JAMES HARRINGTON
It turns out the week leading up to the first round of the Six Nations – the week Covid limits were lifted on crowd sizes in France has been a good one for burying important French rugby news.
Amid all the international hype, it virtually flew under the radar that, from next season, those once overseas players-heavy clubs in the Top 14 and ProD2 will be obliged to average 17 players who have come through the French age-grade rugby and academy system – also known as JIFF players – out of the 23 on their Top 14 matchday teamsheets, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) announced.
The further tightening of France’s JIFF rules, up from 16 this season will, from the 23/24 campaign be enforced with a heavier points-based penalty system. Those sides that average between 15 and 16 players will lose six points, with the points penalty rising to 12 points for those sides that only maintain an average of 12 or 13 JIFF players across the season.
The LNR also undertook an important amount of longer and short-term house-keeping, first confirming the date and kick-off time of this season’s Top 14 final – which, for public transport access reasons to Stade de France, will be at 8.45pm on Friday, June 24. The semi-finals in Nice will be at 9.05pm on June 17 and 18, and the play-offs, at the home grounds of the third and fourth-placed teams, at 9.05pm on June 11 and 12.
Looking further ahead, the LNR outlined the 23/24 season, which has to be fitted around the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games. Three rounds of the Top 14 and ProD2 will be played before the World Cup kicks off on September 8, 2023, “to ensure rest periods in the second part of the season”, league officials said.
But no Top 14 matches will be scheduled during the World Cup – with the top flight resuming the day after the final, on Sunday, October 29. Eight rounds were played during the 2019 and 2011 tournaments, and seven in 2015. Three ProD2 rounds will take place – but will be scheduled to avoid any conflicts with the international competition.
Preparations for the 2024 Olympics in Paris mean that the Stade de France is not an option for the 23/24 Top 14 final, and a search is underway for a suitable alternative venue. The last time French rugby’s showpiece event was held away from Saint-Denis, because of a scheduling conflict with the 2016 European football Championships, a world-record 99,124 crowd saw a Dan Carter-led Racing 92 beat Toulon 21-29 at Barcelona’s Nou Camp.
Away from officialdom, Lyon confirmed this week that head coach Pierre Mignoni would leave the club at the end of this season, a year before his contract is up, with former Montpellier coach Xavier Garbajosa in the frame to take the hotseat at Gerland.
Questions over Mignoni’s future at the club – currently third in the table – have been swirling for a while, along with rumours over where he will go. Montpellier, Racing, and Toulon are among the clubs mentioned in various dispatches, and reports of his departure have – it is said – hit recruitment plans for the season.
There’s no doubt his departure from Lyon is a blow to the club. In seven seasons, he first stablised their efforts to win promotion to the Top 14 and stay there, and then turned them into a top six force to be reckoned with. He’s popular with the players, too. They reportedly demanded a meeting with club president Yann Roubert prior to the announcement to discuss the reports and plans for the future. And now, they’re aiming to send him off on a trophy-winning high.
“Clubs will need to average 17 players who have come through the French age-grade system”
They very nearly made a mess of it in the first match up after the announcement, however, having to drag themselves back from behind to beat Stade Francais by a single point in front of their home fans, winning 26-22 to record their eighth home win of the season.
Earlier, defending champions Toulouse’s wait for a first Top 14 win since November 27 goes on, after Ugo Mola’s side, weakened by international call-ups and short of gametime with two Top 14 games postponed and two Champions Cup fixtures cancelled in that 70-day period, lost 36-13 at Perpignan.
The bonus-point win moved the Catalans provisionally six points clear of the relegation zone, as 13th-placed Brive lost 57-19 at Racing 92’s Defense Arena. It could have been much worse for the visitors – five minutes before half-time, Racing had scored five tries and had raced into a 36-0 lead, but Jeremy Davidson’s side recovered to score three tries of their own and briefly threaten their hosts’ try-scoring bonus.
Cobus Reinach – the best-bearded scrum-half in the world – scored a hat-trick as Montpellier beat Pau 29-12 at the GGL Stadium to extend their winning streak to eight matches, and close the gap on Top 14 leaders Bordeaux, whose trip to Clermont was called off earlier in the week because of Covid-19.
As a result of the postponement of the match at Marcel Michelin, the kick off of La Rochelle’s trip to Biarritz – where the visitors have not won in 53 years – was moved from 6pm to 9.05pm for TV purposes.
Furious Toulon fans left ‘fortress’ Stade Mayol before the final whistle, after die-hard, give nothing visitors Castres somehow survived a torrid period at the end of the first half, when they conceded penalty after penalty and had two players sent to the sin-bin, to record a shock 22-10 win – their first at the ground since October 2008.
