France's international success is filtering down to their already strong club game
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This season's French whitewash points to a golden age for Les Bleus and the French clubs, Rob Kitson explains why in The Guardian.
"Deeper still are the pockets of those funding them. Toulouse's official budget for the 2009-10 season is €17m (£14.8m). The world's most talented back, Juan Martín Hernández of Argentina, has just signed for Racing Métro 92, where Sébastien Chabal and Francois Steyn have already been lured. The Top 14 is the place to be for financial and rugby fulfilment. Toulon barely blinked when they recruited Jonny Wilkinson, partly because of the tax breaks available for étrangers when they first arrive in the country. From the start of next season clubs will, admittedly, be limited to a salary budget of €8m, but that is still double the Premiership salary cap. "Rugby is now the trendiest sport in the country," confirms Dan Luger, the former England winger now living in Monaco. The unprecedented number of tickets sold for Sunday's Amlin Challenge Cup final between Toulon and Cardiff Blues in Marseille will bear him out.
"But how has this happened? Only last year France had one representative in the last eight and trailed in third in the Six Nations. This time they won a grand slam at a canter and their Heineken Cup teams, albeit with some imported muscle, have been rampant. Leaving aside a below-par Brive, the rest lost once in 18 games on French soil this season, not including the all domestic quarter-final between Toulouse and Stade Français. Munster's big pool win in Perpignan was the exception. Shaun Edwards, coach of Wales and Wasps, argues that a post-Lions season is always tougher for the four home unions. Others, though, sense a long-term wind of change blowing across the Channel. "I don't know if it will right itself," said Jim Mallinder, Northampton's director of rugby, last month. "The gap is certainly there and it's quite evident. It has become increasingly difficult [to compete]."
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