Relegation is not end of ambition in France

THERE are more than a dozen towns and cities in France, from Beziers and Dax in the far south to Grenoble and Oyonnax in the east, who share something beyond a deeprooted passion for rugby.

Their clubs have all featured in one or other of the major European club tournaments. Seven have played in both. At the same time, none are currently competing in the top flight of their domestic game.

Some, like Bayonne, have mutated into yo-yo clubs, bouncing between the Top 14 and ProD2 so regularly that they might be playing their home games on trampolines. Bourgoin, quite the force not so very long ago, are in the third tier: Auch, the club of Jacques Fouroux, and Perigueux, now coached by the former England scrum-half Richard Hill, are not even that high up the ladder.

“How are the mighty fallen,” you might say with a shrug. Equally, you might acknowledge that this speaks to the extraordinary strength of the club game across the Channel – stronger by far than the English version as it makes its politically counter-intuitive way towards a closed shop for free-marketeer financiers.

Auch, like Perigueux, are effectively a fourthlevel team. Dissolved after bankruptcy in 2017 – their landing was every bit as hard as that suffered, at around the same time, by London Welsh following their ill-starred flirtation with the Premiership – they reaffiliated as a new club and set about playing their way back up through the leagues from somewhere down near the earth’s core.

As of last weekend, they were top of their pool in Federale 1. If they are still there in April and find a way through the play-offs, they will be two promotions away from a return to the elite division.

Quite an incentive. If only the same were available to their counterparts over here.