Gallic flair in in modern game

IF there was one thing the French victory over England in Paris proved it was that France had finally come to terms with the demands of the professional era.

Their preparation, physically, tactically and perhaps most important of all, mentally, was perfect and the players turned in a performance good enough to upstage the world's top ranked team.

Ironically, it was in the same city seven years earlier that Vernon Pugh, then chairman of the IRB, declared rugby union an 'open' game and threw the French system, like so many others, into turmoil.

But while France reached the final of the World Cup in 1999, it still took them a few more years to get themselves into the sort of shape required to match England.

Now, though, the signs are that there is enough harmony within the game for French rugby to make a concerted push towards emulating the achievement of their national soccer side in winning the soccer World Cup in 1998.

So what steps have they taken? They have split the responsibilities for running the game into two distinct groups; they have reduced the number of clubs at the highest level; the players have become far more disciplined in their approach to preparing for matches and how they conduct themselves on the field; the clubs have become businesses which operate within prescribed rules and to strict budgets and there is a healthy respect between the governing body, the French Rugby Federation, and the professional body that runs the club game, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby.

There have been the inevitable casualties along the way, none more so than some of the famous clubs who now find themselves out of the top flight like Racing Club, Toulon and Brive. Other clubs who have run into financial trouble have found a tougher administrative attitude being adopted.

The French passion for rugby has not been diminished in any way through the advent of professionalism, more it has heightened their desire to succeed. There is little doubt that the French, like the English, have the raw materials to sustain themselves at the highest level of the world game. If you play the numbers game, it is easy to see why.

In England their are 2,049 clubs with over 350,000 players, in France their are fewer clubs, 1,757, with 270,000 players.

But in Wales their are just *366 clubs with only 70,000 players. (* WRU member clubs plus 239; Welsh Districts Rugby Union clubs 127). Continuing on the numbers theme, the LNR agree a budget per season for every club. The club has to demonstrate how it is going to fund its figure over and above the £700,000 they receive from the governing body.

In addition, there is a payment from the central TV contract which pushes the figure close to the 1m mark.

Compare than to the minimum guarantee of £1.7m each of the 12 clubs received in the Zurich Premiership or the £400,000 to £650,000 the Premiership clubs receive in Wales. While the salary cap in England is set at £1.7m, in France the clubs are able to spend up to 55 per cent of their agreed budget, before taxes, on wages. In real terms, that means up to around 80 per cent of their budgets are available for players.

Top of the cash league are the inaugural Heineken Cup champions, and seemingly perennial French champions, Toulouse, who had a budget of £4.5m for the current season.

Not far behind are Montferrand £4.2m, Stade Francais £3.5m, Biarritz and Perpigan £3m, Narbonne £2.7m, Dax and Montauban £2m.

On that basis, before taxes, Toulouse will have spent £2.5m on players this season. Newport who were in the same Heineken Cup Pool as the French champions and actually beat them at home, on the other hand, have the highest wage bill in Welsh rugby.

The highest earners in French club rugby collect between £10-£12,000 per month. In Wales players like Dafydd James, Gareth Thomas and Nathan Budgett, top the £100,000 mark at Bridgend, Scott Quinnell is an even bigger earner at Llanelli, while the likes of Shane Howarth, Matt Pini and Andy Marinos lead the way at Newport.

But the real point when you consider French rugby pre and post the 1995 revolution is that it has adapted to change. It has created an environment in which the rugby product doesn't merely seek to survive, but attempts to thrive.

It is a point that hasn't been lost on the players, as the man who led the French to victory in Cardiff last month, Raphael Ibanez, confesses.

"I am lucky enough to have known both eras - amateur and professional and the biggest change on the field is in the training schedule. We went from training twice a week in 1993/94 to twice a day which was quite a shock to the system at the time.

"However, it has improved the players' physical condition enormously. It has lifted the level of our game, we are better prepared and we are able to sustain longer sequences of play during a match and be altogether more active in game situations.

"Off the field the clubs are much better organised and there is a real desire from the LNR to create a competitive, well-structured domestic championship and to put in place the beat conditions for the professional game.

