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Inside the journey that took France from global laughing stock to World Cup contender

Winning a home World Cup would be the culmination of a decade of work in French rugby

It's mid-June and the most luxurious event in the world of club rugby is kicking off north of Paris. The Top 14 final between the titans of Toulouse and La Rochelle is a sold-out circus. The streets of the French capital, hundreds of kilometers from either of the two competing sides, are awash with the rouge and noir of Toulouse and the yellow and noir of La Rochelle, and the accompanying orchestras and horns. evening sun.

At the stadium, Telegraph Sport has exclusive access to the Presidential Suite, where Emmanuel Macron hosts other luminaries from both the world of rugby and beyond. In the great hall, hundreds of VIPs gather to watch Toulouse win, champagne flows and steak sizzles before Macron heads to the dressing rooms to see off the winners for a post-match beer.

The glory of a Top 14 final is eternal, but France is not a leader in all aspects of rugby. Between the 2011 and 2019 World Cups, France's average finish in the Six Nations was fourth; despite the fact that they reached the finals of the World Cup three times — Les Bleus collapsed in both 2015 and 2019, failing to get beyond the quarter-finals.

For the richest domestic rugby scene in the world and for a country with such a rich rugby history and tradition, it was simply not enough. France had become a laughing stock, something had to be done.

Major French players are fully invested in their country's World Cup bid football Photo: Reuters/Ludovic Marin

Over the past 18 months, France have finished first and second in the Six Nations roll of honour, won the Under-20 World Cup title and a top 14 club have won both European domestic cups in the last two seasons. France has four professional leagues and, despite the unfortunate injury bug, the Blues are favorites for the home World Cup.

Something has been done. This is France's journey from disorganized, ineffective bastards to the princes of Europe on the verge of sporting immortality.

Fabien Galthier — and his assistants

The 2019 World Cup quarter-final between France and Wales is best remembered for Sebastian Waaamahina's elbow on opposing flanker Aaron Wainwright.

But the match, in which France's hopes of glory were lost in traffic after Waaamahina's early bath, marked a new dawn French rugby. Jacques Brunel, a respected and successful coach at club level, will retire after the tournament after failing to change France's fortunes.

To mitigate the impact of Brunel's departure, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) allowed head coach successor Fabien Galthier to oversee the tournament behind the scenes. As Brunel headed off into the sunset, Galtier could get right to work. The Rugby Football Union had a similar concept regarding Steve Borthwick replacing Eddie Jones, but events there took a very different turn.

When Galtier's tenure began in December 2019, work was being done quickly behind the scenes to develop an agreement between club and country that would fit the new head coach's vision. Galthier's experience as a top-14 head coach meant he could sympathize with the wishes of club presidents while also remembering that for France's domestic scene to be taken seriously, the national team had to perform better.

As a result of negotiations, Galtier was able to call up 42 players to his training squads instead of the 31 under Brunel, with 14 released on the Thursday of each game week. It may seem reasonable and logical to have a sufficient number of players in a team, with 15 players facing 15 in practice game scenarios, but when it comes to French rugby, sense and logic often go out the window.

“Clubs work hand in hand.” hand with the federation, rather than complaining and whining as they did before, because they realized that without a good team, the club public could also suffer,” Fabrice Dolot, president of fifth-tier Sarcelles, told Telegraph Sport.

Peter MacNaughton, an exiled Scot with a long history at the FRF — and now in charge of its international development — also welcomes the influence of the enigmatic Galtier, as well as the recruitment of his behind-the-scenes team. Shaun Edwards left Wales to bring his Wigan charm to the French defence; Laurent Labi left Racing 92 as attack coach; William Servat, that granite French prostitute, took care of the pack; line oracle Karim Ghezal was appointed alongside Thibaut Giroud as fitness guru; and Galthier's former teammate Rafael Ibáñez was appointed to oversee it all as manager.

Galthie must be given credit for such clever appointments like the appointment of defense guru Sean Edwards. Photo: PA Wire/Adam Davy

“Having coached Toulon to the top 14, Galthie realized there was too much demand for the best players,” McNaughton says. “With France named as host of the 2023 FIFA World Cup, everything fell into place in 2019. Galtier played an important role in this. He was given the financial means and very cleverly chose the team he wanted. But behind it was Galtier, the availability of professional players, and that was a key part of it.»

