Toulon boss Bernard Laporte has called for a reorganisation of the global rugby calendar with his team's start to the season hamstrung by not having their international contingent available.
Toulon are set to be without 17 of their top players for the start of the Top 14 season due to the Rugby World Cup. They have acted to bolster their squad bringing in the likes of Sireli Bobo and Lachie Turner but Laporte is disgruntled with the timing of the World Cup in relation to the start of their domestic campaign.
Laporte is about to embark on his final season with Toulon and is then set to turn his sights to securing the presidency of the French Rugby Federation where he hopes to push forward with reform.
"We're missing 17 players who are training for the World Cup, which is a lot," Laporte told Rugbyrama. "[The calendar] is not logical or normal. Only in rugby do you get this. The championship timing doesn't scare me, but I find it ridiculous.
"I spoke to [France football coach] Didier Deschamps the last few days, he said, rightly, that we are not normal. That's why I have a real desire to change all this. This is unacceptable in a professional world.
"There are people who don't pass reforms that should have happened today. How do you play your third championship without your best players?"