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France snubbing New Zealand tour shows the difference in priorities
Fabien Galthie has provided a timely reminder that real professional rugby does exist in some places.
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Galthie, the France coach, has indicated that he will bring an understrength side to play the All Blacks in New Zealand next year.
“We want to work hand in hand with the league and the clubs,’’ Galthie said of his attitude to the Top 14.
“Our goal is for players to be able to give the best of themselves in the French team, but also in club. We want to go further while taking into account the challenges of the clubs.’’
So, for matches in 2025 against the All Blacks that are simply being staged to fulfil test windows and television schedules, he’s likely to leave his 20 best players behind.
If it was the Six Nations or a Rugby World Cup or the World Rugby Nations Championship, when that gets off the ground, you’d assume Galthie’s actions would be different.
But obligations to club owners, fans and the integrity of the Top 14 itself demand that players participate as fully in club football as they’re able.
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After all, it’s not as if this trip to New Zealand counts for anything.
Isn’t that refreshing? Isn’t that an example of how club competitions should be treated? Isn’t that yet another illustration of why Super Rugby Pacific simply isn’t a competition people should take seriously?
We watched the Rebels wave goodbye to Super Rugby the other day.
It’s easy to think they were poorly run individually or that Rugby Australia gave them inadequate support.
But the truth is the Rebels ceased to remain a viable commodity, because Super Rugby isn’t a viable commodity.
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Only it could be, if New Zealand Rugby didn’t insist upon restricting the participation of its best players or sending a sprinkling on Japanese sabbatical.
That’s what kills competitions, as Galthie alluded to.
Hopefully the Nations Championship will matter, just as the Rugby World Cup already does. But, in between those assignments and a British & Irish Lions tour every 12 years, what are we actually saving our players for?
Surely not to beat the ordinary-looking England team that’s about to arrive on our shores?
Super Rugby should be a good competition and plenty of people will argue it was once upon a time. Probably the best on the planet in fact.
Right up until we decided that everything had to be about the All Blacks.
I applaud Galthie for his pragmatism and ability to see the bigger picture.
To a degree he’s got no choice, given the ownership model in the Top 14.
But that doesn’t diminish the fact that putting All Black interests over and above every other facet of rugby has not served New Zealand well.
Healthy, competitive competitions don’t have teams fall by the wayside, the way the Rebels have. They don’t carry teams for season upon season who have little hope of making the playoffs, let alone winning the title.
Real professional competitions demand the participation of their highest-paid players, rather than sending them off for another rest.
Galthie and the French hierarchy recognise that and have cut their cloth to fit.
I think the overall health of rugby in these parts would be enhanced by similar thinking.
Watch the exclusive reveal-all episode of Walk the Talk with Ardie Savea as he chats to Jim Hamilton about the RWC 2023 experience, life in Japan, playing for the All Blacks and what the future holds. Watch now for free on RugbyPass TV
Reading this article is like reading someone having a mental breakdown.
European rugby is in endless bankruptcies, its national sides in endless RWC failings & some of its clubs are only season to season financial propositions BUT, according to the author’s conspiracies, its New Zealand Super Pacific Rugby that, quote, ‘simply isn’t a competition people should take seriously’ (??!!).
That idea while New Zealand Super Pacific Rugby participant clubs continue to profit after 130+ years (& similar traditional Oz club longevity).
Yet it's NZ/Oz rugby that has the viability problem!???
Reality is difficult for you author. See a doctor. Urgently!
But the author's mad rant continues, with the insistence that the way to fix his conspiracy of a sick Super Pacific Rugby is for it to let all its top players run away OS (surprise, surprise, to Europe to fix its club rugby) by removing OS restrictions of its best players.
Hurry call an ambulance for the author.
It's simple, a mass exodus of high skill therefore high entertainment players (will that even happen?? ie again given the increasing European restrictions & financial stress in European clubs) will kill the core business of INTEREST in NZ comps & therefore lose the life blood $ of those same TV rights, sponsorships, gate entry, memberships, merchandise, etc. Mass loss in audience INTEREST & its resulting $$ loss.
RE the French B team for NZ 2025 tests,
If you wanna see where test rugby could end up as (ie 2nd rate) if it continues to allow the French mismanagement, look at what ‘Indian club cricket money’ control is doing to test cricket, ie because of A international test team players contracts with Indian clubs & their $, those players not available for international tests eg South Africa send a ‘B’ test cricket team to NZ last year, likewise West Indies send a ‘B’ test cricket team to OZ last year.
Relevance to test rugby & ABs?
France's reason for not sending their A team for the AB tests in 2025? Quote, 'resting them (!) for the Top 14 club rugby commitments'.
World Rugby is failing to manage & protect the game again.
France CHOSE to make its extra long Top 14 season & not respect the World rugby international window.
France should be removed from test rugby til they do respect it.
Or test rugby will be like failing test cricket very soon by letting national club $ rule over the international game.
