Stade Francais beat FC Lezignan in hybrid
Roar Pro By Matt_S, 29 Jul 2011 Matt_S is a Roar Pro
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On a balmy Wednesday afternoon, among the vineyards of the Corbieres commune in the Aude Valley, a most unlikely cross-code challenge occured in Rugby, a ‘Treize heartland.
The town of Lezignan welcomed union giants Stade Francais in a pre-season training initiative with FC Lezignan, current holders of the Elite Rugby League Championship.
Aurelien Cologni’s FC Lezignan had the advantage, with the game being played according to 13 man rules but somewhat modified for their union guests with the game played over three 20 minute sessions and with a five metre advantage rule.
Nearly 5,000 spectators packed the ancient but atmospheric Stade Du Moulin to see their green and white heroes battle the ‘pink invaders’ from the country’s capital, Paris.
The final score fell in favour of Stade Francais 32-28, but was not surprising given the Stade Francais playing roster is worth close to 20 million euros compared to FC Lezignan’s modest 800 thousand euro squad, which was also packed with the club’s juniors and two retired players.
It was great to see the two codes collaborate the way they did in a country that has not always had the Treizistes and Quinzistes seeing eye to eye.
No doubt Stade Francais and any union supporter who made the journey to Lezignan would have been impressed a crowd half the size of the town turned out to welcome them.
Though used to playing before bigger crowds, they would have been shown a glimpse of old fashioned sport as it was before the big money changed the face of their game in France forever.
This is something rugby league in France has yet to experience, apart from the Catalan Dragons who play in the English Super League.
It will be a challenge for the game to ensure a balance of tradition and involvement of the ‘village’ clubs continue at a high level if and when bigger city investment and clubs ever come along.
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July 29th 2011 @ 2:15am
chris said | July 29th 2011 @ 2:15am | Report comment
God never heard about that one.
July 29th 2011 @ 9:37am
steve said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:37am | Report comment
Did any of Stades first team players play, because i think most of them would have been away with their respective countries world cup training squad, there would have been a couple of aussies playing i think david lyons and morgan turinui that would have been fun to see.
July 29th 2011 @ 10:31am
kovana said | July 29th 2011 @ 10:31am | Report comment
“Stade Francais beat FC Lezignan in hybrid”
I thought it was all RL rules.. with the offside line being 5M instead of 10m.
July 29th 2011 @ 9:49pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:49pm | Report comment
a French RL fan posted this on an RL forum:
“it wasn’t a bad game, stade francais were too quick at the beginning of the match, it was 24 6 after 20 mins to sf, the 5 metre defence helped them and also changing the full team every 10 mins!!
luckily for lezignan they also changed the ref every 20 mins, the 1st ref let everything go, and then the second a little more strict around the ruck allowing lezignan to get up to speed around the play the ball,
the 3rd ref seemed to forget the 5 metre rule and started taking the teams back 10 metres which tired out stade francais and allowed lezignan to room to play,
i was quite impressed by the lezignan junior players(8 in the team)
you could see the difference in the 2 teams in the backs, every time the stade francais backs accelarated they caused alot of damage,
it would have been intersting to see the 2 teams with all their stars but you can’t have everything.
it was funny to see the stade francais in their training body protectors, looked like 13 michelin men on the field!!!
it was good game with a massive crowd, but the silence in the first 20 minutes from the crowd was deafening!!!”
July 29th 2011 @ 9:35pm
Bakkies said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:35pm | Report comment
Paul Warwick who is an Aussie scored two tries for Paris
July 29th 2011 @ 10:58am
Matt S said | July 29th 2011 @ 10:58am | Report comment
Sorry Kovana, that was not my headline I think.
Yes, it was under rugby league rules. I think the Stad Francais squad was not at full strength either but still quite a few million euros worth more than lezignan who were also way under strength.
But that’s not the point. It is great to see both codes collaborate in this pre-season initiative and to see Stad Francais see the worth of training with rugby league to improve their skills, chances, what ever you like to call it.
