Rob Andrew in World Cup warning to England's exports

Rob Andrew today warned England stars at French clubs that their chances of playing at next year's Rugby World Cup could be jeopardised by the kind of row James Haskell is having with Stade Francais.

The flanker has rejected Stade's demands to play against Toulouse on Saturday and insists he has an agreement that makes him available for all England squad sessions.

Despite England not having a game this weekend, they remain "in camp" under the Elite Player Squad agreement between the Rugby Football Union and the Guinness Premiership clubs.

Significantly, that deal does not exist with the French clubs, which is why Andrew, the RFU's elite rugby director, has told all of his Continental-based players they had to gain release for the same periods covered by the EPS agreement.

Haskell's lawyer gave that assurance to the RFU, which is why team manager Martin Johnson has kept the flanker as they prepare to take on Scotland at Murrayfield on 13 March.

The row has caused such concern within the RFU that Andrew is warning that English players in France who cannot give cast-iron guarantees of availability next year may miss out on the World Cup in New Zealand.

Andrew, who has told Stade that Haskell will not be freed to play, said: "We must be absolute certain about player release. We chose at the start of this season not to say we wouldn't pick players who go to France but in World Cup year we are going to have to look at who is playing in France.

"Going into the World Cup year we cannot have all sorts of rights and compromises becoming issues. What has happened with James is the only ripple and it has come in the final fallow week of the international release period and affects just one player.

"Last July we asked for an undertaking from those players in France and we received that from James's lawyer stating he had agreement from his club covering all of the release periods. I am not glad this has forced the issue into the open although I thought something like this might happen."

Andrew revealed that England players in France, who include Toulon's Jonny Wilkinson and the Brive pair of Steve Thompson and Riki Flutey, were told they had to either include the EPS dates in the contracts or negotiate a separate agreement that was then made available to the RFU.

Meanwhile, Stade prop David Attoub today lost his appeal against a 70-week ban imposed for gouging Ulster's Stephen Ferris during a Heineken Cup tie in December.