Dubai: World Rugby’s review of the three-year residency rule will have a “massive impact” on the UAE, according to the editor of The Gulf Rugby Paper, Chris Bath.

At present an expatriate player would only have to reside in the UAE for three years before they are eligible for national team selection. However, it was announced on Tuesday that World Rugby is reviewing that rule with a possible view to extending the required duration of residency.

The move is targeted at ending the farce of Samoans or Fijians going to play for an established side like England, for example. But Bath argued that, for the developing UAE team, it would limit an already weak playing pool among a highly transitory expatriate population.

“From a UAE perspective, the more you extend the residency requirement the smaller the playing pool will get, so yes, this will have a massive impact,” he told Gulf News.

With the induction of rugby sevens into the Olympic Games next year, UAE sevens sides had become all-Emirati. Players have to be citizens to compete at the Olympics and the UAE rarely naturalises foreign citizens, even if they were born here.

However, the UAE failed to qualify for the Olympics and recently reintroduced expatriates with three-year residency back into the sevens side in a bid to fast-track development. When it comes back round to Olympic or Asian Games qualification, the expatriates will again step aside.

At 15s level, however, expatriates are free to play, and feature more prominently, provided they have lived in the country for three years or more. But if World Rugby extends that necessary residency rule, it would stifle development, according to Bath.

“Taking the expatriates out of the national rugby programme would put UAE rugby back to square one internationally,” he argued. “But if the UAE stay committed to the player pathway scheme and schools development programme [for young Emirati players] then things will progress, just naturally.”

Bath added that having the expatriate playing pool reduced by a possible rule change would only upset short-term national team results.

“Expatriates of any residency duration will still be able to play club rugby, so there will still be excellent development opportunities for local players there, it will just take more patience,” he said.

Speaking about the three-year rule review, World Rugby chief executive officer Brett Gosper told the BBC on Tuesday: “We are doing a consultation with the unions to determine what their view is. What we are going to do is look at it. Certainly [World Rugby chairman] Bernard Lapasset feels it is something that needs to be looked at and I think I share his view.

“The integrity of the international game is important, there is a lot of players movement internationally and we just need to take stock. Is it the right rule now? We will come to an answer on that. I don’t want to speculate on an outcome, but I think it’s good we are looking at it. Things have moved on since the last time we have looked at it and there just maybe a different decision on it than there was last time.”