Rugby league in France is clawing its way back on the French sporting landscape and this is recognition of one of the leading clubs in their domestic rugby league. Lezignan are showing the rest of French league clubs the way forward and was quite a coup in attracting a leading union club.
July 29th 2011 @ 9:52pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:52pm | Report comment
Seems like a glorified training run. Both clubs were without a host of players. Apparently quite a few of the Lezignan players are in Oz right now and they’ve only just started pre-season back in France. Apparently somebody from Lezignan has been brought in as a consultant to SF and since Cheika is from Sydney and would be well aware of RL’s strengths he didn’t object to having this scratch match.
July 29th 2011 @ 3:49pm
m1tch said | July 29th 2011 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
Great this game happened as Matt mentions above, would love to see each NRL club have a junior french player in their squads and develop them for either NRL or SuperLeague/French rugby league
July 29th 2011 @ 10:00pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 10:00pm | Report comment
Have been reading the fans forum for Stade regarding this match. There appears to be a great deal of respect for the abilities of the League players:
http://www.stade.fr/forum/showthread.php?t=41798
July 29th 2011 @ 10:04pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 10:04pm | Report comment
According to that, SF had some big names playing in their team – Dupuy, Arias, Rabadan, ex-wallabies David Lyons, Morgan Turinui as well.
July 29th 2011 @ 3:54pm
Working Class Rugger said | July 29th 2011 @ 3:54pm | Report comment
It was very much a 2nd string Stade as most of their first team ( reserves included) are currently busy preparing for the RWC. Not a bad result considering Stade who finished mid table of the Top 14 this season knocked over the French RL Champions.
July 29th 2011 @ 5:30pm
Matt S said | July 29th 2011 @ 5:30pm | Report comment
Working class rugger, the Stad team did include 3 internationals. Weather they are current or not, not sure. The lezignan team included 9 of their junior players and two retired players. So, champions in name only.
July 29th 2011 @ 9:55pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:55pm | Report comment
I posted some comments from a poster on a RL forum above. Seems everything about the match was a hybrid. I don’t think this is being marketed in the same way the Bath-Wigan matches were back in the mid 90′s.
July 29th 2011 @ 4:03pm
kovana said | July 29th 2011 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
SF have been demoted havent they WCR?
July 29th 2011 @ 5:10pm
Working Class Rugger said | July 29th 2011 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
No, at the last minute an investor came in to save them from relegation to the 3rd Division of French Rugby, Federale 1.
July 29th 2011 @ 6:48pm
klestical said | July 29th 2011 @ 6:48pm | Report comment
actually – it turns out that was a scam and the investors are now being investigated..
July 29th 2011 @ 9:34pm
Bakkies said | July 29th 2011 @ 9:34pm | Report comment
A new investor stepped in and they will be playing Top 14 this coming season. Laporte was cast aside and Guazzini is still involved in some capacity with a smaller share.
July 29th 2011 @ 10:12pm
GrecoRoman said | July 29th 2011 @ 10:12pm | Report comment
Klepstical,
Here is a background article:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFdAfb15oobT1-2mNG4Vgpg632-Q?docId=CNG.3963d77bb5abed477d86934d03b2763e.581
It’s been pretty controversial to say the least. The governing body of the Top 14 comp has been pretty ruthless in the past when it comes to relegating clubs for financial issues. They gave Stade Francais a loooooot of leeway and all sorts of ‘adjournments’ and deadline delays!
The handling of the SF situation is a bit of an issue for some supporters in the ‘heartland’ areas of the game down south. Though, as a UBB supporter, just happy my team is back in the top flight – even if my team is a merged entity now.
I suppose I will get used to it.
July 29th 2011 @ 5:17pm
corey said | July 29th 2011 @ 5:17pm | Report comment
This is great I was in France last week, wish I knew. I saw a par of advertisement for Racing Metro R.C. and I was near.a rugby pitch, I was looking for a rugby a treize club but was without luck. Unfortunately the Crusaders folded this week so the French is ever more important to RL now. I live in Uganda and we only have Union here, and I play and watch, but oh how I miss league. I enjoy Union, but League will always be my woman.
