Nat2S status 2019-2020

Fed 1 - 4 divisions of 12 - there''s a match a week on national TV as well

Fed 2 - 12 Divisions of 12

Fed 3 - 14 Divisions of 12

The league season is simply seen as a means of qualifying for the post season national tournament - the top 4 qualify In Fed 3 you have to win 2 rounds in the tournament to be promoted as well.

As you can see from the above, the pyramid is much flatter here, because of the geography of the place. Many more players just stay at their local club - we hardly have any movement at the end of a season although I think it's different in the south where clubs are closer to each other (we're in the north)

The game is not played in schools here, but the clubs are bigger in many ways. Crowds are generally higher as well. We average between 400-600 for a home game, but when we played our local derby against the club up the road we had over 4000 believe it or not. I was even interviewed on the local internet TV station.  As well as all the families, lots of people from the local community come to watch - the club has a big presence in the area. It's a real family business as well - we have young kids playing in the 1st team whose fathers and grandfathers played as well, and our President (equivalent to Chairman) is also the son and grandson of a past President. Ex players don't just disappear either - they stay part of the club and volunteer to do stuff. We have more volunteers than we know what to do with on match days and even training nights.

I'm not sure why the FFR don't go to Saturday rugby - I think it's just because they've done it that way for a long time. I certainly don't think it's because of competition with soccer.

While rugby is big here, we still pale into insignificance compared to soccer, just like in the UK. 

Our senior sides (all French clubs have only a 1st and 2nd team) play on Sundays, but our U18's play on Saturdays as do the women. We have a great Ecole de Rugby and cater for every age group from U7 up, but they don't play matches (or not many) during the season - there a series of tournaments hosted by various clubs towards the end of the season. More sensible in my opinion.

Very different to the UK - some things better, some worse. Like life in general here! 

Yes once the advantage is lost, the next step was the move from Winter to Summer rugby to keep one step ahead of the opposition.  Although that did result in splits between the game as some amatuer Rugby league clubs kept to the winter season...

You could argue that maintaining Saturday fixtures, whilst other sports keep moving around the calendar helps create a continuity that creates an audience.  If you know every two weeks a game will take place at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon the audience know where they stand. 

As a sad geek who looks at the art of television scheduling, programmes which are popular in one slot, lose audience when they are moved - this is very true of American network tv, but keep Coronation Street at Monday at 7.30 it will get a larger audience than if you move it to 7.00 on a Tuesday. 

As for the French game - I've always understood it to be more a tribal thing, with a team fully adopted by its village etc.