World Cup 2014: English football, like French rugby, suffers from the success ...

Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling in England colours. (Photo: EPA)

England fail to clear even the first hurdle in Brazil. France lose three Rugby Union tests in Australia. What’s the connection?

Writing in this paper the other day, Jonathan Liew argued that our infatuation with market capitalism was the reason for England’s repeated failure in international football. It’s now the same with French rugby.

Any weekend you might find it hard to cobble together an England XI from the teams sent out on the field by Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. French rugby is in the same boat. The Top 14 is a tremendous competition just as the Premier League is. But neither serves the national team well.

Toulon are French champions and Heineken Cup winners. Great for the club and its supporters. But they rarely field more than two or three French-qualified players. Their stars are Englishmen, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans. Clermont Auvergne, my favourite French club, retain a very strong local identity, but, though they have some outstanding French players – Aurelien Rougerie, Wesley Fofana, Morgan Parra and Julien Bonnaire -more than half their starting XV will usually be ineligible to play for France.

There are two consequences. First, as Jonathan Liew observed, promising young players are denied opportunities and so their development is retarded. Their careers stall and often wither without ever coming into bloom. Second, and equally important, English footballers and French rugby players in their country’s strongest clubs both come to rely on imported and expensive foreign stars when the going gets tough. If Liverpool are in difficulties, give the ball to Luis Suarez. If there is a perceived weakness in defence, look abroad for a ready-made answer. At Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson was more willing to bring on young English players than most of his rivals. Nevertheless the many titles his teams won owed much to a succession of imported strikers: Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin van Persie. It’s 20 years since the home-grown crop of Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, the Neville brothers and Paul Scholes emerged from United’s youth programme and there has been nothing like it since.

In both the Premier League and the Top 14 clubs try to buy success – and often manage to do so. They flourish and grow rich while the national team declines.

• Get the latest comment and analysis from the Telegraph

• Read more from our news and politics bloggers

Follow @TelegraphBlogs

 

World Cup 2014: English football, like French rugby, suffers from the success ...