How to Save English Club Rugby...Copy France! 

How refreshing to hear an Englishman admire the French rugby system, they are so anti France and anti top 14 on british TV especailly BT Sport. It is no wonder they are not talking of going more along the lines of the French model. They are too proud to admit that the French system is superior.

Tout à fait d'accord. Nous avons tous besoin de clubs britanniques forts et d'une équipe nationale anglaise ( mais aussi d'une équipe galloise ) fortes. Si le dernier Angleterre - France restera dans l'Histoire, c'est dans les matches les plus serrés et disputés que notre sport grandit. Pour cela toutes les nations doivent se hisser vers le haut.

great video. Be careful mate : JIFF means "Joueur Issu de la Formation Française" : player trained in France. Which is different from "French player". For instance, we have a lot of georgian or fidjian rugby players considered as JIFF.

The algorithm has just directed this post my way, Tim - 2 years on!! Sadly, the situation now is actually significantly worse in England than it was then ….. and significantly stronger in France than when you first recorded this. This speaks volumes for the sense of your argument. Ultimately the difference is that in France, Rugby is administered by professional BUSINESS types, amidst a national sporting picture no less diverse and challenging than our own. English Rugby is administered by status-conscious amateur-minded “thoroughly good chaps” who know their way around an impressive Wine List - but have no clue about dynamic business promotion. (I would specifically exclude a number of impressively business-like club owners/chairmen who inject enormous energy and funding into the game and the clubs they adore - but they are constantly overwhelmed and submerged by the sheer weight of incompetent, blinkered and complacent amateurism (and nepotism) at large in both the RFU and especially the Gallagher Prem.) Change has to come FROM THE TOP - without the right people, you cannot put in place the right structures - and without the right mindset you can neither recruit nor retain the right character of leaders. Even putting French Rugby aside, could even a fantasist ever have imagined that the English FA could ever achieved what the new broom of the EPL achieved in football? ….. Mediocre product languishing well below La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, and many others, transformed into the world-leading football product by some distance! We have to learn from the EPL, the TOP14, the NFL, the NRL that these successes do not just arrive - they have to be DRIVEN by men of vision, flair, and imagination. And until we do, English Rugby will drift further and further off the pace set by the French, the Irish - and increasingly the Japanese and the Italians. We have an enthusiastic and loyal “market” for Rugby Union in this country, but we consistently sell it short with half-arsed poorly thought-through appointments, direction, and ambition. How can we continue to squander such a sporting and commercial opportunity?

Very well reasoned argument. The problem is the Premiership is run by the current stakeholders, so they do whatever they can to protect themselves. The RFU is run by people from the same few teams and even a team like Exeter was not seen as the real deal until last year because they are not part of that oligarchy. Let's hope that Exeter and Bristol (who were both in the Championship 10 years ago) compete in this years final and give some hope to Championship teams and eventually it HAS to change, or else we will end up with a stale league like the pro14...

Asking the right questions ! The JIFF system has been fundamental. Another key parameter in the relative french rugby success now is the headcoach of the national team. Galthié took us out of the middle age. There has been a lot of work around data analysis, the psychology of the players, an effort to hire the best people for the every compartment of the game (a former international ref for the discipline, Shaun Edwards for the defense, an NFL physical coach for the fitness, etc). Galthié has been pretty much acting like the CEO of the company XV de france. Cheers mate. No doubt england will be back soon.

This video is golden. Sums my views up entirely. Well done.

This was great, they should do a similar wider view analysis of the other rugby nations. Like how Irelands system compares Wales.