Simon Gillham, Brive's president, adds: «The appointment of Galtier and the people around him. . . Everyone talks about Galtier, but little is said about Ibáñez, the impact he had on the managerial spirit, the values, the pride in the shirt — all those things that went AWOL.»

Thanks to greater access to players and the resulting improvement in training levels, France's resurgence was rapid. Victories over all the so-called «first tier» countries followed over the next two years, as well as a historic Grand Slam tournament in 2022, more than ten years after the previous one.

With such quick results, however, the question arose: why didn't anyone do this before? Was it really that easy? The short answer is no. The speed of success came against the backdrop of a real storm; French rugby had finally gained momentum.

The road to this memorable Grand Slam began seven years before Galtier's first match as head coach with an idea from Castres president Pierre-Yves Revol, which most people in England would rather would be more associated with an outdated cleaning product than with the rules of rugby: JIFF.

Investing in youth

Ask anyone involved in French rugby why the league and national team are thriving and the word «JIFF» is likely to be uttered. JIFF is an acronym describing the rules governing the participation of domestic players in French playing teams.

To qualify as JIFF, a player must have been registered with the FFR for at least five years before turning 23, or have spent three season at an FFR approved training facility before he turns 21.

When the rule was introduced, clubs were only allowed to have 16 non-JIFF players on their squad. Now the system has become more stringent and complex: for teams that have received promotion, different conditions apply; if a club's JIFF quota is particularly impressive, additional funds are provided; Clubs must have an average of 16 JIFF players on their matchday rosters throughout the season; if they fall short in this regard, then they can be docked points. Suddenly the LPR got down to business.

The steady increase in the number of JIFF players that clubs are required to field during the season over the past 10 years has meant that Top 14 and ProD2 clubs have been able to rely less and less on foreign imports. They were forced to develop and invest in themselves — otherwise they would not have had the squad to compete.

Sébastien Piqueronis, director of rugby at top 14 side Pau and previously head coach of the Golden Generation France Under-20s have been described by Telegraph Sport as the «mastermind» behind France's youth rugby hegemony. In his opinion, JIFF played an important role.

“JIFF played a fundamental role,” he says. “These rules, along with improved development, have allowed young French players to play more – and at a higher level. We have 30 fully professional clubs, and each has its own academy — so in the landscape of French rugby, any youngster, no matter what age they start playing elite rugby, is well prepared, well-developed. Obviously the JIFF rules played a major role in this, but equally important is the ability of these youngsters to play quickly as soon as they leave the academy.

The commitment to providing opportunities for young players at club level has contributed to the growth of the talent pool in French rugby. Photo: Getty Images/Frank Fyfe

“France has found its own model of training and development. We are now reaping the benefits of what has been in place for the last eight to ten years.”

The introduction of the JIFF rules, however, was not welcomed on all sides, but the LPR and the FFR insisted on their position. . Of course, in Toulon, where a team of foreign galacticos dominated French and European rugby, the reception was hostile. Gillham, for one, despised the idea—and he wasn't alone.

“The JIFF system is finally starting to work,” says Gillham. “It took several years. Relations between club and country had been good for several years and everyone wanted to get together at the World Cup.

“We all hated it when it came out because people were talking about quotas; terrible word. I voted against JIFF. I was completely wrong. I really like it now. I'm so proud that we have Leo Carbonneau, Philippe's son, playing scrum-half for us at 18. Mathis Ferte plays full-back — when he came on last week the crowd went wild — he's 19! That's because he's a local boy. He was one of the stars of France's Under-20 victory.»

McNaughton adds: “Morad Boudjelal [the billionaire president of Toulon] reacted very badly, saying that France is a racist country and the FRF is a racist country because they introduced quotas,” he says.

“In Many professional clubs didn't like it at the time, but it happened. That was the trigger because everyone knew there were a lot of homegrown players around but they just weren't getting any playing time in professional rugby. This was the starting point.»

The trickle-down effect of JIFF cannot be underestimated either. As Dolo explains, even at the lower levels there are quotas for foreign players.

“It's not just JIFF [for the Top 14 and ProD2], but also at the federal level,” he says. “In Sarcelles we cannot have more than four foreign players in our team. Now all clubs have to educate their players. They used to sign or loan Georgians or Kiwis — but now they can't do that. This accelerated development.