If World Rugby allows the degrading of international game it will degrade audience (therefore ratings ), will degrade the $, hence will degrade the $ to players & rugby generally.
World Rugby, Prioritise the international window OVER national club window.
Especially over (despite all it endless irrational hype) failing European club rugby.
Some might say the French hate to lose consistently down under and fear playing the ABs on their own turf. Keeping their best players at home gives them a valid excuse. Club rugby in the north is not entertaining for me but means something to local fans who are multitude. A better product is the international game and imo SRP. To each his own. World cups do count for something and France has yet to reach that pinnacle - despite all the reasons (excuses) for not getting there. You are only as good as your last game and the record book tells the story. France is cow-towing to clubs under the cover of fearing the ABs. If the ABs sent a second tier side to the NH, it would be a hollow experience for opponents and crowds yet this writer is lauding the French decision. Spurious.
Super rugby is a better product that NH club rugby? I guessing you dont really believe that.
American sport has been professional so long that I think they have been through all these up’s and down’s and got the kinks out, and are great examples (of strengths). NFL doesn’t have to worry about an International level and it still doesn’t demand much more than a dozen games from it’s athletes.
As a SH’er, SR fan, I cringe at the way players have been treated in the NH. The rate of concussions especially is shocking, and tragic. No one here could understand how George North kept getting allowed to go back out on the park, after the slightest knock during a game, let alone when he went down unconscious for the umpteen time. Rugby in the SH is still so much about the traditional values of amateurism, and sadly, even in staunch Britain, that is not really the case anymore, let alone the rogue country of France. In saying that, France is not an english speaking country to retain a lot of the culture that got imported into it. Let them do their thing, I think they, more than any other rugby culture, have developed that tie in with the game as a livlehood product that America has done so well at doing. For sure, it doesn’t relate well to outside their environment, but it is probably just a case of needing to get really stuck into it to appreciate and enjoy it.
So that said, I have been defending the Top 14 in this thread, and we’ll get back to that for you, but to not let your discussion points get lost, that first one is reminding exactly how large parts of Australia are reacting now towards their own rugby. France have already given up, they stopped buying rights to broadcast AB games down under (hopefully both parties stopped playing hardball and their true fans can still support them on tour these days) at one point because there was total apathy towards their team. That’s not an attitude we should be apathetic to either ourselves, especially not in the case with Australia. If the ABs reciprocated, I’m not even sure the French population would know.
Now back to the Top 14 and to put to bed the perception they still treat their players poorly. that Galthie, or FFR, is forced to look after player welfare with a lone hand. Here are the ‘premium’ 20 that they are trying to keep in top condition so they can perform when called upon (France wants to win every game but the French clubs care less so for peak performance each game. A problem occurring in SA currently). We can see that they have also be spared heavy minutes in the T14
Reda Wardi 495 minutes
Cyril Baille 425 minutes
Peato Mauvaka 395 miunutes
Julien Marchand 377 min
Uini Atonio 608 mim
Thibaud Flament 649 min
Emmanuel Meafou 741 min
Romain Taofifenua 834 min
François Cros 618 m
Grégory Alldritt 677 m
Charles Ollivon 761 m
Anthony Jelonch 376 m
Antoine Dupont 716 m
Nolann Le Garrec 1190 m
Romain Ntamack 94m
Matthieu Jalibert 920
Gaël Fickou 1039
Yoram Moefana 1078
Damian Penaud 923
Thomas Ramos 754
Against club only players, we can see not many are even playing half of their domestic footy
Rang
Joueur Club Poste Minutes jouées Matches joués
1 Camille LOPEZ Aviron Bayonnais Demi d'ouverture 1 958 26
2 Emilien GAILLETON Section Paloise Centre 1 906 24
3 Théo ATTISSOGBE Section Paloise Arrière 1 861 24
4 Theo MILLET Oyonnax Rugby Centre 1 778 25
5 Christopher TOLOFUA Montpellier Hérault Rugby 1ère ligne 1 758 25
6 Jake Aron MCINTYRE USA Perpignan Demi d'ouverture 1 710 24
Meanwhile a dozen touring English have done over 1k Prem minutes.
If those numbers seem ridiculously low to you, remember it does not include european, which many of the internationals would be involved in I’d imagine.
And for reference, England have a 2400minunte cap it appears. So while not great, I just wanted to point out it doesn’t appear as though France is cow-towing to the clubs. The clubs are doing their part too?
Deluded. Plain and simple. The French club owners put their money where their mouths are and are in total control of players outside test windows. Period. Galthie has to play the politics if he knows what’s good for him.
I don't know who's the bigger fool in this article - Fabien Galthie or Hamish Boswell. Galthie for not pitting his best side against the ABs and try to emulate the ‘94 French team and actually win something outside of their own back yard ( to back up their claims of superiority), or Bidwell for conveniently overlooking the fact that the clubs in the NH hold their test rugby to ransom in demanding control over the players. For all his waffling on about how good their competition is - how many NH teams played in the World Cup final?
