Top 14 chief: 'English players flooding to France is bad for rugby'

The roll-call of England internationals choosing to turn their backs on the Premiership and cross the Channel lengthens by the week. Of those who were part of Steve Borthwick’s squad at the World Cup, Henry Arundell, Jack Willis, Joe Marchant and David Ribbans have all chosen to plant their flags with Top 14 clubs this season. Lewis Ludlam, Northampton’s club captain, will join Ribbans in Toulon next season, with others rumoured to be joining him.

Outside of Borthwick’s squad, Jack Nowell, Sam Simmonds, Joe Simmonds, Dan Robson and Harry Williams are fellow internationals who departed the English system last season to embark on a sojourn in France.

On the face of it, the allure of the Top 14 – and, even, the ProD2 – is a feather in the cap of the French system. René Bouscatel, the president of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (the governing body of France’s first and second tier) shares that viewpoint - to an extent. Bouscatel, who spent 25 years as president of Toulouse, is not quite as convinced that the benefits of an influx of English players are as explicit as they might seem for the wider sport.

“The fact that the English clubs have experienced difficulties, with quite a lot of players coming to France, is at the same time good news for the clubs that are signing them, but I’m not sure it’s good news for rugby in general,” Bouscatel says.

“We have both experienced highs and lows. England got ahead of us at the dawn of professionalism but now they’re facing challenges - and I think it’s damaging to take advantage of these difficulties by bringing lots of English players to France.

“It’s good news for the clubs who receive foreign players, including the English. It’s good news for the attractivity of our leagues, but it’s not necessarily good news for rugby long term in general.

“At a high-performance level, competition is vital. You need opposition teams who are at a similar level. I take no pleasure in the plight of English clubs - nor other countries.

“If some English players came to France and some French players went to England that would be great. I’d be happy about that, as it would enrich both leagues. It shouldn’t be too massive, though, as it would weaken one country or the other. We need to strike a balance.”

Despite the disappointing quarter-final exit from their own World Cup, rugby in France continues to boom. Rather than the abrupt exit dampening spirits, the hosting of the tournament has seen unprecedented audience figures for domestic rugby across the Channel. There has been a 10 per cent rise in the average television audience for Top 14 and Pro D2 rugby - which is broadcast by subscription-only Canal+ - and the play-off semi-finals, to be held over one weekend in Bordeaux in June 2024, sold out in four days. Société Générale and GMF, two long-standing sponsors, have renewed their partnerships and there are three more to come.

But, Bouscatel stresses, the advice to his English counterparts is simple: it is not all about money. Keeping the competition vibrant - six Top 14 clubs qualify for the end-of-season play-offs, unlike four in the Premiership - is vital.

“At the beginning, English rugby was based on millionaires, guys with a lot of money who thought they were always right because they had a lot of money,” he says. “Not all of them were like that - but a lot.

“Bath is a good example. They are supposed to have been building a stadium for the past 25 years. I have been there countless times, and they show me the plans every time, but I haven’t seen it. I always have to take my umbrella there - it rains a lot. I mean this in the nicest way possible, as I’m a friend of Bruce [Craig], but they’re dreamers there.

“The English are kings of marketing! But if you want to sell, it needs a good product. We have built a product. Two successive European champions. Our league is attractive. When I was a young president, there was one club - mine, Toulouse - which was better than the rest. We won four titles in a row, never against the same finalist. Today, the champions don’t tend to follow on, and in the Top 14, on the last day of the championship last season, there were 10 clubs who could have finished in the top six to potentially be crowned champions of France.

“I think, what has been corrosive within the English game was that the economical product was prioritised over the sport. In France, we prioritised the sport - building our product, our competition - and from the success of that, we generated an economical benefit. Not the other way round. At one time, I was president of Toulouse and we lost by 70 points against Wasps in the Heineken Cup. We had to change.”

Others followed suit and now France, domestically, blazes a trail.