half Rob Andrew, later an RFU mandarin, had a season with Toulouse. The 1980 Grand Slam No.8 John Scott won almost all of his 34 caps while at Cardiff, and in the same period loosehead Colin Smart played for Newport for a decade.
There were also few restrictions during the first 15 years of the professional era. We only have to go back as far as Martin Johnson’s tenure as England manager from 2009 to 2011 to see he was able to pick Jonny Wilkinson for a training camp while he was at Toulon. The cooperation was such that the flyhalf was given the leeway to leave the England camp...