French rugby is paying the price for its "ridiculous" domestic club competition, says former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry.
Henry pinpointed the French Top 14 competition, which attracts some of the globe's best players and is seen by many as rugby's equivalent of football's English Premier League, as one of the contributing reasons to France's poor World Cup campaign which was ruthlessly ended by the All Blacks in this morning's quarter-final match in Cardiff.
And the 2011 World Cup-winning coach made it clear he was disappointed more top All Blacks are heading to French club rugby, including three of this morning's heroes in Dan Carter, Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
"The French competition in France (is) poor. Best paid professional competition in the world but can't produce rugby players because they're badly coached and they're overpaid," Henry told Newstalk ZB sports host Tony Veitch.