FRENCH COLUMN - JAMES HARRINGTON

France's Ligue Nationale de Rugby hopes to pocket more than half-a-billion euros, after launching a call for tenders for Top 14 and ProD2 TV rights from the start of the 2027/28 season.
Under the tender outline, the two professional men’s leagues have been packaged together for the first time, with a total of four separate packages up for grabs – reopening the possibility that the domestic leagues’ coverage will be distributed across rival broadcasters – up to a maximum of two per league and three for both competitions.
Disappointingly, however, the women’s...