These are heady days for French domestic rugby. Les Bleus will start the

Six Nations

against a background of a freshly minted television deal that will make the

Top 14

the richest league in the oval-ball world.

On top of that, the national coach, Philippe Saint-André, has achieved the holy grail that eluded his predecessors, a formal player-release agreement with the Top 14 clubs, which comes into force in June.

The five-year deal with the Canal+ pay-TV channel is worth just under €365 million, well ahead of the €184 million over four years negotiated by the Premiership with BT Sport, and light years removed from the £10 million a year the RaboDirect Pro12 has in place.

French club rugby is set to continue a transformation that began when Max Guazzini staged Stade Français's match with Toulouse at the Stade de France in front of a 79,000 crowd in 2005, and has continued with the rise of big-budget sides such as Toulon and Racing Métro.

“When you look at the quality of some of the sides on the pitch, it’s dazzling,” says the former international Thomas Castaignède, now a commentator at Canal+.

Vern Cotter, the director of rugby at Clermont-Auvergne and shortly to become Scotland's coach, agrees. "Rugby is popular, the stadiums are full, there is a strong club identity to each team. It's been driven by professional ownership – it will keep getting stronger and will become the dominant competition in the Northern Hemisphere."

Cotter describes what he calls an “arms race” among the clubs. “At Clermont we had a budget of €6m, now it’s €24m, Toulon have gone from about €12m to €30m, Racing from €2m to €25m. That gives you a rough idea of what you need for success.” It has spread down into the second tier, Pro D2, with team budgets expanding there as well. There is, however, another side to the coin. It goes beyond the raw logic of the marketplace that is causing one Wales international after another to move across the English Channel, and has culminated in the controversy over Sam Warburton’s mooted move to Toulon.

France’s national team have entered a trough since their grand slam in 2010. Les Bleus had a poor Six Nations in 2013, a lousy summer against New Zealand and a lacklustre autumn, ending the year with wins against only Scotland and Tonga. Most recently, Saint-André and his captain, Pascal Papé, have openly questioned the effect that the wave of high-profile imports has had on the national side.

"To fill in some positions in the team can become very difficult indeed," Papé said. "My club [Stade Français] puts their faith in homegrown players and that's important, and I wish more did the same. Other clubs don't, it's a shame and it impacts on the national side. It is something that we could really do with changing."

Overseas players
"The number of overseas players is an issue," Saint-André said. "I am not against foreign players, I signed them myself at Toulon – Steffon Armitage, Matt Giteau and others – and I understand that culture. The Top 14 is a cash machine and success is everything. You must win to get a return. The other week I avoided the Heineken Cup to watch Stade Français in the Amlin because it involved more French players. It is something to be addressed."

The problems are multilayered, but a fundamental one with so many imported players is for the best French players to get game time, in spite of a quota system that is supposed to ensure 60 per cent of a squad are French-registered. There have been recent instances of French internationals dropping to Pro D2 in order to get on the pitch. “The other day, I counted the number of French back-row players on the field in the Top 14, and there were only two in action, and there are other problem areas,” Castaignède says. “The problem is that presidents and coaches think it is better to buy players who are mature than to form their own players over the years. The number of first-choice French players is more and more limited.”

“I think the influx fuels the recruitment of good players and that can only increase the French players’ level,” Cotter says. “Culture is one of the most important things to have in place and it can compensate for not having an attractive roster if the players give it 100 per cent. Players learn from players, and the coaches are so intolerant to a lack of success that the teams will move forward and get better and better.”

On this point at least, Castaignède agrees: "Imagine: our young players can measure themselves against guys like Bakkies Botha, Andrew Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson. The national selection issue distorts the championship but the players like taking on the best in the world."

Complained bitterly
As well as the prevalence of imports, Saint-André's predecessor, Thomas Lièvremont, complained bitterly about the failure of the clubs and the French national federation to reach a release agreement that allowed him to prepare his side properly. The club and country dispute has been simmering for years but it may finally have been resolved with an agreement that will be similar to England's elite player squad, with 30 players limited to 30 matches per year and which is due to come into effect in June.

“Everyone wants games and the calendar is too full,” Cotter says. “Somewhere along the line you have to say you need less games and better quality on the paddock. The clubs pay the players and get the players taken off them without recompense, and sometimes they come back injured.

“Having top French players works out more expensive than having a Fijian or a Kiwi, because a club loses them for internationals, so some clubs choose the international players who aren’t qualified for the Six Nations,” Castaignède says.

Cotter, on the other side of the fence, feels that in the long term the massive expansion in French domestic rugby will work to the advantage of the national side. "There will be about 20 fully professional teams in French rugby" – his estimate is that six D2 sides fit that description – "and a lot of those players will be French players. They got to the World Cup final in 2011, they are developing a new generation of players – the generation of Rougerie, Traille and Harinordoquy is finished – they will be very dangerous in the 2015 World Cup and will be a handful in the Six Nations."
Guardian Service