Rugby union 2018/19

[Patito]

Perhaps we don't need your money after all ?

Fine by us

[Puff Daddy]

I was actually quite shocked to discover there are 5m inhabitants in New Zealand :shock: and there was me always having believed the old fable that country has more sheep than people, but hey ho, there you go. Clearly, that is no longer the case

[Patito]

There's around 30 million sheep in New Zealand, Puff.

[The Old Man of Storr]

[Toulouse_Iron]

What has happened to French rugby?. Whatever you think of them they always used to have such a good team and were terrific to watch, but it appears to me, they haven't been a good team now for about 10 years ? Can any of the rugby aficionados enlighten me ?

France have issues that may seem familiar to England football fans:
The world's richest league, attracting (many of) the world's best players means that the French youngsters have a hard time breaking through at club level.
Toulon came to the fore recently with virtually no French players in their A team and Montpellier is currently home to numerous Saffers.
Just about every club is guilty of this and it is hard for the youngsters : their U20s won the orld cup last year nad every age group is up there but the success peters out when they go senior.
Politics is rotting French rugby from within. Bernard Laporte, the president of the French Rugby Federation is a dick and there is a continual power struggle between the clubs and the Federation about key players.
For the first time in history, France sacked the national team coach, Guy Novès, in 2017 after a shaky start. Novès was long overdue the job and, with 10 French and 4 European titles between 1993 and 2015, his CV is impressive.
After a string of bad results the newly appointed Laporte sacked him: he was not "His" man, and the two were not exactly close. novès is taking the Federation to the industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal (the hearing is today!) and is asking for 3 million € in damages.
The Politics, the relationships between the clubs, the league and the federation are strained at best, toxic at worst and is bound to affect the national team.
Brunel's rugby has never been scintillating and his selection policy seems almost random with no identity, no plan for the future and no team spirit. I reckon htey should get Vern Cotter in and give him a fair crack of the whip.
Until then, they'll have to make do with the odd scalp of a southern hemisphere team and keep making it up as they go along.

[Puff Daddy]

My thanks to 'Toulouse Iron' for a beautifully written and fascinatingly detailed account into the state of French rugby. To an outside observer looking in, clearly there are so many outside influences affecting rugby in France and not surprisingly, it is politics rearing it's ugly head again that is at the forefront of it all

[Clacton-ammer]

I don't know if what you wrote is right or not Toulouse, but cracking read/info, thank you

[DasNutNock]

Julian Savea's just been sacked by Toulon. French rugby is very odd.

[Patito]

Julian Savea's just been sacked by Toulon. French rugby is very odd.

Toulon owner seems like a bit of a d*ck. They've got a ridiculously talented set of backs from all over the globe but you can't just throw them all together and expect it to click seamlessly.

[Puff Daddy]

I didn't see that coming, I really didn't. Thought we were gonna beat Wales this afternoon, I just couldn't see it going any other way. Once again, we f*** up another golden opportunity to do the slam

[simon hammer]

I had a feeling that we would struggle today, and I said at half time we were going to lose. Shame we didn't turn up for the second half, but credit to Wales for the win...definitely the better team for 60 minutes and deserved the win.

[dave_l]

Just didn’t play in the second half. Kept hoofing the ball away to a decent set of backs that could run it back. Fair play to Wales they deserved the win.

Special shout out for Alun Wyn Jones, whining to the ref that Sinckler had his arm round him in a maul and for the middle aged bloke in the crowd with a jumper saying “I don’t care as long as we beat the English”. Have a word with yourself mate.

[DasNutNock]

They deserved that, fair play. Still c***s, obviously.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

I'm trying to figure out why England persisted with up-and-unders even when Wales had them sussed.

It was a bit like watching West Ham; we have our tactic, the opposition change theirs to counter it and we carry on regardless.

[jacko]

What a frustrating game of rugby. England's kicking was poor all game yet we still had the better of the first half. When you have such strong ball carriers like we do then you really need use them a bit more. I didn't even think Wales were that good. Again, we gave away too many penalties. We can play a lot better than that. We obviously missed two of our best players but we need to be a bit more clinical. There was no plan B today.

[jacko]

I'm trying to figure out why England persisted with up-and-unders even when Wales had them sussed.

It was a bit like watching West Ham; we have our tactic, the opposition change theirs to counter it and we carry on regardless.

They did find Liam Williams far too often but the kicks were actually very poor today. Didn't put them under enough pressure.

[jacko]

definitely the better team for 60 minutes and deserved the win.

Were they though? I thought we had the better second half but let the game drift for a bit. I thought our second half was very poor but I don't think Wales played particularly well either.

[Slacking student]

They deserved that, fair play. Still c***s, obviously.

I am gutted

[simon hammer]

Were they though? I thought we had the better second half but let the game drift for a bit. I thought our second half was very poor but I don't think Wales played particularly well either.

Wales didn't play particularly well, I agree, but they were better than us. Both teams were poor, turns out we were poorer than them.

It won't be considered a huge endorsement of the game of rugby though, that's for sure!

[jacko]

I agree. I think Wales had the rub of the green for the most part. We really weren't clinical at all and we had been in the first two games. I feel totally deflated by that performance. It wasn't like they weren't up for it but it just felt strange. We definitely ran out of steam at the end and Wales managed the last 10 minutes very well without us threatening at all.