DAVID BARNES

FRENCH COLUMN

When can a foreigner play for France these days? When Federation president Bernard Laporte says so, that’s when.
That is the remarkable situation to emerge from manager Jacques Brunel’s squad of 31 to face three big games next month.
No matter what World Rugby say, Laporte has his own qualification for accepting men born and bred beyond French borders into his national team.
Not for him the official three-year residential requirement for those never having represented another country at senior level.
Laporte, even contradicting his own stance of ju...