Altard Wins Battle Of The French Millionaires

Altard Wins Battle Of The French Millionaires

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One is a Syrian with a fortune of £2 billion, the other a Swiss with only £500m. Together, they have been dominating French rugby this season. There would not have been much warmth in any handshake exchanged yesterday between Mohed Altrad, president of Montpellier, and his less rich Racing counterpart Jackie Lorenzetti.

They have a somewhat hostile relationship due in no small part to Lorenzetti’s claim that his rival is wrecking the market with his wealth.

But there were no arguments about table-toppers Montpellier’s runaway 41-3 victory that drove them eight points clear of their second-placed rivals.

The only controversy concerned extraordinary scenes when two Montpellier players slung punches at each other in the warm up and had to be separated by team-mates and coach Nathan Hines.

One of them, Algerian-born prop Mohamed Haouas was not even on the team-sheet. No doubt something was said between him and South African hooker Bismarck Du Plessis.

Racing, who beat Montpellier 26-0 earlier this season, were humiliated in their turn. Deservedly so with indiscipline and inept handling keeping them firmly in their place.

Neither Lorenzetti nor Altrad knew the first thing about rugby when the former took Racing over as a Division Two club 12 years ago and, five years later, the latter bought Montpellier, who had finished only 10th in the Top 14.