I've played in the Premiership and Top14 - and here's why I think England has the better league, writes DAN BIGGAR

A week last Sunday, I sat down on the French Riviera with my Toulon team-mate Ben White, the Scotland scrum-half, and watched Bath against Gloucester in the Gallagher Premiership.

The night before, Toulon had beaten Perpignan at home in the Top14. The contrast between those two matches really got me thinking about how good the quality of English club rugby is right now. I don’t think the Premiership gets the credit it deserves. It’s just fantastic.

The Bath-Gloucester game summed it up for me, especially in the first half where both teams scored four tries. The entertainment for supporters watching on was first class. Ben and I certainly enjoyed it by the pool! Jokes aside, there is a serious point here.

I think too often in rugby we talk down our core product when we should be celebrating it and I think that’s certainly the case with the Premiership right now.

The first weekend of the league’s return post-Six Nations was exceptional, with 280 points and 39 tries scored across the five matches.

Bristol probably sum the league up best, with their mad-cap attacking approach that has put them in a good position to reach the play-offs. Bath against Gloucester was a clash of styles, but hugely intriguing. There were some brilliant tries. Bristol, Gloucester, Northampton and Harlequins are all great to watch.

I had four amazing years with Northampton in the Premiership and have been with Toulon in France since 2022, so I’d like to think that puts me in a good position to compare and contrast. Everyone seems to think the Top14 is miles ahead of the Premiership.

But, from my experience of playing in both countries, I don’t think that’s totally the case. For me, English club rugby is ahead in terms of the excellence of the rugby produced.

Don’t get me wrong, the Top14 is far bigger in terms of financial revenue. There are huge crowds at every match and massive television audiences. The league’s broadcast package is enormous as a result.

French club rugby is almost like football’s Premier League in England it is that big. But, if you put aside the glitz and the glamour, my view is the rugby is better in the Premiership.

Clearly, in France there are superstar players like Antoine Dupont and Damian Penaud, among many others, who are capable of producing moments of individual brilliance. They make for outrageous highlights reels.

But week-to-week, match-to-match and outside the big games, on the whole, French club rugby is slow and based on forward power. It can be quite tedious to watch and play in. Because there are such huge crowds and viewing figures, that tends to get discounted. The Premiership is different and that’s great.

Some people will read this and say what about Toulouse? They’re an unbelievable team who play brilliant attacking rugby. But for me, you almost have to discount them – as well as Bordeaux – they’re that good! I stand by the fact that overall, the Premiership is a better watch.

There’s nothing wrong with having different styles of rugby in different countries – that’s what makes the game so great. And neither competition is perfect.

For me, the Premiership is excellent but is crying out for two more teams and two good ones at that. It’s incredibly competitive, but Newcastle have obviously been struggling at the bottom for a while now and for whatever reason, Exeter aren’t the team they were.

It's difficult to criticise Exeter because for a long time they set the league’s standards, but they’re not the team they were. I’d love to see two more strong teams add to the pot.

The Premiership is significantly behind France financially and that has an impact in terms of the number of top stars in England.

It will always be the case that the best players go where the best money is on offer. For example, we’ve seen Handre Pollard confirm he’s leaving Leicester at the end of this season.

But what’s interesting to me is that losing big-name players hasn’t detracted from the quality of rugby in the Premiership. I’ve also read with interest some commentary that the end-to-end, high-scoring matches in the Premiership aren’t preparing England’s players well enough for Test rugby.

I’m not sure I buy that totally. Of course, there is a big difference between club and international rugby. You can’t play the way Bristol do at Test level, for example. The reason for that is because the margins are so much tighter.

The more high-risk your approach is, the more errors you’re likely to make. Internationally, every mistake is punished whereas that’s not the case with your club.

That said, I don’t see why the Premiership is holding England back. For example, Northampton won last season’s title and play some brilliant rugby.

The core of their back-line now forms the heart of Steve Borthwick’s England side. That’s no coincidence. The Premiership has shown me there are brilliant, young attacking players in English rugby, so why not play to your strengths?

That doesn’t mean England have to play Bristol-style basketball rugby. But what they can do is combine the talent they have with the tactics required in Test rugby to achieve success. I thought we saw that in the Six Nations.

It's set-up for a thrilling finale to the Premiership season and there are five English teams in the last-16 of the Champions Cup this weekend too. A Premiership side hasn’t won Europe since Exeter in 2020, but it’s not like they’ve been totally blown away in the competition – even if French power has won the day over English panache in recent years.

Last season, both Harlequins and Northampton made the semi-finals. Ultimately, the last few years have seen English teams fall short in Europe to Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle – teams which all have far bigger budgets and therefore bigger squads.

Also, Leinster and Toulouse are essentially Ireland and France, so losing to them is no disgrace!

Toulouse and Bordeaux will still be favourites for this year’s title and it is disappointing Saracens won’t have the likes of Maro Itoje when they play in Toulon this weekend.

But whatever happens, I don’t think English club rugby is as far behind the game in France as many believe, certainly when it comes to on the field.