Abendanon: French rugby is far more fun

FORMER England full-back Nick Abendanon says that the Premiership is not entertaining enough to compete with the French club game and worries about the future of English rugby

- NICK POWELL

Abendanon, 36, recently called time on his career after a three-year spell with RC Vannes, where he’s been playing in the second tier of French rugby.

The twice-capped England international played for Bath from 2005 to 2014 before a six-year spell with Clermont Auvergne, where he was named European Player of the Year in 2015.

Abendanon is planning to spend the next few years coaching in France, where he has had enormous success, and has major concerns for rugby in England.

“From the outside looking in, I’m extremely worried about the state of affairs of English rugby at the moment,” he said. “There’s a lot of negative press not just around the clubs but the game itself.

“There’s a lot of focus at the moment with regards to head-knocks and injuries and as a result participating numbers have completely dropped down, and now seeing three massive clubs go bust will send a shockwave through all the other clubs, who will wonder how they’re not going to find themselves in the same situation.

“Players have such short careers and they want to try and maximise their earnings as quickly as possible and as much as they can, but some of the contracts the players are getting are not sustainable for the clubs.”

Abendanon feels that in the professional era England has lost the community aspect around its biggest rugby clubs, which has led to such divergent fortunes between the top two tiers in England and France.