“Remember the time when not a single French hotshot started in the top 14? For a country that loves a fight! Ridiculous.”

It was not just JIFF rules that stimulated this revival. It's all part of a powerful cocktail; The next component of this process was the recognition of the diverse, cosmopolitan state that France had become.

City of Bright Lights

No one would ever call Paris the center of French rugby. While the historic glamor and grandeur of Racing 92 and, more recently, Stade Français are well known throughout the rugby world, the heart of the game in France has traditionally been the south. In particular, the southwest, with Toulouse as a giant.

McNaughton believes that between 1970 and 2000, only 15 players hailing from the Ile-de-France (the wider region that includes Paris) played for the French national team. Since 2000, however, McNaughton estimates that number has nearly reached 40. But why? Answer: immigration. Taking advantage of France's multiculturalism; diversity, inclusion and the astute scouting of a little-known coach named Alain Gazon.

«It definitely has to do with these athletic kids who were scouted in poor, black or North African immigrant areas,» McNaughton explains. “It’s not about professional clubs. Their physical potential has already shown in the French football team. The 1998 FIFA World Cup, won by France, was a significant moment; the population realized that a quarter of the team were children from these places. It was a boost for rugby at the time — we started going out there to Massy, ​​Sarcelles, Gennevilles and others. Below the three professional clubs — Racing 92, Stade Français and [third division] Massy — the next five top clubs in the region come from these regions. It's not just more numbers and more professional rugby. Rather, we went and looked for these children. I like to think we've made rugby a little less like a white, middle-class sport.

“Massey, in the third level, certainly played the most important role. Yakuba Kamara, Cameron Vokey, Jordan Joseph. Lawn watched Joseph when he was 12 years old, met his parents and encouraged him to come to Massey. Lawn, now 70, was posted to the Paris region as a postal worker back in the 70s and thought he could stay there for three years and return to Agen or wherever that was. But he stayed and built it all in Massey, but then Jackie Lorenzetti [President of Racing 92] found him and he went there — it's definitely down to him that Racing 92 has Wokis, Tangas, etc.

Cameron Vokey is one of many young players hailing from outside the sport's traditional hotbed of the southwest. Photo: Getty Images/David Rogers

“What we realized in Ile-de-France in 2004, whereas before we had been defeated when we played in Midi-Pyrénées or Languedoc-Roussillon, we came out with a team with Bastareaud and Fofana in the center — and suddenly we won ! That's when, locally, we started telling clubs that they should go out and work with schools. We called for the creation of a genuine connection between the local school and the club.»

For Dolot, president of Sarcelles, a club at the heart of the Parisian spark, the picture is the same.

» For many years, one of the problems with French rugby was that everything was in the hands of a select few who all came from the same region — the south-west,” he says. “When you're in this closed bubble, you don't realize that the rest of the world is changing and you're being left behind.

“Maybe seven years ago the younger generation came along and won the World Cup. Some of these players came from completely different backgrounds than the «traditional» rugby players in France. They were not born in the southwest or near Toulouse, many were from the suburbs or suburbs. They stunned everyone with their physical abilities.

“People would ask me if we had Fijians or Tongans playing with us, and I always said, 'We don't need them.' We're in the suburbs and we have everything we need.»

«People are fit, strong runners…almost fighters. Young people who have had to fight almost every day for what they need.

“The FRF has started throwing some money our way, investing in these rough suburbs because they know they could be diamonds tomorrow.” .

14 best players by brilliance and tenacity ProD2

Gillham's Brive, in the second tier of ProD2, will host league leaders Provence on Thursday evening. Brive plays in Brive-la-Gaillarde, which has a population of about 50,000, but 10,000 people are expected to attend the Amédée-Domenech stadium.

What makes this statistic even more remarkable is that over the past 10 seasons, Brive has fluctuated between the Top 14 and ProD2, but has never finished higher than eighth in the top flight.

The razors are not an anomaly. Last season, half of the second division clubs had an average attendance of more than 5 thousand people. A thriving second division with movement between the top divisions is vital to the success of French rugby. It is also important that both leagues are governed as a group of 30 clubs together, with the same governing body and joint television agreement, rather than as separate entities.

