Top 14's success not all good news for France

FRENCH NOTES:Traditional French flair seems to be in decline and, barring a few clubs, the bland attacking skills evident in French rugby have astounded me, writes MATT WILLIAMS

NEXT SEASON there will be 10 new coaches in the French Top 14. The two leading teams, Toulouse and Clermont, are a playing standard above the rest. A major factor for this is their respective coaches, Guy Noves and Vern Cotter, have been given many seasons to build the infrastructure and the strong internal relationships within their organisations that are the essential element in sporting success.

For five of the new coaches it will be their first senior coaching experience. They are in for some ride. They are going to get about seven months to convince powerful business men that their individual coaching process will work. This is a desperately unfair and unrealistic situation.

By definition short-term thinking has no consideration for the future. This lack of wisdom is placing massive pressure on developing quality French players and coaches. Short-term management has led to the hiring of many inexperienced and under- trained coaches. It has also caused an inbreeding of rugby ideas as many of the inexperienced coaches’ only practical coaching knowledge was gained on the accreditation course in Paris. As in all walks of life, you really only learn the job by doing it.

The French clubs have an almost paranoid belief that foreign coaches cannot cope with the French way of doing business. While speaking French is essential for effective communication, the foreign myth is perpetuated at every turn in the local media. The argument falls apart when Vern Cotter’s New Zealand accent is heard. The Clermont and former Canterbury Crusaders assistant coach has his team’s attacking intent and execution at an excellent standard.

Just as Irish rugby has benefited by importing knowledge, French rugby is in need of an injection of foreign technical and tactical coaching. Coaching is not about where you where born, the culture of the land you are from or about the culture of the land you are coaching in. Coaching is a process. Respecting the culture of the people you coach is compulsory but culture has nothing to do with or poor passing and running across field. My observations and experiences of French rugby have surprised me.

“French flair” is a much overused phrase. The uninformed argue that French attack was all about DNA. It was supplied at birth. Like West Africans genetically have more fast twitch muscle fibres than other races, the theory is French players can play attacking rugby from birth. I don’t buy it.

The influence on French attacking rugby supplied by the coaching geniuses, Pierre Villepreux and Jean-Claude Skrela, who established the Toulouse philosophy more than 30 years ago, has been greatly undervalued. I’ve come to believe the French flair of the last 20 years was created by a coaching philosophy that was implemented on players from childhood. As that philosophy has diminished and the players are not exposed to the mindset of how to attack, French attacking flair has declined.

French attacking play is like a once brilliant and now underperforming horse stud. It needs a few new stallions to do what stallions do. French attacking play is in dire need of fresh DNA. It needs new technical and tactical coaching methods and a focus on developing local talent within the clubs.

With the notable exception of Clermont, Toulouse and the occasional Matt Giteau- inspired Toulon, the bland attacking skills evident in French rugby have astounded me. Cross-field running is the norm. Variation of running lines and players being in motion before receiving the ball is rare. The lack of technical and tactical knowledge from attack coaches has surprised me.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect for the long-term strength of the French national side is the lack of an attacking mindset from the vast majority of indigenous French players. Much of French rugby now involves kicking to gain field position and then accumulating points from penalties. The French trademark of offloading in the tackle to a support player arriving from depth, who then smashes through the defensive hole, is so rarely displayed, it’s close to extinct. I watch and help train several age group representative teams. This type of play, that was the trademark of Toulouse, and was emulated across France, is almost totally absent in players under 20.

Without change French rugby will suffer the same fate as English soccer. The Premier League is the most powerful soccer club competition in the world. It generates a massive business and talent follows the money. The English competition draws on the best players in the world. This has forced out the local talent and the once mighty English national team suffers.

French rugby is facing a similar future. Toulouse coach, Guy Noves is the lone voice asking for long-term planning and reform. He has called for a reduction in team numbers from 14 to 12 and a four-team playoff system, not the current six. In effect this would significantly shorten the season. The Top 14 final is on June 9th and the 2012-13 season begins on August 15th, with a French national tour in between. Teams that make the Top 14 final get less than one month preparation time between seasons. Noves argues 12 teams would condense the player talent pool and improve the standard of matches. Less games means the need for less players, so a lower foreign player quota would be applied.

Guy is old, tough and brave. On this issue, I take my hat off to him. He continually takes on the money men. The money men want more games to get more gate takings. A Top 12 would have seen Brive and Lyon relegated and no team from Pro D 2 (French second division) promoted. The vote on the competition structure is taken by the presidents in Top 14 and Pro D 2 – 30 presidents in total, who all want their clubs to be in the elite competition. They were never going to vote to make it harder to get there by reducing the elite competition to 12.

The money in Top 14 is huge and growing each season. The Welsh provinces will work on a budget of about €3.5 million next year. Middle-finishing Pro D 2 clubs have almost double that amount. Lyon will have a budget of about €12 million in Pro D 2.

The Welsh have lost several leading players including Lee Byrne and Mike Philips to Top 14. It is a matter of time before the Top 14 impacts on Irish rugby. Ian Madigan and Dominic Ryan would be top of my list to take to clubs like Bordeaux or Bayonne. The attractions for players are more than monetary. As I write this with the sunshine streaming through my open kitchen window, living in the south of France is not too shabby.

Huge wages for foreign players has led to funds being diverted away from developing French players. Each French club has an academy called the “Centre de Formation”. The French federation administers this impressive system to a very high standard. Each club is evaluated and significantly funded from the French federation. Regrettably many clubs pay the process lip service. High wages has also led to many clubs having substandard gyms and training equipment. I have been astounded at how poor these facilities are at many French clubs.

The Top 14 is exciting and intoxicating. Its growth rate is exponential. In the future it will draw the world’s best rugby talent into its vortex. The success and future of the Top 14 competition is assured. French rugby will have to battle to survive its own domestic competition’s success.