Joke.

Scotland winger Sean Maitland was a notable exclusion in their squad to take on France on Friday in their rearranged Six Nations fixture – but he’s not injured.

The Saracens man started the win against Italy at the weekend and is a key player for Gregor Townsend’s men but will miss out on the game under the terms of the player-release deal struck with PRL, the umbrella group that represents England’s top clubs.

Essentially Scotland were limited to how many English-based players they could select for the game which falls outside the window – through no fault of their own with the game postponed originally because of a COVID outbreak in the French camp.

According to Scottish Daily Mail rugby correspondent what this really boils down to is Scotland not paying enough compensation to English Premiership clubs so they would have full access to their players.

Crazy to think that a player is being stopped from representing their national side because of money. A real shame to see this happening in our sport.

And just to clarify, while Saracens are in the Championship, they are still a part of Premiership Rugby as one of 13 stakeholders, hence why he still falls into this bracket.

Madness to think Maitland will miss out on playing against France in the Six Nations to be available for a Championship fixture with a side who have several international back-three players at their disposal with or without him.