"I have thought I'd be able to make a living from rugby and we are still a long way from the professionalism of football, but the conditions are good enough in France to earn a decent living from this 'passion'.

"There are, of course, players who wish to go abroad to ply their trade, as in all professions, but I think the standard of rugby is good enough in France at the moment to sustain the vast majority of players. What counts is the ability to answer to the needs of the individual professional and from there on in, each case is different.

"As to the administrative structures, a lot of positive progress is being made in order for the game to develop in the right direction. The clubs and institutions are adapting to what is happening on the field and new challenges are being set and met all the time. "One area in which we are improving - and need to - is in research into the game. Up to now, we have been keen to sit and wait for other nations to progress and then play catch up but we must anticipate change and take the lead."

When you examine the timetable of change since 1995, it is easy to see how the French system has evolved:

1995: Vernon Pugh declares Rugby Union an 'open' game.

1996: January: The French create a Union of 40 clubs. June: CNRE (Commission Nationale de Rugby d'Elite) created in to manage the administrative, sporting and financial elements of the competitions in which the elite clubs play.

1997: March: Two French championships are created with two pools of ten clubs in A1 and A2. That came into being in the 1997/98 season. October/December: CNRE and FFR define criteria (medical, financial, sporting, facilities) to define a professional club. They also discussed forming a league.

1998: June: General Assembly of FFR vote to create the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), effectively handing over many of their own powers to them to run the professional game.

1999: In the 1998/99 season there were 24 clubs in the French Championship, playing in three pools of eight followed by the play offs and grand final. November: LNR adopted second professional division from 2000/2001.

2001: June: LNR creates first division of 16 clubs and second division of 16 clubs for three seasons.

So does it work? Jean-Luc Gonzalez, a highly respected rugby journalist at Midi Olympique based in Toulouse, is a big admirer of the way the system has been changed. "Before the advent of professionalism, the FFR controlled and administered rugby in France at all levels from the national team down to the lower divisions of the game," he said.

"But as soon as rugby was declared professional, a new body was formed to organise the professional game based on what has happened in football. The LNR took two or three years to really take off and again its official mandate from the Ministry of Sport to act on their behalf in organising competitions and managing the elite club championship. "Serge Blanco then became the first president of the LNR and is now in his third year of office.

"What it has meant is that the Ligue manages the professional game in terms of elite clubs and the only section of the professional game that the FFR manages is, paradoxically maybe, the cream of the game which is the national team.

"This situation is unique to France and in order for it to work, the FFR and the Ligue must have a reasonably good working relationship. So, every two or three years, conventions are drawn up between the two organisations to establish a protocol to follow concerning squad time for the French team, how many club and international matches will be played etc.

"Thanks to the League, French rugby has broken free of the patriarchal control of the FFR of past decades. We don't really have an example to follow other than football. "In rugby there is the example of Southern Hemisphere rugby where the players are under contract to their province whereas in France players are directly linked to their clubs. Ireland have the same point of reference as the southern nations, while in Britain there is no body which has the weight the LNR currently has in France.

"Money has always been an issue in French rugby. In 1931, when France were excluded from the Five Nations, payment of players was cited as a major reason, along with violence in the game and general problems within the domestic championship.

"In Albert Ferrasse's era, an effort was made to cover up any money dealings. Even now, money changes hands at every level of the game which is a bit of a shame because if all that money was put into the professional game, it would be a lot better off.

"The club's money wasn't declared so the 1995 announcement allowed the clubs to free themselves of this burden when they were asked to become financially transparent. "The league set up a Control and Management Committee which sees to it that rules are respected in all financial transactions and dealings, again following football's example.

"There are various models of rugby clubs in France - those that are financed by town councils, by sponsors, or individuals, and the laws are principally there to ensure that clubs can sustain themselves without too much dependence on individual investors.

"What is sure is that these changes, whether they are good or bad have allowed French rugby to move on. The French Federation was not organised enough to be in a position to develop this sport.

"It was necessary to get in new people with experience in business and commerce capable of negotiating lucrative deals and taking the game forward. The League didn't get to the position it is in now overnight but currently manages a budget of £20m."