The model is completely varied in the NH. France, clubs rule everything outside WR window. England, union pays clubs for additional access. Wales, Ireland, Scotland all union run apart from players abroad.
As for France, you clearly don’t understand their culture, Galthie has to show willing to the clubs or he loses…
You can’t compare international rugby with club rugby. That is like saying because Arg won the fifa world club they are also the best at club level.
At club level the north have been better for some years now. And unlike my fellow South Africans who as late as 2019 still said that super rugby is the best, I will say that the north surpassed us around 2012-2013. There is no harder leauge to win than the top 14.
Someone tell Hamish Boswell that the privately-owned English Premiership have had 3 premier teams go bankrupt and fold including one of its flagship clubs- London Wasps.
But I guess facts get in the way of fiction frequently.
That doesn’t invalidate his point… and I rarely agree with the guy
Pinning your hopes on the Nations Championship being taken as seriously as the World Cup, good luck with that one…
As for SR, can someone explain why it’s the shortest professional league in…well any sport ever???
It’s 12 teams. Runs for 14 weeks I think so it’s not that short. Just right to fit in with international comps.
Playing one league that lasts the whole season is the norm for rugby in the North. It never has been in the South. Rather than play domestic comps and champions leagues over each other, as they have four ages in Europe because the countries are close to each other, the southern approach (where the distances are greater) when multi nation leagues became viable was to slot them into part of the season and keep their domestic leagues at another part of the season. It's just a very different approach to what you grew up with as the default. If you're a Leicester fan the Tigers are your whole season, with England ‘windows’; if you're from Christchurch it's the Crusaders for a few months and then Canterbury for a few months, with the All Blacks in the gaps.
I used to think it was because of the NPC and Currie Cups dominance, but now I think it is more about player welfare.
Who were you replying to about NC?
You'll soon change your tune if they were to lose that series. Since when was a rugby tour to New Zealand a non-event. In
France have never won a RWC and failed to do so at home. NZ have won 3 (and probably should have won 6 if we’re honest). Hey France… you continue being you ;)
NZ should take Manny Meafou from under their noise and say you want to F with our income then we’ll F with yours
Would be an instant All Black too, even bring some of his family back.
I’m curious, which additional three World Cups should the All Blacks have won?
And if we’re really honest, France should have won the 2011 World Cup.
Cancel the games. If it’s too hard for the French to rustle up a full-strength side or they don’t care enough about it then let’s just can it.
Field the strongest possible All Black team and annihilate the French.
Play an All Blacks XV or the Maori All Blacks.
France never send a full strength squad down under. Ever. But they always insist on a full strength AB team to tour France.
Well, no, actually it doesn’t. France follow a similar scheme to NZ, Galthie said this process is shared between clubs and nation. Just like with NZ.
What is different of course is that the clubs bring in the money in France, and in NZ it is the All Blacks. So obviously the balance will similarly parallel each other.
The topic that the author hints at returning to, is the age old debate between the chicken and the egg. AB will continue to earn the bread if that is the way NZR chooses things to be run, and we’ll have to see who the next CEO is before we think they might start getting some balls to move that makeup more towards the domestic game.
That is just NOT the case. In NZ the union runs the whole entire show and calls the shots accordingly. France is pretty much the opposite. The club owners control the players in their entirety outside of the test windows. And the culture in France is not one that will be dictated to, ever!
The Top 14 has the richest tv deal in rugby anywhere, by some distance. The deal even includes significant payments for their proD2 league. Now of course, the national team generates revenue and sustains the union, but not the entire game like NZ for example…
So, in conclusion, Galthie is doing the smart thing here and being seen to give due deference to the guys that put their hand in their pockets and stick their money where their mouths are. But it would be outright war if he didn’t. And he would lose…
Certainly one of the best super rugby seasons I've seen for a long time. Maybe if France did send their top players for better experience down under they might have a better chance of winning the World cup.
I feel that for rugby, the international game is the pinnacle and the most interesting.
Well, it is here. For other countries or other sports it is the club game, and the international side is the cherry on top.
So yeah it makes sense for France- no one in France really minds if their team gets beaten unless it’s a World Cup- but for NZers the All Blacks have to win every game and win them well.
For years the problem was the ABs can’t win a World Cup.
The public demanded a change so the powers that be worked out a way o make them as successful as possible (last nightmarish 4 years of foster aside).
So, do we want awesome club comps and an ABs side that just plays like everyone else?
In another article people were saying France don’t even have the summer tours broadcast on TV. Shows you how meaningless, and too far the other way, their game is. A balance needs to be found in the middle somewhere, this article has some good starting options.
Of course, player workloads have to managed within the club sides as well, it would be ridiculous to think they play every game (they play on avg 7 more games but competitions run like 20 games more, so they obvious miss more games than NZ players do).
“Surely not to beat the ordinary-looking England team that’s about to arrive on our shores?” Be interesting if England beat the the AB’s…with an “ordinary looking team !