In French rugby, the only thing bigger than the centres are the cheque books

It’s part of the gig. Meeting agents. There’s been quite a few in the past two weeks and I’m never sure whether I’m energised or anxious at the amount of money sloshing around in rugby.

Obviously, the arrival of Montpellier at the table means a lot of wealthy European clubs are being challenged to dig deeper in their pockets if they want to keep up.

This isn’t a faraway war for the IRFU either. In fairness to them, from what I can gather, they haven’t been behind the door in putting a very attractive offer on the table for Simon Zebo to stick with Munster.