JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN

The rugby season in Europe’s top three leagues gets confused at this time of year, as we head into the business end of the domestic and cross-border competitions.
After this week’s round-of-16 second leg ties in the Champions Cup and the round-of-16 fixtures in the Challenge Cup are out of the way, domestic competitions return for a two-week run before European rugby takes over again for a fortnight. Then there’s more domestic rugby, a bit more Europe, and then the end of the Top 14, Premiership and URC leagues.
In France, four weeke...