Oliver Brown puts aside Perpignan's limp performance against Northampton to examine their Catalan heritage in The Daily Telegraph.
"Would anyone have believed, on this evidence, that Perpignan rugby is officially twinned with the great Barcelona of Lionel Messi? Assuredly, their eclipse by Northampton was not a happy harbinger for their football cousins.
"While Messi and company seek to advance to a Champions League final in tomorrow night’s Clasico, the poor relations surrendered the chance to reach rugby’s equivalent quite dismally.
"The untrammelled joy for the Saints was matched only in misery for Perpignan — or Perpinyá, as we should probably call them. So passionately does this club cleave to its Catalan heritage that banners at the Stade Aimé Giral, their home ground, have been seen declaring: “This is not France.”
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