The prop drought in France

French scrummaging was once feared. In this Six Nations, France’s scrumming has been the weakest, and some people are blaming foreign influence.

|Twice in a space of a few months they have been destroyed by England in the front row. One of them was actually a new French prop – Lionel Faure, no spring chicken at 33. He plays his rugby for Sale Sharks in Engtland and does not always make their starting team. He may just epitomise the French problem.

Totting up the international props in France produces an astounding result – nearly three times as many from outside of France.

It is not that Fifth Columnists are at work in France. The problem is the guest worker system so common in Europe. People are gathered from less affluent countries to do the hard work in France and Germany in particular. In rugby that means mainly France. And there is no greater hard labour in rugby than playing prop.

The complaint is that there are no French props coming through because the clubs are importing players from abroad.

Let’s look at the top clubs first, because the top players come from the top clubs.

Toulouse are right at the top. They have a group of five props on their books, four of them internationals., three ineligible to play for France. Jean Baptiste Poux is the French international. Yohan Montes (23) is eligible to play for France. Omar Hasan (Argentina), Daan Human (South Africa) and Salvatore Perugini (Italy) are not.

Clermont Auvergne are second on the Top 14 table. They have one prop who has played for France – 31-year-old Laurent Emmanuelli.  They have four others who have played international rugby – John Smit (South Africa), Martín Scelzo (Argentina), Goderzi Shvelidze (Georgia) and Davit Zirakashvili (Georgia).

Stade Français do best with four international props who have played for France – David Attoub, Sylvain Marconnet, Franck Montanella and South African Pieter de Villiers. Of those four Marconnet and De Villiers have injury problems. Their other international is Rodrigo Roncero (Argentina).

Biarritz have just eight props, four of whom who has played Test rugby, one for France. Denis Avril who is now 35 has played for France. Petru Balan has played for Romania, Mosese Moala for Tonga and George Jgenti for Georgia.  That leaves four others – Spaniard Marco Ferrer and South African Eduard Coetzee. Then there are two Frenchmen – 30-year-old Benoît Lecouls and 22-year-old Rémy Hughes. That suggests one possible prop for France in the future.

That is the state of play in the top four clubs.

Bourgoin has two props who have played for France – Olivier Milloud (33) and Olivier Sourgens (35). The other props are Pablo Cardinali (Argentina), Kamga Arnauld Tchougong of the Cameroon who played in South Africa before heading for France, and Karena Wihongi, a New Zealander.

Bayonne on the Basque coast have one prop with Test experience – Agustín Lopresti who is 33. It also has Avto Kopaliani, a Georgian, and four Frenchmen, three under 26 and Jean-Marie Usandisaga who is 35.

Castres has two top props – both All Blacks in Kees Meeuws and the mighty Carl Hoeft. They also have Akventsi Giorgadze of Georgia and Danie Saayman of South Africa. Hoeft, Meeuws and Saayman are 33.

Montauban has three international props – Pablo Henn and Pablo Lemoine, both of Uruguay, and Bogdan Balan of Romania. The most promising of the Frenchmen is Laurent Delboubes.

Montpellier’s international prop is Philimon Toleafoa, a Samoan. Danie Thiart of South Africa is one of several South Africans at Montpellier/

Perpignan is the sort of place where you would expect tough props and indeed they have four Test props, one a Frenchman – Nicolas Mas – a current French prop, actually born in Perpignan. The other three are Sebastian Bozzi (Argentina), Perry Freshwater, a New Zealander who has played for England and now captains the Catalans at the age of 34, and Kisi Pulu, a Tongan. That leaves two Frenchmen – Jérôme Schuster, Catalan born, and Sébastien Chobet who is 27 but played for France Under-21.

Brive has two international props – Davit Khinchagishvili and Petrisor Toderasc, a Georgian and a Romanian.

Dax and Albi each have an international prop – Kas Lealamanua and Ronny Uipa Sua, both Samoans but Dax also has a brand new French prop – 26-year-old Vincent Brugnaut.

Auch – alleluia – has a brand new French prop – Fabien Barcella, due to make his debut against Italy.

A summary international props in France’s Top 14 would look like this:

France: Jean Baptiste Poux, David Attoub, Sylvain Marconnet, Franck Montanella, Pieter de Villiers, Denis Avril, Olivier Milloud , Olivier Sourgens, Nicolas Mas, Vincent Brugnaut, Fabien Barcella

Argentina: Omar Hasan, Martín Scelzo, Rodrigo Roncero, Pablo Cardinali, Agustín Lopresti, Sebastian Bozzi

England: Perry Freshwater

Georgia: Goderzi Shvelidze, Davit Zirakashvili, George Jgenti, Avto Kopaliani, Akventsi Giorgadze, Davit Khinchagishvili

Italy: Salvatore Perugini

New Zealand: Kees Meeuws, Carl Hoeft

Romania: Petru Balan, Bogdan Balan, Petrisor Toderasc

Samoa: Philimon Toleafoa, Kas Lealamanua, Ronny Uipa Sua

South Africa: Daan Human, John Smit

Tonga: Kisi Pulu, Mosese Moala

Uruguay:  Pablo Henn, Pablo Lemoine

Props:

France: 11
Foreign Legion: 28