Drive through the Languedoc in autumn and you’ll pass through towns where the rugby club is the social centre, the Saturday afternoon fixture is the anchor of the week, and the local president is treated like minor royalty.
South West France is where club rugby in Europe was born. The Top 14’s great clubs — Toulouse, Perpignan, Castres, Agen — grew from this soil, from this culture, from this particular French understanding of what rugby means.