

Wales rule

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips outlined the policy of his governing body.

"The way it works is that if a player signs a new contract (outside of Wales) they would not be eligible," said Phillips.

"There are all sorts of scenarios you could put forward to why there could be an exception made for a player and those don't exist now within the policy.

"In the old policy a lot of the criticism, which was probably right, was we seemed to find a reason to pick players in all sorts of weird and wonderful scenarios.

"So we decided with the new policy we would not have any ambiguity or loopholes."