French union and league put history in past to align for greater good

The boos rang out across the Paris La Defence Arena as the referee blew the final whistle.

Japan's Yu Tamura had minutes beforehand missed a straightforward conversion that would have sealed a famous win over Les Bleus.

The draw was as good as a defeat for then coach Guy Noves’ men in November 2017.

Their watershed moment was supposed to have been the 62-13 Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand two years previous.

At that stage it had been five years since Les Bleus had won the Six Nations; Antoine Dupont was just 14 years old when he watched Thierry Dusautoir raise the trophy aloft.

Something had to be done.

The relationship between the French Rugby Union (FFR) and the clubs of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) was having a detrimental effect on the France national team.

While the competitions the Irish provinces compete in - the United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup - aren't 50 years old when added together, the prize on offer for the winners of the Top14, the famed Bouclier de Brennus, is older than the Fédération Francaise de Rugby (1919) and precedes the first France international Test match (1906) by 14 years; it was first awarded in 1892.

It’s not hard to imagine in a country as vast as France that different people have different priorities and that winning that shield is a be-all and end-all for some.

Of course, Connacht, Ulster, Leinster and Munster, are all run by the Irish Rugby Football Union and sing, for the most part, off the same hymn sheets.

Contracts and player-management protocols all go through the union here, but larger than life owners, presidents and chairmen hold their own in France.

Individual clubs are backed by huge sponsors, like Michelin at Clermont and Altrad at Montpellier, and