LONG READ Fans flock to France’s ‘formidable’ ProD2 as English second tier plays catch-up

The average monthly salary in the ProD2 – that’s the second tier of professional rugby in France – is 4,000 euros (approx. £3,400). In the Top 14 it’s 21,000 euros (£17,700). That’s what playing in the big time does to a player’s bank balance.

And that’s why there is so much at stake financially in the ProD2 play-off matches. Get promoted and it could be a life-changing experience: although best not splash the cash too recklessly. Newly-promoted clubs do have a nasty habit of going straight back down 12 months later.

This week Provence play Soyaux-Angoulême in the first of the ‘barrage’ play-offs. Twenty-four hours later Colomiers take on Montauban. Waiting for the winners in the semi-finals a week later are Grenoble, who finished the regular season first, and Brive, who were four points behind.

The winner of the final, on 7 June, will be promoted to the Top 14, and the runner-up will play the Top 14 club that finished 13th in the regular season, with the victor taking their place in the elite next season.

Not everyone in the ProD2 is pocketing €4,000 a month. Courtney Lawes at Brive, for example, takes home €35,000 (£29,500) each month, while Provence are reportedly paying George North €30,000 (£25,300) a month.

That’s still peanuts compared to some of the wages in the Top 14. Owen Farrell, for example, an England team-mate of Lawes at the 2023 World Cup, is on €65,000 (£54,800) a month, not bad for a player who has missed much of the season with injury. Dan Biggar has been banking €77,000 (£64,900) a month at Toulon since 2022, a tidy sum for a player who has struggled to reproduce his best form on the Côte d’Azur.

A growing number of English players prefer to play in the ProD2 than the Championship; scan the squad lists of the 16 second-tier clubs in France and most have at least one Englishman.

The average wage in the second tier of English rugby, the Championship, is reputed to be £2,000 a month (approx. €2,375), although a handful of players are said to be earning £5,800 each month (€6,900).

That is why a growing number of English players prefer to play in the ProD2 than the Championship; scan the squad lists of the 16 second-tier clubs in France and most have at least one Englishman.

Montauban have two in Lewis Bean and Karl Wilkins; the pair both had brief spells at Bedford Blues before moving to France. In Montauban’s semi-final on Friday, Colomiers will have as their fly-half Brett Heron, who represented England U18 and graced the Jersey Reds and Harlequins before heading across the Channel.

Thursday’s semi-final will feature Jonny May, who moved to Soyaux-Angoulême last summer for the modest monthly wage of €6,000 (£5,050) a month. For the former England winger, it was more a move to fulfil a family ambition to experience French culture. The Mays have not been disappointed. Culturally and sportingly, Soyaux-Angoulême has lived up to expectations.

There have got to be consequences and rewards and risks. Because we put everything out there…

In a recent chat on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, May described the fervour of each home game, an 8,000 sell-out, and he also endorsed promotion and relegation because it adds excitement to the end of the season for the ProD2 teams hunting promotion. “There have got to be consequences and rewards and risks,” explained May. “Because we put everything out there and there has got to be something to play for, a bit more meaningful.”

The ProD2 is respected by the Top 14 clubs. It is professional on and off the pitch, and has been the springboard for several recent French internationals, including Thomas Ramos, Maxime Lucu and Melvyn Jaminet.

English rugby is playing catch-up, but the recent announcement that the Championship is receiving a rebrand from next season is encouraging. The league will be enlarged from 12 clubs to 14 (Richmond and Worcester will join) and there will be a six club play-off phase similar to the ProD2’s structure. The play-off champion will play the bottom club in the Premiership with the winner playing in the elite tier the next season.

In announcing the details, Simon Gillham, chair of the recently established Tier 2 Board, described the new format as “aspiration and jeopardy”. Gillham was also president of Brive (he remains a vice-president), and appeared alongside May in the recent podcast. Like the former England wing, Gillham is a supporter of relegation and promotion, even if Brive have been demoted from the Top 14 three times in the last decade.

While Gillham said he understood some club owners who preferred a closed league in order to protect their investment, he nonetheless said it was a short-sighted approach. “If there is no jeopardy then there is no excitement.”

And if there is no excitement, there are no bums on seats. Such is the entertainment on offer in the ProD2 this season that the league has just announced record attendance figures for the regular phase of the 2024-25 championship. In total, 1,430,046 spectators filed through the turnstiles, an increase of six per cent on the previous season.

The show put on by the clubs, their professionalism and their attachment to their regions make this championship a formidable showcase for French rugby.

The average attendance at each match was 5,959, although some clubs, notably Brive (11,513) and Grenoble (9,589) comfortably surpassed that figure. The most encouraging attendances, however, were with some of the less ‘glamorous’ clubs, such as May’s Soyaux-Angoulême, where crowds have soared by 30 per cent this season. At Montauban, attendances were up 38%.

As Gillham stated in the podcast interview, it will take several seasons for English club rugby to close the gap on France, and it will require “hard work” on the part of the Championship clubs, the Premiership and the RFU.

But the rewards will be worth it. In response to the record crowd figures in the ProD2 this season, Yann Roubert, the president of the French leagues’ governing body, LNR, hailed the “vitality” of the league, adding: “The show put on by the clubs, their professionalism and their attachment to their regions make this championship a formidable showcase for French rugby. Well done to the clubs for their commitment and passion.”