While France’s XV start their autumn tour this weekend (Saturday evening, against Australia at 9pm), many other countries play, including the Scotland-Fiji matches (to follow on L’Équipe channel at 2pm), Wales – New Zealand or Ireland – South Africa this Saturday, especially , not all championships have stopped.
The Top 14 certainly offers one of its traditional duplicates, which is no problem for some of its clubs who are major suppliers of internationals. A chance to answer a few questions: Which French teams lose the most? Where do the players in the best countries come from? Or what are the most attractive championships?
Among the Blues, Stade Toulouse is unsurprisingly over-represented: Fabian Galthy has called up eleven players from Toulouse for the first meeting against Australia.
Quite logically, Toulouse is also the biggest supplier of internationals this autumn, among the teams in the Top 14 by all countries combined. It’s almost an XV that sends the Reds and Blacks to choose from in international windows. LOU and La Rochelle come first. In addition to the 11 Frenchmen called up for the Blues, Stade Toulouse saw Ange Kapuso (Italy) and Juan Cruz Mallia (Argentina).
The three teams without French internationals (Bayonne, Perpignan and Brive), on the other hand, have seen many of their players join overseas selections, proof that all the top 14 clubs are attracting internationals.
Ireland, with its organization in the provinces, sees all its internationals grouped into its four teams (Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht). Leinster, last year’s European Cup finalists, have fielded the most players through Tests.
Among the major championships, the United Rugby Championship lost the most players selected for the November Tests. The sixteen Irish, Welsh, Italian, Scottish and New Zealand provinces that make up this Championship field their average of 11 players.
Several European countries (France, Ireland, England), New Zealand and Japan are the only players who play for a local club. The Welsh and Scots, despite their ties to national provinces, sometimes favor English clubs to afford better exposure to major European competitions.
Argentinians and South Africans at the bottom of the rankings are more likely to leave their country with the hope of evolving into bigger stables.
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