Chabal slams French Top14 fixture organisers

France and Racing Metro star number 8 Sebastien Chabal has slammed France’s Top 14 league and the television requirements which have created a punishing fixture list that sees French clubs starting a series of three league games in the space of nine days.

The third round of the Top 14 starts on Friday while the fourth round starts on Wednesday and the fifth on Sunday September 5.

“I find this stupid,” Chabal told AFP.

“It would be better to play matches when the internationals are on. In England, they do that a lot and it doesn’t detract from the standard of the championship.

“Television and the league (NLP) don’t consider the health of the players when they draw up the fixture list. They don’t give a toss for the health of the players.”

Chabal also hit out at the poor preparation time given to the French national side.

“To maintain some consistency, you must train regularly together, something that all the top international sides do,” he said.

“We must be the only country in the top five who prepare each season the way we do, that is five days or a week before each match and the rest of the time we don’t see each other.

“We have some big questions to ask. The rugby federation, the NLR, television, they all want their share of the cake but it isn’t big enough for everybody.

“Unfortunately it is the players and the staff of the French team that pay the price. It really isn’t easy for them.”