Stade Francais beat FC Lezignan in hybrid

On a side note Dave - I recall reading (I'm sure it was in The Windfield Book Of Sporting Records) about 30 years ago of the American NFL University Champions who visited Australia. From memory they played the Newtown Jets in a game of American Football somewhere in Sydney to publicise their game. Apparently the Jets whipped them by about 90 points, by throwing series of short forward passes (sounds like Melbourne Storm tactics ! ). The NFL players were apparently in awe of the toughness and skill levels of RL players. They initially thought they were stupid for their failure to wear helmets and protective padding.

One administration was not my intention - a sharing of administration costs was. There are multiples in each code, that can be combined in shared facilities to lower costs - whether that means using segregated office space in larger premises whilst sharing boardrooms, utilising skilled staff in similar roles, negotiating better deals with networks, sharing physios and medics etc. United, they could begin purchasing grounds for their exclusive use, and maybe even rent these grounds during summer months for increased profits from staged productions, concerts and other events that pull large crowds.

Kovana As Gus Gould would say no,no,no,no,no!.One administration would screw the life our of the smaller code.

Agreed... If both codes were under one Adminstrator, Rugby (Union and League) overall would be much stronger..

No.. So that the othe Lezignan players can also play a bit of Union as well. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

Their players would have heart attacks if they have to play for 80 mins

good to see stade francais win the game played under rugby league rules. money or not they did it in style. you wont expect nfl teams with all that cash to beat lezignan in league or randwick in rugby union.

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.

Great to see the best two codes of team spectator sport coming together for the fans. Now I'd love to see them share some expenses, like grounds, medical staff, advertising, administration etc. Sharing of costs would see both codes flourish - and the round ball game knocked bag a peg or two.

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.

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.

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.

Increased work load where the forwards get subbed off for a rest? It was a trial and training drill for Stade Francais (which is why they wore tackle shield suits) and they are rebuilding after two bad seasons. All of the try scorers bar Paul Warwick are unknowns.

A bit of both...french culture mon ami !

I watched a bit of this game, why did sf keep changing their entire team every 10 minutes? I would have thought they would have kept the players out there for longer to see how they perform under the increased workload that occurs in rugby league. Not a bad game in the end, stade f had a few players who could hit well surprisingly. They did very well to beat a rugby league team at their own game, although I would hate to see what an Nrl team would do to them. Still, there are a few players who looked like they would be solid if they ever switched codes!

Copinage - pourquoi? l'argent, puissance?

and why? just to prove that stade français players are better than lezignan players? who cares we already know it.

They should also now hold a match under RU rules.

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.

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.