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For years the English Premier and French Pro 16 have been variously claimed to have the best Rugby product in the World and regularly the ARU get criticised for insisting that Wallabies must be Super 12/14 players and Super 12/14 players must be Wallaby eligible.
In an earlier thread this year I demonstrated that the English Premier League in 2004-05 contained the equivelent of three Club Squads from the Southern Hemisphere. I plan to update that statistic soon however, here from Fox is an article suggesting it is at least as bad, if not worse, in the French Pro 16.
There are arguments for both sides of the Pro Sport ledger however, surely this should never come at the expense of the host nations National Squad?
France worried by imports
From correspondents in Agen, France
December 29, 2006
FRANCE rugby chiefs are worried about the effect the influx of foreign players is having on the national side just nine months ahead of the World Cup.
"Today our only obsession is the World Cup," said France team manager Jo Maso.
"But after that, the French rugby federation and the national league will have a big job to manage - the number of foreign players in our championship."
France coach Bernard Laporte has already bemoaned the lack of competition for the position of prop forward in the national squad.
In the last round of French championship games, on December 22 and 23, 17 of the 28 props who started the seven matches were foreigners.
The same debate has been taking place in England where national director of rugby Rob Andrew recently partially blamed the crisis of form facing the world champion on the number of foreign players signed by English Premiership clubs.
Agence France-Presse
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
This just shows that the ARU policy is the correct one.