Dan Biggar has given a glowing endorsement of playing rugby outside of Wales and believes the Welsh Rugby Union's 60-cap rule should be scrapped.
The controversial ruling means that stars not playing for the four Welsh regions can only be selected for Wales' men's team if they have more than 60 international caps.
If a player is uncapped and playing in England, they can be chosen - but inevitably there will come a point when they have a decision to make about whether to join a Welsh region to continue their Test career, or stick with a club who have been pivotal in their development. Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester), Christ Tshiunza (Exeter) and Tommy Reffell (Leicester) are recent examples who are yet to make such a decision.
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Wales captain Biggar has spent the last four years at Northampton, after leaving the Ospreys. He has 102 Wales caps to his name and isn't captured by the ruling.
When asked about Rees-Zammit's situation in particular, Toulon-bound Biggar told a new RugbyPass episode of Rugby Roots: "You can only speak from personal experience and for me, going to try a new league, living away from home, albeit a few hours up the road, has only benefited me.
"Others may want to stay in Wales and feel that's the best thing for them and the most comfortable thing, and that's fine. But from my experience, going to experience new coaches, ideas, people, playing in a different league week in week out, big occasions, top teams every single week, I think can only benefit players.
"I just think we're such a small playing nation and we've got such a small player pool, why would you want to hamstring yourself even further by not being able to choose from Welsh guys playing in England, or having to bring boys back? He obviously loves it, playing brilliant rugby in Gloucester, same as boys like Tommy Reffell in Leicester.
"For me, it doesn't matter whether you're 17 or 37, play for Gloucester, Northampton, Toulon, Stormers, Ulster, whoever you want, if you're deemed the best in your position, if you've got 100 caps or 10 caps, I think we should be in a position where we just pick our best players regardless."
The introduction of the WRU policy, brought in in 2017, was designed to encourage Wales players to play domestically for one of the four regional sides: Ospreys, Scarlets, Cardiff or Dragons. Wales' management are able to have a say in how often their players turn out for their regions and also are able to have more access to them during campaigns by virtue of them playing in Wales.
Biggar acknowledges the challenges and believes balance is key. "I know it's difficult because the game in Wales is not in the healthiest place in terms of crowds, you probably want to see your internationals playing week in, week out, it's about having a real balance," he said.
"I think the 60-cap rule has probably served its purpose in terms of wanting to keep players in Wales, but it's really difficult to ask players who potentially have never been offered a contract in Wales to come back and say 'you have to play for this team if you want to carry on playing for Wales'.
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"The best thing I did was going outside of Wales and testing myself in a different league. I get that some other boys may not have as positive experiences but from my point of view, it's a really important piece of your career, to try something new and not be punished, or have any negative effect from that 60-cap rule to not try something new as well.
"Whoever's playing the best in those positions, or whoever the coaches deem the best, two caps, 20, 70, we need to pick our best players. We're not in a position of England where we've got 11 teams, or France with 14."
Biggar's comments, made midway through Wales' autumn campaign, come amid the fresh revelation that Wales lock Will Rowlands is on the verge of quitting Welsh rugby, with a glut of English clubs chasing him. Rowlands' current team the Dragons admit they are powerless to prevent his departure, given there is currently a freeze on handing out fresh regional contracts for next season and beyond. A return to the English Premiership would mean Rowlands, who left Wasps for Rodney Parade, would be unable to represent Wales in the future as he doesn't meet the 60-cap threshold.
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