French rugby

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Hello, this is my first post so please be kind...

I'm curious about French rugby, but am hardly an expert on it.

I've been reading a lot lately regarding Toulons, Pau's, Montpellier's signings and ambitions etc, and have been watching quite a lot of French and European rugby and the thing that strikes me most is why does the FFR not impose restrictions on non French nationals playing?

If they do how do they try to impose these restrictions?

Who is the power in French rugby?

Where are all these south sea island players in every french club coming from?

Thanks for your feedback

The pre-game stuff seems to be the highlights of recent T14 finals. Think last year they had special forces guys landing on the pitch by parachute with the bouclier de brennus.
Can't agree more with you Profitius, Clermont played some really poor rugby yesterday. Granted they had some key players missing but appart from some agressive defense it was a very shaky performance everywhere else.

The Saint wrote:Are Clermont the biggest chokers in history? Always have an awesome team but I've lost count of how many finals they've lost!

They might be.
1 title for 12 finals in France. 8.33% of victory.
2 finals in H-cup and 0 titles. 0% of victory
2 titles in the Challenge Cup for 3 finals. 66% of victory.
And we could add the trophies that no longer exist.
Challenge Du Manoir:3 titles for 9 finals. 33% of victory
French Cup: 2 finals and 0 trophy. 0% of victory
League Cup: 1 final and 1 title. 100% of victory
So basically they played :29 finals and only win 7 times. A 24.14% rate of success.
But on the only two competiton that matter: Brennus and H-Cup. They played 14 finals and only win once. A 7% rate of success.

Is there any worst team for the finals in the world? (in any sports?)

I've always held the view that the French are fair weather fans when it comes their football clubs. 20 years ago PSG were getting record crowds, 10 years they were almost dead, now they are at the top again. How deep is the passion for club rugby in France? Are the rugby fans as fickle as the football ones?

How big are Toulon compared to say St Ettiene, or Montpellier, or Lyons? I wager that if the Arabs left PSG they would fall behind Toulon in the popularity stakes. The chap who owns Toulon rugby has done a great job for Toulon's rugby club and culture, to the point where they are probably bigger now than the football club. Reports suggest that in Montpellier the rugby club will overtake the football club in popularity (the council funded the new rugby stadium there). The question is are these clubs following Toulon's model, or have they found some other way to increase their profile.