When it comes to sacking those in charge of losing teams, French rugby has beaten English football to the punch.
While the struggling Premier clubs stand by their managers and coaches in adversity, the Top 14’s bottom club have got rid of theirs toute de suite.
A sixth defeat in seven matches cost Richard Cockerill his job at Montpellier along with his assistant, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde. The club’s billionaire owner, Mohed Altrad, surprised nobody by hiring his old friend Bernard Laporte to replace the ex-Leicester and England hooker.
And to think rugby union used to look down its long nose ...