Is it time to take aim at one of rugby’s sacred cows and ask whether it is worth introducing segregation into the Aviva Premiership?

I was asked that very question on Sunday night by Nick Mullins, the velvet voice of rugby, after Clermont Auvergne’s 29-9 victory over Toulon at a raucous, bouncing Stade Marcel Michelin. Instinctively, I disagreed. One of the fundamental tenets of watching rugby is being able to sit next and share a beer with an opposition supporter.

Yet it is hard to deny that English club rugby lags a long way behind the French in terms of atmosphere. Attending a match at the Stade Marcel-Michelin should be on the bucket list for every rugby supporter. The noise, the colour, the passion is just off the scale. It is like what you imagine a South American football game to be like. There was no need for flamethrowers, deafening music or an over enthusiastic stadium announcer. The whole game was electrified by the crowd rather than the other way around.

Away supporters do travel in English rugby but very often they are dispersed throughout the home fans so it is very hard for them to add that noise and colour. If you could reserve part of one stand just for away supporters I agree with Mullins that would add so much more to the spectacle of the game.