Loose Pass: Future bright for France, but not the game

Colin Newboult

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with France present, France future and rugby’s indeterminate future…

Ca va?

A family vacation in France this week for your reasonably trusty correspondent, who naively thought that a week in France at the end of June would be a week free of rugby action.

Not quite so. The pages of rugby newspaper Midi-Olympique were alive with reports from club matches around the country, the final games of a season that began with friendlies in late July last year and with the first friendlies of next season barely a month away.

Macon won the Challenge Yves du Manoir (contested by clubs who didn’t make Trophee Jean Prat, i.e. the knockout stages of the promotion rounds to get to the Pro D2). Issoire beat Rumilly in the final of the Federale 2 (France’s fourth tier), in an extraordinary finale that saw them concede a try in the 80th minute, then win a penalty at the restart, which was also the final play of the game, and land the goal for a 32-30 win. Auch, dissolved in 2017 and reformed for the following season much in the same way Richmond and London Welsh were, won the Federale 3. And the Federale 3B (we’re not quite sure where it fits into the structures) was won, sort of, by Mouguerre, whose match against Elne boiled over in the 76th minute because of a 30-man brawl on the pitch, then was abandoned altogether after the violence left the pitch and spread to the stands. Good old France…

Meanwhile, barely a week after the Top 14 final, the reviews of the big clubs all noted that most of them would be back in training within a fortnight. In Agen’s case, pre-season begins at the end of this week (that’s the week in which temperatures of 40 degrees were predicted, by the by). In the Pro D2, Biarritz, Colomiers and Montauban’s squads were all back doing the hard yards before the Top 14 final had even kicked off.

An interview with Paul Goze, President of the French Ligue National de Rugby, pressed some tough questions about the quantity and quality of club rugby being played in France, with a particularly poignant question asked about the relative qualities of the Top 14 and Premiership finals. Goze played it down pretty well, notably insisting he was not out to copy the Premiership in style or essence. ‘Copier, c’est singer,’ he said (to copy is to ape).

But not all was deflection and parry. The success of the U20 team (more on that shortly) was linked to the league’s developments of salary caps and minimum numbers of JIFF (joueurs issus des filières de formation) players, who must have been registered with the French Rugby Federation for at least five years or have spent three seasons in a federation-approved academy if they are under 21. The Top 14 registered its second-best ever turnover. And from Goze’s perspective at least, the internal war with the FFR seems to be over.

The French seem pretty happy with their rugby state right now. But then there’s at least one pretty obvious reason for that…

Once was impressive, but twice?

The U20 World Championship win over Australia was good in itself, but the pathway for France’s rugby future is clear now. Eight of the winning team are now double U20 world champions, all of them well-bedded in at top clubs. The aforementioned JIFF regulations are – for now – having the desired effect.

Assuming the production line continues to churn, there is also the matter of France’s next World Cup looming; lest we forget, those habitual young winners will all be – injuries and misfortune notwithstanding – in their prime come 2023.

The French season is far too long and places an unremitting strain on its club players. The international team is still suffering from years of neglect in its youth structures and years of import rather than production by its top teams.

But this year’s senior team at the World Cup, marshalled by an equally senior gent in Jacques Brunel, should mark the end of an era. And across l’ovalie, there is significant excitement at what is to come over the next five years if the current strategy is maintained.

Leicester for sale?

That Leicester Tigers, England’s most established and self-perpetuating club historically, is now for sale as an investment opportunity (their words, not ours), perhaps is most illustrative of the identity crisis sweeping world rugby currently.

World Rugby’s attempt to defend its territory by revitalising the international calendar has been abandoned. Equity companies are whirling around the game in Great Britain and Ireland; in England they’ve already plunged for the prey.

Super Rugby may have conjured up an intriguing finale this season, but the format still lends itself to confusion and boredom and the stadia continue to be emptier and emptier. The Currie Cup is barely even a thing any more.

A lot of administrators are itching for change, but all the change opportunities currently bandied around are being fuelled by money rather than sporting principles such as competitive integrity, or human ideals such as player welfare.

This World Cup promises so much for the neutral and enthusiast alike but, following it, we’ve still no idea how the landscape might shift and turn. And when one of the world’s greatest rugby establishments is put up for sale as an ‘investment opportunity’, we have to confess, we’re a bit concerned.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan