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Catalans Vs St Helens

ParraEelsNRL

Referee
Messages
28,012
Tomorrow night from Perpignan, the way the French have been going lately, I can't see the Catalans winning, I hope I'm wrong, but to me they seem to have had Wembley on their minds for the last 4-5 weeks.

They really need to lift their game, I know they are full of injuries, but come on guys, have a dig.

The CC is nothing compared to winning the SL, yes it's still something special, but it's nothing compared to 28 weeks of football with knockout games added on to win the GF, it's one of the hardest things to do in all sports unless you have a Billionaire running the show who can buy all the best players, thankfully, RL is not like that.

Yes you have made the CC final, yes you have created history, yes you have most RL fans world wide behind you for this special occasion, but the bigger picture is the SL, this is your breed and butter, this is what the fans look at every week, to come last in your first year was expected, but to back it up with a second wooden spoon in a row is devastating, yes you can't get relegated, but their are fans out there from other clubs waiting for you to fail, just so they can say, wheres my SL team, why are these outsiders able to play in the big time even though they are sh*t, and my team who get crowds as big or better, are a heartland English team with 120 years of history be denied the chance to play in the biggest RL comp in Europe?

I'm not trying to be a sour puss, I am only saying what most Les Catalans Dragons fans are thinking, win or lose, you are doing RL proud, but some of the results lately are starting to look pathetic, if you lose but show you had a dig, people will accept it, you do us proud, but when you look like you are not interested, it damages the fans, the game and the club.

Come on, pull one out of the bag and show the RL community you have what it takes to stick it it the best of English RL, what a better way to show all of England and France this weekend, Wembley will not be a walk over.

And the bigger picture, you deserve to be in the European Super League on merritt, rather that location.
 

bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
Haven't looked at the squad selections, but I'd expect both clubs may rest players from this game?

Catalans are probably just out of striking range in reality (although not technically) for a final six spot. And St Helens in contention for both trophies might want to rest a few troops, and won't lose anything by losing this match. In fact, a Catalans win here regardless of the strength of the teams might do wonders in continuing the momentum of interest/enthusiasm on the back of Catalans win over Wigan?
 
Messages
14,139
Catalans squad
K. Bentley, A. Bentley, Chan, Croker, Duport, Ferriol, Gossard, Greenshields, Griffi, Guisset, Jones, Khattabi, Murphy, Mogg, Mounis, Teixido, Quigley, Raguin, Touxagas, Wilson.

St. Helens squad
Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Long, Cunningham, Cayless, Wilkin, Roby, Bennett, Graham, Hargreaves, Moore, Smith, Clough, Fa'asavalu, Eastmond, Flannery, Dean.

Seems pretty full strength to me, assuming the best players from these squads play.
 

Fairleigh Good!

Juniors
Messages
1,185
Final Score 21-0 to Les Catalans Dragons. Sounds like they thoroughly deserved the win, built on the same foundations that destroyed Wigan in the Semi Final.

The pack, particularly Chan, Guisset, Ferriol and Raguin demolished Saints' and left the stage clear for Stacey Jones to perform the finishing move and get the 1-2-3.

Shocking result for Super League, but one which puts the Challenge Cup in a different light now. They have more than a realistic chance of winning.
 

Fairleigh Good!

Juniors
Messages
1,185
miguel de cervantes said:
your reasoning???

Sorry, not worded very well at all. I wasn't being negative there.

I should have put something like "The shock of the season in Super League".

If anything it's a great result for Super League.
 

winnyason

Juniors
Messages
1,576
let's be serious anderson would be playing mind games, but this result will at least put les cats out of last place danger. Have underperformed in the last half of the season where around trhe top 6 six mix but there form has dropped dramatically the two home loses to the hulls finshed there finals hopes.
Interesting line up raguin out wide with duport missing out & mogg at six.
 

Fairleigh Good!

Juniors
Messages
1,185
winnyason said:
let's be serious anderson would be playing mind games, but this result will at least put les cats out of last place danger. Have underperformed in the last half of the season we around trhe top 6 six mix but there fromed has dropped dramatically the two home loses to the hulls finshed there finals hopes.
Interesting line up raguin out wide with duport missing out & mogg at six.

I'm not convinced by that. Anderson isn't going to send out a full strength side and tell them to lose convincingly. It doesn't work like that in sport, surely?

Whilst I would think they would have prepared less for this and treated the trip as a break as much as a game, they would have prepared properly for the game and should have had more than enough in them to win it. Only last season they rested 12 players for the same game and lost only through a last minute try by Stacey Jones. They lost 21-0 today with a full strength team.

From the radio commentary it just sounded like the pack was soundly beaten, as Wigan's was in the Challenge Cup Semi.
 

ParraEelsNRL

Referee
Messages
28,012
From RugbyXiii again, thanks guys.

http://www.rugbyforumxiii.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20264

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