French in struggle to field team v Wales
France’s internationals are hostages in a club and country player-release war ahead of the extended autumn international season.
A ruling by the country’s highest administrative court did nothing to ease tensions between the union and professional clubs. Rather than binding the two sides to a firm decision, the Conseil d’Etat on Friday ordered them back to the negotiating table, to discuss changes to an existing convention between them on the provision of players for internationals, which commits clubs to release players for three matches over four weeks in the end-ofyear international window.
The two sides had been in court-mandated talks before Friday’s ruling – but were unable to reach an agreement. The league reiterated their longstanding release for five matches offer. The FFR demanded a full complement of six games. And, after the court’s decision, it appears they are as far apart as ever.
Midi Olympique reported that, hours after the ruling, the LNR sent a letter to the FFR demanding they cancel an international squad call-up on October 18. Club presidents are due to attend a conference call today to further discuss the matter.
Less than a fortnight out from France’s first scheduled match – against Wales on October 24 – it’s not certain Les Bleus will be able to raise a team.
Things are no easier on the domestic front. Four weekends in and it’s already difficult to see how this crazy, coronavirus-affected season will finish on schedule after two more matches – Castres-Brive and Bordeaux-Clermont – fell to the pandemic.
It is the third time in a matter of weeks that Castres have been unable to fulfill a fixture. Already, they and Bordeaux have to make up two games in a congested calendar. So will Racing 92, after the postponement of last weekend’s trip to La Rochelle. Next week, both Racing and Toulon – who, by astonishing coincidence, were scheduled to meet in the Top 14 – are absent from domestic action as they have European finals to contest.
Three positive tests in the Bordeaux camp triggered the league’s postponement mechanism on Friday and sent president Laurent Marti into something of a tailspin, despite the evidence of rising cases at Castres.
“We must stop systematically testing healthy players,” he railed in the Sud Ouest newspaper. “We must lighten the protocol. Players will be more at risk if we play every four days. But we only listen to the doctors.”
It is possible to disagree with Marti’s Covid opinion and understand his frustration. Midweek catch-up games would be beyond hard on players in the brutal marathon that is the tenand-a-bit-month Top 14 season.
It’s easier to see where Marti is coming from. Right now, professional French clubs are haemorraghing money. Racing 92 estimated they lose more than € 120,000 for every game they play at La Defense Arena in front of just 1,000 fans. Castres Olympique are losing up to
€ 250,000 per missed match, local newspaper La Depeche said, while Clermont’s former president Eric de Cromieres has said the club lost up to € 400,000 for every unplayed home game during lockdown.
Nearly all French clubs have negotiated salary cuts with players but such losses are unsustainable other than in the shortest of terms. Even billionaire Racing 92 owner Jacky
Lorenzetti has warned he cannot dig deeper forever.
There has been some good offpitch news for clubs, however. The French government is set to release € 83m to professional sports clubs in the next few weeks as relief until the end of December. But the € 35m pro rugby is expected to receive will not cover all losses clubs face, as that figure was based on 5,000 crowd limits.
As well as the legal battle, crowd limits have to bring into question the planned autumn internationals. Maximums of 1,000 – or even 5,000 in less Covid-affected areas of France – which are likely to be in place are hardly the cash cow the FFR was hoping for in pre-second wave happier times.
On the pitch, the big surviving game of the weekend is Racing-Toulouse. Both sides rang the changes this week, meaning there was no out-half battle between Finn Russell and Romain Ntamack. Russell was not in the 23, while Ntamack
started in his old inside centre position, with Thomas Ramos at 10, and Zack Holmes at 13, in a playmaker-packed midfield.
That, at least, allows a deserved spotlight to be thrown on up-and-coming flanker Selevasio Tolofua, named in Fabien Galthie’s in-doubt squad and tipped for great things from the player he’s likely to replace – Jerome Kaino.
Tolofua was in breakdownbeast mode as Toulouse’s backs stole the show in a thoroughly entertaining 30-24 win at La Defense Arena that should not be taken as a clue for next week’s Champions Cup final. Racing will look very different when they face Exeter.
As with Toulouse, so with Montpellier, as France full-back Anthony Bouthier started at 10, in the long-term absence of Handre Pollard, and despite the presence of halfback-by-trade Thomas Darmon at 13.
It’s not been a happy season at Montpellier so far. Questions have been asked about the future of coach Xavier Garbajosa – and Saturday’s 25-21 loss at Toulon will only pile on the pressure.
The Top 14 weekend had opened with Yannick Bru’s dogged Bayonne entertaining a much-changed La Rochelle, for whom Jules Plisson made his first start of the season.
Last Friday, Bayonne outwitted Stade Francais in Paris. This week, it seemed they were still coming down from the high as they gave up penalty after penalty and made basic errors that will have had Bru fuming into his facemask. The visitors headed home with a 36-19 bonuspoint win.
Stade recovered from that surprise with an uninspiring 20-3 win at Agen. For the hosts, the tragi-comedy of wayward ontheir-line passing that led to Stade’s second try a minute from time sums up their season so far. Without a win in four games, Top 14 survival is, even at this early stage, everything.
“France’s internationals are hostages in a player-release war”