In the Independent on Sunday, Hugh Godwin reports how the foreign invasion on the Top 14 is causing the French national team concern.
"As the queue of players grasping at the mega-Euros on offer in France's Top 14 Championship grows ever longer, so Marc Lièvremont, the head coach of Les Blues, is becoming more exasperated. "I am delighted that players like Jonny Wilkinson are playing in France but as a selector it is a problem," he said. "You go to a league match and the teams you are watching have so many foreign players."
"The trickle of foreigners in former flanker Lièvremont's playing days – he was a member of the Grand Slam side in 1998 and made it a double as coach when he landed the same prize last year – has become a torrent. Wilkinson's Toulon recently added Wales's Gavin Henson to their roster and Kingsley Jones, the Welshman who has been linked with a coaching job at the club, predicts wealthier French sides will soon run the equivalent of two playing squads totalling up to 50 players."
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