Johnny Sexton headlines list of departing Leinster players

If a lower to mid-table team has a great season and finished top 6/7, their reward is to get asset stripped and have their best players taken by the established big boys. Those same big boys can also kick it at the other end of the market and sign the most expensive prospects around.

The Top 14 has had 6 different winners in the last 10 years which is the only thing stopping it from being a farmers league.

While I’m sure there will be some 14 or 15 year olds with incredible skills, most will stand out at that age grade because they are huge so will just keep feeding the French leagues with massive physical beasts.

The TV deals are huge in France and I respect that their product is focused on their home audience but the TV money won’t be enough at some point. As you say, either the owners pump even more into the clubs or more of them take on investment partners but lose control.

It’s far too much rugby for players as it stands and the new competitions - club world cup and Nations cup - are proposed on the basis it’s the best players competing who will usually be established test players.

An established NH test player is in pre-season from August (at the latest) then going thorough until the following July. They likely will have carried niggles and some injuries into their pre-season. They would then have between 22-30 domestic games if their teams went far and contested finals in say the URC and CC. Although many would have stand down periods, they would still train and be squad ready for all of those games.

Their test commitments across that same time would be 3/4 games (Nov series) then 5 games (6 Nations) with a rest for the July development tours. That rest would only now be once every 4 years with the Lions, Nations Cup and RWC warm-ups occupying the July window.

A squad player at club level would potentially have a full run of games in any given season but run a greater risk of injury the more often they play. They would likely know that form alone wouldn’t get them to the next level and into a national squad. It would be their bodies and their ability to recover quickly and deal with elite level competition. They wouldn’t have the baseline of having played an 11 month season so how could they upsurge a 40 cap player?

I think there will be a huge divide before long between solid club players, who are basically salary men, and the ringfenced test animals who will likely dwindle in numbers as their playing demands increase.