The Professional Rugby Board has explained how Joe Hawkins' World Cup dream is over while Will Rowlands is still eligible to play for Wales.
Both players, on the face of it, would seem to be captured by the 25-cap rule - with neither possessing the required number of caps ahead of moves away from Wales.
However, when Warren Gatland named a bumper 54-man training squad to kick off the preparations for the tournament in France later this year, Rowlands' name was included but Hawkins was nowhere to be seen.
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The two situations are admittedly different, as PRB chair Malcolm Wall had previously stressed, with Hawkins' availability dependent on whether he could prove he had signed a deal with Exeter before being called up by Wales last October.
Rowlands' case was a little different, with the Racing 92-bound second-row merely needing to win two more caps before his contract in France started.
A PRB statement read: "The Professional Rugby Board (PRB) reviewed Welsh rugby’s Senior Player Selection Policy (SPSP) as part of the new six-year Professional Rugby Agreement (PRA) signed in March by each of its four professional sides and the Welsh Rugby Union, reducing its headline ‘cap-limit’ to 25.
"The SPSP is intended to incentivise the majority of Welsh international talent, both potential and existing, to play their domestic rugby at one of the four Welsh regions by making this a key criteria of selection.
"The notable caveat to this eligibility policy – which means the national head coach will select Wales squad players exclusively from the pool of home talent available – is the exception made for any player who has been capped 25-times or more.
"Players with more than 25-caps can still be selected even if they play outside Wales, whereas players with fewer caps are not eligible in this circumstance.
"Call-ups for uncapped players already contracted (before 31/03/2023) outside of Wales are allowed within the policy. However, in order to keep their eligibility, a newly capped player is required to return to Wales at the expiration of the contract in place at the point of call-up.
"As previously, any uncapped players who are called up to the national squad, but don’t feature during a campaign, also become ineligible if they are re-contracted outside of Wales after the time of their ‘call-up’.
"The new system does not make any exception for capped players, with fewer than 25-caps, leaving to play outside of Wales after 31/03/2023.
"The PRB does not intend to debate the detail of individual cases in public but, for clarity, it has confirmed Ospreys centre Joe Hawkins (who holds five-caps) therefore has not been found to fit any criteria which would make him available for selection after signing up to play his rugby outside of Wales.
"Dragons lock Will Rowlands (who has 23-caps), who is also due to move outside of the country next season, does remain available for selection this summer as his registration will still be held in Wales during this time."
Gatland added: "At this stage, we’ve been told by the PRB that Joe isn’t available. He’s made his decision to go to Exeter. I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. We said we thought he was a big part of our future, in terms of definitely being part of 23s moving forward- either in midfield or at 10. But he’s made that decision. He feels at the moment that the decision to play in England will be good for his development. I’ve got to respect that. But from a coaching team perspective, we’re disappointed to lose someone of his potential and talent.
“I think he felt that he was potentially undervalued. He’s been offered a pretty significant deal.”
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