“The year we were going to finish eighth or ninth in the top 14, we had no chance of relegation and no chance of making the play-offs,” says Gillham. “Our gates fell — there was no danger! Tickets for sale and promotion. That's what brings out the best in clubs and in rugby.

“And we were allowed to flourish as 30-somethings. And every game is televised — that's important — the fact is that you feel important because you can tell your sponsors and whoever that we're on television on Canal+ at 19.30 on Thursday evening. It's huge.

“All these children want to be Mbappe, but they can’t. And the local clubs understood this, as did the children.

“Now there is money in ProD2 too. This year our operating budget is somewhere around 16-17 million euros, which was previously unheard of. In 2007, 17 million euros was the highest budget in the Top 14! Now they are 35-40 million euros.

“Fourteen Top 14 clubs and 16 ProD2 clubs. We work for 30. We sit in a large horseshoe-shaped room and argue. But at the end of the day, we make decisions and vote. Where England made a mistake was in fencing — whatever you want to call it — in the Premier League.»

René Bouscatel, president of the LPR, points to the diversity of the two leagues as another advantage. “We have expanded our base,” he says. “Little by little, the level of the second division increased in a sporting sense, both attractively and financially.

“This allowed us to spread clubs throughout the country. There are new clubs emerging like Vannes, Rouen, Massy, ​​Angoulême, Nevers, which are not traditional rugby centers but are now professional centers — there is a real appetite there.

The popularity of rugby in France is at its peak. Photo: Shutterstock/James Crombie

“I'm not judging, but I think English club directors are prioritizing the economy and the interests of their own clubs rather than doing it for the wider picture of professional rugby.”

The TV deal is critical. Canal has been given a new contract, which runs for four years from the start of the 2023/24 season and is worth £97.5 million a year, a 17 per cent increase on the previous deal. In England, the latest Premier League deal was worth just £40 million per season. The agreement with France also includes elements such as Thursday matches and Sunday kick-offs at 9:00 p.m.; anathema to away fans and players, but a masterstroke in attracting TV viewers.

«Channel+ has been a rugby channel for the last 30 years and every time the rights go up for auction they deliver the goods,” says Gillham. «Channel+ It's a pay-TV channel, but the current deal is good value for money, with matches played from Thursday to Sunday. Channel+ I took a break from football, and it was a ridiculous amount of money. It's a really good partnership. And the TV deal is two and a half times more expensive than in the Premier League.”

Buscatel, who is at the center of the two leagues' relationship with Canal, is at the center of the two leagues' relationship with Canal. as he takes over from Gose in 2021, adds: “We would never negotiate rights with a broadcaster purely for the sake of money,” he says. “Money is important, but vision is even more important.

“There is a huge difference between the French and English systems. The British give priority to the economic and financial side, and billionaires invest in large English clubs, but they do not want competition.»

The final difference, Gillham adds, is financial regulation. The situation that happened with Wasps, Worcester and the London Irish who went to the wall in England is almost impossible to repeat across the English Channel.

“We have strict financial controls from the central audit committee [formerly DNACG; now A2R],” says Gillham. “It is cruel and does not allow you to start the season without concrete proof that you have all the funding you say you have. If we say we predict we'll finish sixth (and budget accordingly), they'll turn around and say, «Well, the last three years you finished 12th, so we'll record you as finishing 12th.» Therefore, we will base your income on the last three years.” If the sponsorship exceeds 50 thousand euros, they will require review of the contract. If you cannot prove everything, the committee will not register the players and will not allow the team to start the season. Not a single club from the Top 14 or ProD2 has retired in the last 10 years.»

Buscatel adds: “Yes, we are in a purple patch, but we built this, it didn’t happen by accident. We must continue to progress. Lack of progress is regression.”

If progress is truly the goal, then we should all prepare for a period of French dominance.

The moment of truth

All eyes now turn to the Stade de France , with France hosting New Zealand on Friday night in the opening match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, where the progress made over the past decade will be truly tested.

“It's all been a healthy cycle between the clubs and the French national team,” says Gillham. “With France winning the right to host the 2023 tournament, we, as presidents, have decided that the best option for French rugby – and club rugby – is for France to win the World Cup.”

What is French rugby like? built over the last 10 years, France will never have a better opportunity to become world champions — on home soil. They couldn't have been better prepared.

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