France V England - Avignon, Oct 22

[East Coast Tiger]

And another SL team. Like, five years ago.

 

[Foreign Legion]

France should try and secure a beer sponsor for away games like 1664 Kroonenburg...

 

[roughyedspud]

Just watching the game now on replay,20mins in france have just score...and the best thing is the england wingers & centre have recieved the ball more times in 20mins than they did in the whole kiwi series last year..

Which bodes well

 

[axe&smash&crush]

Attendance of 14,276 here in Avignon

That's cool.

It's pleasing to see.

 

[axe&smash&crush]

I thought the match was competitive up until a couple of decisions went against France just before half time.

Lessons for France from this game in order to move forward


1. They need to add more size and physicality to their pack, Antoni Maria was a big loss for them

2. They especially need a bit of size and presence in the second row, Perhaps Louis Anderson? Time to blood Dezaria or Michaleyk?

3. If they're gonna compete with the top three they can't keep on selecting playes from the Elite, the gap is just too big

4. Defence was much improved but they need to tighten up out wide

5. They need to really hope that Yaha is available and they can draw on better wingers, coz Arnaud isn't ready for that level. Perhaps Cardace can get another chance? admittedly his defence is rubbish

6. The coaching team needs to make amends with Fages, he is their future and can guide France around the park and give them the control and direction they need

7. Time to start blooding Lucas Albert, an Albert/Fages combo is gonna be a great combo

8. Most of all France need more games like this every year to continue improving

Love your passion. I'd love that second French super league team and France to continue to become more competitive

 

[roughyedspud]

Having a 2nd french team in ESL would be great...but it doesn't mean it'll stop the french national team being lazy..

 

[deal.with.it]

More fixtures and more national team camps.

Admittedly the new board is trying to implement this.

 

[Pommy]

i think its time for a annual 3 match test series every year with France and England

It's going to be hard with more and more English first teamers playing down under. Would cause a lot of upset if every autumn players got booted out of the side to make way for NRL players.

 

[Pommy]

And another SL team. Like, five years ago.

That's coming Toulouse were promoted this season so with any luck they will be in the SL ain a couple of years. Hopefully along with Toronto.

 

[RedVee]

How do you think this French performance would stack up against Scotland? ie would thus French team have made a decent team 4 in the 4 Nations?

 

[axe&smash&crush]

That's coming Toulouse were promoted this season so with any luck they will be in the SL ain a couple of years. Hopefully along with Toronto.

Great

Hopefully two French teams playing each other a couple of times a year would be a special occasion, driving both clubs to be better at what they do.

 

[Storm13]

How do you think this French performance would stack up against Scotland? ie would thus French team have made a decent team 4 in the 4 Nations?

Scotland has both a better backline and halves pairing this 4nations.

Just good to see this new attitude that they seem to have. Shame they're not playing more games to lead into next seasons WC.

 

[astreizix]

 

[marv]

Having a 2nd french team in ESL would be great...but it doesn't mean it'll stop the french national team being lazy..

or that the owner of that second french club wont stack the team with Aussies and Englishmen like the first has been at various points in its history

 

[deluded pom?]

I thought the match was competitive up until a couple of decisions went against France just before half time.

One I found strange was when the French player accidentally caught an English player with his knee. Bingham gave a penalty when for me it was a PTB after the injured player received treatment. England scored from the resulting position they gained from the penalty.

 

[Storm13]

A French poster on another site has said a peak audience of 396000 watched the match in France. Quite impressive numbers if true.

 

[siv]

A French poster on another site has said a peak audience of 396000 watched the match in France. Quite impressive numbers if true.

France has the appetite

Just need to get the results on the field

Shows the potential of international RL

 

[Stallion]

A French poster on another site has said a peak audience of 396000 watched the match in France. Quite impressive numbers if true.

Great observation.

Interestingly, the recent Kangaroos V NZ test in Perth had the highest TV ratings in Australia on the weekend. It was played with one major metropolitan city, Adelaide , not receiving the coverage. No Pay TV coverage was arranged either.

This is compared favourably to the rugby union test on the following weekend which had a combined TV audience of free to air & Pay TV of just over half of what the Kangaroos test achieved. Given that all cities were given access to view the rugby union test this shows international rugby league to be quite a popular product.

 

[roughyedspud]

Apparently some 300,000+ watch on the Red button on the bbc,thats 700,000+ viewers between the uk & france..

 

[jim_57]

Apparently some 300,000+ watch on the Red button on the bbc,thats 700,000+ viewers between the uk & france..

To me that just shows no matter how competitive the games may be there is definitely enough interest in regular France V England games. 2 a year from now on please.