Gambling on a Racing certainty

France rugby’s version of Manchester City have huge ambitions for the future, have dropped the good-time image and they also play in sky blue. Robert Kitson reports

IT has, by Parisian standards, been a quiet revolution. Nothing too flashy or triumphalist, no provocative celebrations. Even so, in years to come, rugby historians will regard the past seven days as hugely significant in terms of the European club game.

A sky-blue power is starting to emerge within French rugby and the implications on both sides of the Channel threaten to be seismic and long-lasting.