CHRIS HEWETT

Now that Vannes have made it into the top tier of French rugby and the people running things across the water are preparing to open up Brittany as a significant new market for the game – the major population centres of Nantes and Rennes are a shortish train ride away – it is a good moment to remind ourselves of the chalk-and-fromage differences between this union country and that one.
ProD2, as the second division is known and, more importantly, cherished on the far side of Channel, is playing its usual blinder. Half of the 16 clubs who participated in last season’s league – th...