Cracking video Cocker. Truths hurt, I'm tired of our product

Really enjoyed this Tim, and as always an impassioned view which in my heart I totally agree with. My head however thinks this is rather more the case of horse and stable door! I agree that the premiership is already a ringfenced league, and has been for at least the past 5 years and probably longer. With the parachute payments, shareholdings, and the lack of Jeopardy with the cancellation of the Championship playoffs (which caused havoc with Bristol and Worcs in the past), the ability for any club outside of the 13 shareholders breaking in, would require an owner with extremely deep pockets to “buy” his way into the “premiership club”. Ideally we would turn back time and have a clear plan by the RFU which could have used its vast reserves (in the past) to create the structure where the Championship could have become the equivalent of Pro2. My only other concern (and maybe this was RFU’s thoughts in the past), is England is not the same as France. I believe France is more unique than you think. Just my thoughts, but I think 3 things make rugby in France more geared to the deeper professional penetration than here in England: 1. Football. Although the biggest sport in France, its dominance over all other sports is not comparable to the English system. France only has 2 professional and 1 semi-professional leagues, below that the system is amateur. Although football spread to all corners of France it could be argued that in large parts of South of France rugby remained on a par or even surpasses football. In England there are areas, the South west in particular(and pockets within them) where rugby is big. I’m from Gloucestershire and as you are aware rugby is a religion here, but I would argue Football is still far bigger than rugby in the biggest city in the region (Bristol). With football so dominant and professional leagues running far deeper than in France, the share of fans and therefore TV money must be far more unbalanced than in France. From what I’ve read Top14 matches have viewing figures up to 10* that of Premiership games! I’m sure that BT, Sky or another party would pay keenly for those type of figures. 2. The North and Rugby league. The simple fact is that rugby league is far more popular in England than in France. In your part of the world RL is more prevalent and popular than RU. Add in the total dominance of football in the north and you have a saturated market. Even Sale at its height of success struggles in the region. 3. Regional/Govt support. The localised power and spending down to town level, has allowed local government in France to really support their sports team. A vast majority of the stadiums/infrastructure is from local government funds and this infrastructure and joined up planning between private ownership and the local government means teams can grow more akin to an Exeter. In summary I wish that England had taken a different path, but just don’t see under any circumstances how things are going to change. The owners have invested (lost) far to much to allow their investments to be shared. It would take all the wealth of the RFU to go all in on a really professional Championship and that would be at a detriment to the local game.

you recorded that 2 years ago and what happenning during this time 3 England teams Wasps, Worcester and now London Irish have gone bankrupt. The both English team (the main and u20) finish 4th in the 6 nations (with big defeat vs france )

Respect for speaking out against this ringfenced nonsense Tim. Genuinely frustrating how lacking in ideas those at the top in rugby are

The French, for all their creativity, normally make well balanced and centrally run organisations so this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. England on the other hand has always been a mess with bits bolted on to deal with immediate problems.

Make it fair, keep things simple particularly the TV deal and I really like the rule of 16 qualified French players. Nice suggestion.

Oakland A's jersey. Nice Moneyball reference.

Very interesting video : interesting addition : 20 years ago, a bunch of French football owners, 5 or 6 of them I think, wanted to do exactly that with TV rights. « We generate the audience and the Tv rights, why should we share them ? ». It was named Club Europe, and the idea was shot down bu the football federation. Thank god they got this right.

Population are almost irrelevant you need to consider cultural issues. English rugby have a social class undertones. rugby , cricket, hockey, rowing are not taught in all schools. In France Rugby was mostly a south culture and was connected to farmers villages so it is “people thing” not a “posh school stuff” and the people are generally more enthusiastic. It has kept that vibe. Now the main point is the French philosophy of the game which is taught in rugby school from very young- “we play the players not the spaces” which bring flair, passion and beautiful game so the kids wants to “play beautiful” - no one there gives a frog about anything but the beauty of the game. it is not only 2 very different rugby cultures it is barely the same sport That is why for the sake of whatever you choose to call Rugby England has to build something within its own rugby culture that appeals to more kids from all background … so we don’t have to travel to Dublin to be entertained 🤙

Two years later, it’s a 10 club league and looking like a disaster.

How did I not know that promoted clubs only get 1/3 budget - that's ludicrous!!

Great analysis - what is the point of having academies if you then bring in a load of Saffas or Fijians?

As much as it pains me to say it, the French system is better..... 🤢. Relegation and promotion is fundamental to competitive sport and means there is no pointless games at the bottom of the table (as there was last year). The whole league is more exciting with jeopardy in it but having a 2nd division that is more meaningful - who wouldn’t be on board!

