Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Top 14 is Europe's elite league, at present, but the French national team is in tatters.
France got to the final of the 2011 World Cup but that required a mutiny by senior players. They finished second in their World Cup pool, last year, and were thrashed by France in the quarters. Next Spring will mark seven years since they won a Six Nations title.
The FFR [French rugby union] and Ligue Nationale de Rugby teamed up for one of those lovely root and branch reviews, which included inputs from players, coaches, owners and top level officials. Some of the proposals made by the combined FFR and LNR technical unit could shake up European rugby forever.
The stand-out proposal is that the Six Nations be reduced to five rounds of Test matches played over five weeks. Basically, the unit sees it like a Band-Aid solution - quick tear and get it over with.
The 2016 Six Nations was played over a six-week period. There were two fortnight-long breaks in between games but four rounds were played on back-to-back weekends. The proposal would be an awesome, gruelling challenge for all nations.
Of course, even if the FFR and LNR agree to fully back these proposals, they would then have to run the gauntlet of World Cup legislators.
Here are some of the 15 other measures put forward by the review unit:
- Reducing the Top 14 to Top 12, starting from 2018/19. From that season, there would be a one-up, one-down system of promotion and relegation.
- Establishing a squad of 30 'elite' French players and 20 further 'development' players that would play less club games in order to preserve them for Test commitments.
- Increasing the salary cap to €200,000 per season, per player (up from €100,000) to bring in high-quality players that could cover for these elite and development players of French national duty.
- Ditching the existing Top 6 finalé in the Top 14 in favour of semi-finals and a grand final.
The measures will be discussed by French officials in the coming days and weeks.
The obvious road-blocks are club owners [why would they reduce games and give up senior French players to Test duty?], World Rugby and France's Six Nations rivals.
