United nations of France are doing rugby proud
THE riotous Tower of Babel that is professional French club rugby has always been a useful thermometer for World Rugby and now that everybody is back from the World Cup and contracts arising from that tournament have been signed, it is worth looking at one or two interesting player trends.
In particular let’s consider those from what we still condescendingly call T2 and T3 nations. The Top 14 and Pro D2 have always thrown their arms open to the rugby world and that remains the case, but it is also a vibrant free market economy in which supply and demand vigorously interact.
Take Georgia. At the very top end you might consider their World Cup slightly disappointing with the Lelos not really threatening an upset against higher-ranked teams, but dig a little deeper and the picture is still healthy.
Mainly off the back of four seasons of solid showings at the Junior World Cup there are now 56 Georgian players with professional contracts in France, including 27 with Top 14 clubs, although of course they don’t all get starts. Of those 56 individuals 33 are senior internationals and the majority of the others recent graduates of the U20 teams.
In addition to that hard core, Georgia have a further 20 younger players on Espoir contracts with French clubs waiting to make their first team breakthroughs. The potential of that Frenchbased squad of Georgian emigres to develop and improve hardly needs stressing. And no, they are not all props.
By way of comparison let’s have a quick look at Romania. Twenty years ago no self-respecting French club at any level were without their trusty Romania hard man up front. Yet this season Romania can boast only eight registered senior players in the top two divisions, and of those only No.8 Andre Gorin at Bayonne gets a regular T14 start.
That once mutually beneficial relationship appears to have disappeared as Romania slip ever further down the rankings. Georgia are the new Romania and one of the first things the Oaks new coach Andy Robinson, right, must do is rekindle that vital French link.
Now let’s turn to Spain, currently ranked 16th in the world ahead of no fewer than five Rugby World Cup finalists: Uruguay, USA, Russia, Namibia and Canada.
The Spaniards qualified for RWC2019 but were then thrown out because two of their players appeared for France U20 in 2008.
Spain, despite that setback, remain a coming force and that is reflected by the 16 senior players they now have registered professionally in France, including six with T14 clubs. Even more interesting, they now have another 22 Spanish-born players or heritage players who have declared for Spain playing Espoir rugby, waiting for their big breakthrough.
Hopefully all their paperwork is in order! In the absence of a powerful domestic league and given the huge cultural crossover in the Basque region of France, Spain have decided to take the French route to success very much as Italy did in the 1990s when many of their best players were based over the border in France.
Just how far it can take Spain will be interesting, especially if some currently uncapped Spanish players develop apace in France and are talent spotted as possible candidates for the French World Cup squad of 2023.
Already Les Blues are greedily eyeing young speedster Samuel Ezeala at Clermont.
That also remains a big problem for Fiji, especially as the self-imposed halt on nicking Pacific Island players that president Bernard Laporte announced a few years back seems to have been rescinded.
I make it a whopping 72 Fijians are currently registered with T14 or Pro D2 clubs, 32 of those being uncapped or uncaptured via the Fiji Sevens team. If any of that talent starts making a splash it will be open season again, and bear in mind there are another nine outstanding Fijians with Espoir contracts waiting to make their breakthrough. There is always another Alivereti Raka just around the corner.
Elsewhere, the scope of French club rugby never ceases to amaze and perhaps shame us in Britain a little as well. As well as sizeable contingents from Samoa and Tonga, the best players from Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Portugal, Chile, Germany, Tahiti, Lithuania, Belgium and Switzerland all seem to find a warm welcome and gainful employment in France.
All of which is worth considering by those who ranted when the French were awarded the 2023 World Cup just 16 years after last hosting the tournament.
Players from many rugby nations look on France as their home from home. There is room for everyone.
