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Joined October 2014
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Surprised Luke John is not part of this team given that he lives there (Bordeaux) and has been UBB best lock and signing this season.
Old heads and young guns in Wallabies squad to face French Barbarians
78. Pascal Pape (FRA) – Lock
sorry but no. yes he has many caps, plenty of experience, some leadership and scored a few tries but his handling skills are so poor that I am ashamed when I compare him with the average SXV lock. In short he’s an old school enforcer , adds plenty of grunt in the boiler room and the rucks but little else. A poor man Martin Johnson.
impressive job otherwise.
Rugby's Top 100: 80-71
Gaetan Germain, current top 14 best kicker didnt miss a single penalty since he joined brive 2 seasons ago (145/145) and missed 3 conversions (49/52). he’s a late comer to rugby having played only soccer till 17. his technique is clearly one of a centre back kicking the ball.
If kicking wins World Cups, the Wallabies are in serious trouble
in the NH and particularly in the T14, more focus is put on stamina rather than pace compared to SH. the main reason and obvious one is because of the number of games played when you add up T14, european championship and test matches (for whoever is concerned). that’s why the FFR came up with the rule of max 35 games per season for an extended list of french international. I wonder how many games (ie more than 60 minutes on the pitch), the NZ and OZ internationals play in any given year?
this leads to 2 things :
– the value of foreigners that have retired from test rugby : they bring know how, obvious skills and even they play only 15 games a season they deliver in the big events. this is in essence the Toulon model which works well provided you have the right folks (players with ethos and coaches with attitude) so not so easy to reproduce (as jake White will find out soon). Also when it comes to forwards , SHs players are more skilled and know how to link with the backs (which is something that is not teached here to kids a s it remains essentially 2 different games).
– slower pace and more stamina (added to some bad weather half of the season, the fear to lose : fight for play offs berths and relegation which means that pretty much all teams are concerned ) also inevatibly ends up with some forward orientated games , scrum heavens, rucks nightmares and grudge fests… things are changing and powers that be have recognised that and slowly but surely the entertainment value is improving. A few teams are also capable of playing running rugby at times (Bordeaux-begles, Clermont, Stade Français, Toulouse recently) but it’s not easiest recipe to win (or stay) the T14 by far. the fact that a team like oyonnax is in the play offs after pretty much playing 10 men rugby all season is a testament to that.
As for george Smth…please, if he looks good and has decent stats it’s because he plays amongst a bunch of no hopers.
is T14 better than S15? probably not in terms of entertainment value. I do watch a bit of S15 on time of time but quickly lose interest as it just doesnt appeal to me (I only know half of the players) and seems a bit flat in terms of passion. I appreciate it is the other way around for SHers for the same reasons !
Selectors take note! The Top 14 is top quality
“France put 14 defenders in their front-line defensive wall. This meant that it was virtually impossible for the Wallabies to outflank the defence.”
yes France did what they do best i.e. defend with plenty of agression. something like 162 tackles made with a 92% success rate. That is their only tactic and having watched the game in the stadium witnessing the french defensive line moving fast it was obvious what the Australian 10 should have done sometimes…and yes that involves kicking (territory, up/unders , anything specially as french winger are not great under the high ball). the difference between the “melbourne test’ france and this one was the commitment and fitness of the players. that defense doesnt get much credit but that’s the main reason why Australian players made so many handling errors (such as the knock on 5 mins before the end) , they could not deal with the pressure. Unfortunately for France they could not keep that rythm for the whole game and every time it went down (ie the last 10 minutes of both halves) Australia looked better.
As for the refereing, I thought it wasnt great but balanced overall and I witnessed many offside positions from both teams. obviously one was defending more than the other and France got penalised more as a result hence gifting Australia cheap points.
SPIRO: Wallabies beaten in Paris by splendid French 'esprit'
Last time they did that (2010) they got a penalty try but shipped 59 points in the process!
France name squad for Wallabies clash
Well Picamoles is not in the squad and just played a couple of games for Toulouse after a long break due to a virus. They have this young Bayonne bloke Ollivon who can play 8 but have to say didnt see much of him. Have to agree France organisation wasnt optimal during the 1st half though and the forwards were a bit disapointing. Games like these are good for confindence though but I fear there isnt enough in this team to step up against Australia yet.
France name squad for Wallabies clash
I am not sure PSA would go for a player like harinordoquy. He tends to prefer big bulky players nowadays. It’s shame because on top of his versatility and skills he’s a very mobile backrower that contributes to the game in attack. Guys like Dusautoir and LeRoux are tackling / breakdown machines and when whoever plays 8 doesn’t carry much (like Chouly on saturday night who had a poor game) the whole team struggle to go forward. The days of Harinordoquy playing alongside Bonnaire are missed around here…
The Fidji game had a few positives though with at least 2 bets that paid off namely giving caps to rookies such as 2nd five-eight Dumoulin and winger Thomas. Spedding (a south african that moved here at 21) was my man of the match at fullback. PSA tried his 13th different half back combo in 3 years, says a lot about the coach…
France name squad for Wallabies clash
Hello mr prawn
I assume you meant Stade Français vs Bayonne (the other one is in february) in which case it might be worth going as Stade tends to play a rather nice brand of rugby at home and their stadium has been refurbished and is well located (as opposed to racing who tends to play 10 men rugby in a dump).
A foreign coach? Time for a French (rugby) Revolution
Hello, first time poster here.
Cant agree more with this excellent article but as LDU wrote, something must be done at FFR level. This is the only french sport federation ran by amateurs who have no vision and are only interested in the “banquets” (post lr pre game diners with plenty of booze). If those guys are still in charge in 10 years time, rugby will start to lose ground to sports such as basketball, volleyball and handball who are run properly and also are successful on the world stage. Rugby is quite popular in most parts of france as seen as a “positive values” sport but they fail to build on that as well and are not really growing the game at grassroot level.
The FFR is also responsible of the poor skills that young french players have, the way they teach kids over here hasnt really changed in the last 20 years. Why dont they save the price of a few Margaux bottles and send someone to NZ to see how they manage age group rugby? Too much lazyness and complacency from a bunch of old men not in touch with reality. You need to get rid of them first because they wont allow a foreign coach to expose their failures. The way they managed PSA is a joke, they couldnt really fire him so he’s now being “chaperoned” by blanco and another selection comittee of 5 guys who oversee 74 players… Seriously you imagine Jake White, Nick Mallet or Gatland putting up with that kind of nonsense?
A foreign coach? Time for a French (rugby) Revolution
Both playing in France.
Luke john is even a local given he plays for UBB so surprised he is not in this team (very good lock and best signing of the season as well). AAC was asked to play but prefered to get a few days off instead.
Old heads and young guns in Wallabies squad to face French Barbarians