Shingler saga could be set for law courts

The 20-year-old, whose mother’s family hail from Langholm, represented Wales last year in an under-20 match in the misguided belief that he could still pursue a desire to play for Scotland at senior level.

The IRB permits under-20 players to choose a different nation on stepping up to senior rugby, unless that nation does not have a recognised second team.

Most nations do have an A side, as Scotland do, but Wales and France have in recent years struggled to field an A team due to their clubs and regional sides refusing to make players available. However, players who have played for them at under-20 level have been free to choose other countries to play for later, with one exception – when Wales and France meet at under-20 level and both countries are counting that team as their effective second XV.

That occurred last year when Shingler was selected and the player maintains that he was advised that he would not be regarded as Welsh as long as he did not sign a form Wales requested him to sign.

He refused and played and, only when Scotland named him in their Six Nations training squad for this year ,did he realise that that advice had been inaccurate.

Even though an investigation suggested dropping the under-20 ‘second team’ ruling, the IRB confirmed this week that, as it was in place last year, Shingler had to be classified as Welsh.

Shingler could now play for Wales, as his brother Aaron has done, but he may now seek legal redress.

Scotland coach Andy Robinson said: “I am disappointed at the result.

“The SRU have backed Steven Shingler totally and believed there was a case there for us. I really now feel for the player, who had a choice of whether he wanted to play for England, Wales or Scotland, and he chose Scotland.

“That was an important choice for him to make at a young age and it’s unfortunate that we’ve lost the case. It’s down to Steven now. There’s nothing that we as the SRU can do with the IRB. It’s down to Steven to assess what he wants to do.”