July 30th 2011 @ 6:06am
Adrien2166 said | July 30th 2011 @ 6:06am | Report comment
That was a great idea, too bad i couldnt go because of work…but i’ve heard a lot about the game by friends who attended it and read a lot of papers. Stade Français are obviously a way better team than Lezignan, there is no surprise here. Not only their budget worth around 20times the lezignan one, but union players are better than league players here, that’s all. There is a lot more money invested in young players formation by rugby union than rugby league. However the gap is slowly closing. But i may be a big league fan, having played both game at young age “high” level, it’s obvious that union has the best players. And they know how to turn good player into very good player.
Nevertheless there is one important thing that will eventually make french rugby union weaker, it’s the fact that everything works through cronyism…the real curse of rugby union here.
July 30th 2011 @ 3:30pm
GrecoRoman said | July 30th 2011 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
Copinage – pourquoi? l’argent, puissance?
July 30th 2011 @ 9:42pm
Adrien2166 said | July 30th 2011 @ 9:42pm | Report comment
A bit of both…french culture mon ami !
July 31st 2011 @ 12:55am
GrecoRoman said | July 31st 2011 @ 12:55am | Report comment
I don’t mind. As long as UBB becomes the next Stade Toulousain and French Judo remains strong. Don’t mind the various football codes developing, but not at the expense of the greatest sport of all – the various forms of wrestling.
July 31st 2011 @ 12:58am
GrecoRoman said | July 31st 2011 @ 12:58am | Report comment
Also, isn’t that a cultural thing with Rugby Union due to the sport being stronger in the smaller towns and villages in the South-west? I think being a ‘big fish in a little pond’ is a problem the world over where that parochial ‘small town’ mentality is strong.
July 31st 2011 @ 7:20am
Adrien2166 said | July 31st 2011 @ 7:20am | Report comment
Sure rugby union is very strong in south west, however it depends where. I live in the south west and most of the small town and villages are rugby league dedicated. I don’t think rugby union is a big fish in a little pond, it’s actually a big sport with huge media diffusion, as a result it lost its small town mentality a bit. As for exemple, when you go to aimé giral to watch USAP play, there is all the upper class here and the majority of the fans come from the city of Perpignan. A few hundred meters away if you go to gilbert brutus to watch the Catalans play, you’ll see a lot of people coming from the villages and small towns, and the lower class of Perpignan. However there is one thing which is very noticeable : people are a lot younger at the catalans games, i don’t really know how to interpret this.
July 31st 2011 @ 5:24pm
Bakkies said | July 31st 2011 @ 5:24pm | Report comment
Most of the small south west towns like Dax, Tarbes, Lourdes are either in Pro D2 or in the Federale divisions. Tarbes were very strong a few decades ago. Dax have played touring sides such as the Wallabies. Beziers have only just got back in to Pro D2 but have financial problems they were destroyed by a crook. Biarritz vs Bayonne that’s where real passion lies. Neither are big towns. The atmosphere at the Perpignan vs Toulon game in Barcelona was unreal. It was a majority Perpignan crowd. The hint is in the team name. Perpignan represents Perpignan itself other towns and villages have their own teams. Catalans suggests it’s more of a regional team. Around Toulouse there is Castres, Agen Albi, Montauban, Colomiers. That’s six pro rugby teams in a regional area.
July 30th 2011 @ 10:05am
kovana said | July 30th 2011 @ 10:05am | Report comment
They should also now hold a match under RU rules.
July 30th 2011 @ 10:58am
Adrien2166 said | July 30th 2011 @ 10:58am | Report comment
and why? just to prove that stade français players are better than lezignan players? who cares we already know it.
August 1st 2011 @ 8:43am
Kovana said | August 1st 2011 @ 8:43am | Report comment
No.. So that the othe Lezignan players can also play a bit of Union as well.
Nothing wrong with that IMO.