Today in Paris, to great fanfare, the juggernaut of the Orange Top14 2014/15 season is officially launched. Despite the pomp and grandeur there are signs that all is not well with the “cash cow” of French rugby. Although many of the game’s stellar players frequent its corpulent ranks, many of the matches turn into sterile games of attrition dominated by the forwards and often one paced. Devoid of innovation and inspiration, Orange Top14 has evolved into a competition with little to enthuse about. It has become a giant exercise of endurance and will-power to get through it all and still care by the end.
The Orange Top14 – Greed before success!
The season is an endurance race for players, administrators, owners and supporters lasting from mid-August until early June. There are 392 league games, then play-offs, semi-finals and lastly the Grand Final. There are great celebrations for the team that lifts the coveted ‘Le bouclier de Brennus’. So much rugby played and yet so little of it can be remembered. The players are flogged across France and injuries so common that teams can augment their vast squads with “Medical Jokers”. The players are earning substantial sums but they certainly earn their corn. Additionally many players will have international commitments and the new European competition to add to their workload, it is no wonder that Phillipe Saint-André has insisted upon only 34 games for the players selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup Squad.
Saint-Andre’s concerns about the number of foreign players plying their lucrative trade in France have often caused him to lose his temper, but in fact the number of foreign players is on the wane – only 34 recruited to the Top14 for the 2014-15 season, compared to 58 last season, 48 in 2012-13 and 61 in 2011-12. The explanation is twofold. Firstly, clubs have one eye on the JIFF (Joueurs Issus des Filières de Formation) rules that for the 2014-15 season will remain the same as last season. 55% of each club’s squad must be JIFFs – a player who before the age of 21 has spent either three seasons at a French club’s youth academy or five seasons licensed to play in France.
But from 2015-16 the rules become tighter with the 55% figure still in force but also a fine levied against clubs that fail to field a match-day squad containing a minimum of 12 JIFFs. The season after (2016-17), clubs will have to field at least 14 JIFF players for each game. Consequently clubs have reined in their overseas signings to comply with regulations. The trend this summer has been for clubs to sign young players as ‘espoirs’ as this category is not included in the salary cap.
Number of overseas signings per club 2014-15 Grenoble: 6. Montpellier: 5. La Rochelle: 4. Toulon, Oyonnax, Lyon & Clermont: 3. Brive, Toulouse & Racing Metro: 2. Stade Francais: 1. Bayonne, Castres & Bordeaux-Begles: 0.
Where are they from? New Zealand: 11. South Africa: 8. Australia: 6. Wales: 2. Fiji: 2. England: 2. Ireland: 1. Italy: 1. Fiji: 1.
What position? Props: 5. Hookers: 2. Second rows: 6. Back rows: 4. Scrum-halves: 1. Fly-halves: 3. Wingers: 5. Centres: 4. Full-backs
The overwhelming source of the Orange Top14’s wealth comes from TV. But, worryingly for the clubs the Top 14’s blockbuster €355 million television deal is under threat after the French Competition Authority decided that Canal+ were awarded exclusive rights in an unfair manner. Subscription sports channel BeIN Sports was behind the complaint, accusing the LNR and Canal+ of excluding them from the bidding process, and they were supported by the Competition Authority. There appears to be a long legal battle in store, “This decision is unjustified, incongruous and open to criticism,” LNR boss Paul Goze told Midi Olympique.
While this decision would not seem to have a major impact on the financial heavyweights of the Orange Top14, some of the smaller clubs in France could feel the squeeze. “This decision is very worrying for the smaller clubs. With the five-year deal we were guaranteed some visibility and it allowed us to put in place short and medium-term projects,” explained Brive Vice-President Simon Gilham.
In France this might be the moment to consider what would be best for the game as a whole as France’s international rugby team are in the midst of a very real crisis. Perhaps, a glance across the Channel would be wise for the FFR, not at the Aviva premiership but a closer examination of the impact of the Barclays Premiership on the fortunes of the English football team. Purportedly the richest soccer league in the world yet how did England perform in the recent World Cup in Brazil? Saint-André has been blaming the Top 14, the clubs, the players’ attitudes and the fixture list for France’s malaise; but France’s problems go far deeper than the length of the Top14 season.
The style of the rugby played in the championship might be more relevant, with too many games bedeviled by the conservatism of their coaches. Is it any wonder that French internationals struggle to adapt to the faster pace of Test match rugby? Yes, Toulon won the Heineken Cup – albeit with a starting XV containing three Frenchman – but look at what happened to Clermont in the semi-final when Saracens destroyed them in a one sided match.
Friday August 15th sees the first game in Bayonne when they take on the mighty Toulon. The sense of the “Esprit de Cloche” will resound from the stands but it will be much harder to identify on the field as the players will be playing for their living or a new contract. France might possess the wealthiest rugby union league in the world but it is not the most compelling or enjoyable. Somewhere French rugby has lost its soul and drastic medicine is going to be needed to rekindle the cries of” En vie le Bleus” ringing from the stands of the majestic Stade de France.
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