Très bon raisonnement. Même si les deux rugby de clubs sont différents. Je pense qu'en France il y a aussi la concurrence du football qui est moins forte. Une ville, une région préfère avoir un grand club de rugby en Top 14 qu'une équipe de football en deuxième division. Il faut reconnaître que de nombreux clubs ici marchent bien parce qu'ils sont dopés à l'argent public : les mairies, les départements et même les régions mettent beaucoup d'argent dans les clubs pro. Une petite erreur concernant la règle des JIFF, il doit y avoir une moyenne de 16 joueurs issus de la formation française mais pas nécessairement sélectionnables pour le XV de France. Ainsi de nombreux JIFF jouent pour une sélection étrangère mais ont été formés en France.

I think this video is a great complement to the one you made about the lack of choices at centre for England among the premiership clubs. I'm sure the elite level guys in England are doing ok for themselves, but you really should be able to make a decent living as a 2nd division player - from what I understand many of the player are semi-pro. Without a solid testing ground, how do you identify the players who can make it to the next level?

Broadcasting rights and pay wall... primer league soccer is able to be watched from do many places

So true

Since the championship don’t have a tv deal, why don’t they just give the filming rights free to bbc or itv…. Ur not getting any cash for it anyway, even if they only show one game a month stil better than nothing.

Pouquoi pas a uk league in two division 12 English, three or four welsh, two Scot’s and four Irish. With three going down and three coming up every year with passionate fans

Got 12 club owners willing to buy shares in PRL ? It's not a parachute payment, it's a dividend from the shares they OWN.

How true does that sound 2 years later? How many english clubs have gone belly up, not mentioning the Saracens scheme ? 2, 3 and counting? 2 years later, La Rochelle have won the European Cup back to back, and the French U20 have won the world cup for the 3rd straight time, scoring 50 points against the Irish in the final.

The greed, avarice and utter arrogance of the English Club owners/boards is so deeply entrenched that the RFU will never be able to put such a common sense and fair system in place! The owners have all the power and would probably just break away and form their own league. They care as little about the real fans as the Glazers etc.in soccer!

Thanks Tim. It kinda proves English rugby is run by a bunch of people with no vision or long term strategy and is very much a self serving clique. I think most fans knew it anyway... It would be interesting to get your employers view of what they would commit to for a two league, 4 year contract a la France.

We French people should copyright this system, then!😉

New Zealand Rugby was much more fanatically followed by the locals back in the day that we had provincial teams as our top level instead of regional teams that we now have. Devaluing the traditionally teams was the worst thing NZ ever did to the grass roots of the game and it shows with continued lower interest in the game. With this said don't copy NZ.

England population is 56 millions actually.

Unfairness in sports in England

Oakland As top?

English are not watching Rugby. Not much growth in audience for premiership. This is reflected in 36m in tv rights which is nothing Having a decent 2nd Division would appeal to a larger geographical area . Problem is they have squandered the money. Two years ago only England and france had money. Now it is only France. Attracting more viewers needs mor More than the same handful of teams playing eCh other. The problem is thatthey are starty grom a period of weakness. They need to share some of the money eith the second division. Maybe s d Maybe contribution to the top top six so that teMs coming up are competitive.not fIr but hard decisions to ne made. This wolymean 26 reasonable teMs in England instead of 10. In addition addition England need to accept low expectations for a few years and live within budget. This eill mean players going abroad but that is another hard decision.16 instead of 10

Greedy teams want more of the cake.however the cake us getting smaller each year. At this rate 8 teams in a few years with less tv money. There is no reason for a sponsor to financially back a team outside the premier as dice are loaded. Note that the amounts are small. A few million would make a championship team competitive but would be wasted if no decent chance at getting to the premiy and staying there.

French clubs haven't won the ECC for 5 or six years and to call the last French team that won it French is a serious stretch of the imagination. No Six nations since 2010

Copy the Irish their skill dummy's challenges Irish have beaten in less 2years France 2times all blacks 2times.if Irish are in firm watch them they are well better than England France copy them