Steve Thompson has played down suggestions that Steffon Armitage would have made a major difference to the England team at the Rugby World Cup.

Under a current ruling, players like Toulon's Armitage that play their club rugby outside of England are not permitted to represent their country at international level.

There have been those that claimed the 30-year-old could have helped to prevent Stuart Lancaster's men from suffering an early exit in the pool stages of the competition, but World Cup-winner Thompson has rubbished that school of thought.

"I don't think he's good enough anyway at international level. You look at his work rate he'll do a great turnover and then disappear for a while," he told 888sport.

"People were saying England could win the World Cup but he's not a player who will be in the match the whole time. Also when players go over to France, they're doing so for the money. So you can't have your cake and eat it."

Amritage was capped five times by England prior to his switch to France.