2014 6 Nations: France vs Ireland (Round 5)

[Tony Manx]

Thanks Tony... I have also basque ancestors (my grandfather), it's a pity we are to loose one and maybe the two basque teams... Oh, it would be great Biarritz thrash Oyonnax...

After this season.....would settle for a win by one point but a win would be really good if only to put more pressure on "Les ciel et bleu de Bayonne"!!!!!!

 

[CAB_for_ever]

yes the U20 and our ladies are on track for potential GS. Of course French rugby is on the verge of near collapse and a hostile take-over by hordes of foreign mercenaries. I reckon defeat 2morow will just about tip us over the edge and...

so they say here anyway http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/03/23...-french-rugby/
it must be true then..this is how it looks like from down under

Oh come on, everyone says that for décades and décades and since then France did three RWC finals and 2 semis... We have always complained about the number of foreigners which will impact french rugby... in fact, it has had a great and good impact... making french players to face what's the better in their own domestic league, I think it's a chance and not a problem... even if I am not against a ratio. Top 14 is the best championship, and I have canal+, I see super 15 and sorry, I prefer top 14. Many are complaining about french and NH referees, but when I see SH poor referring, I think our referees aren't that bad : SH ref have no clue about conquest and scrum, they don't WILLINGLY whistle half of the infringements to let the ball flowing, the game continuing etc...

It's time to go back on the scrum rules which has killed the spirit of rugby, favorising poor scrum teams etc...

 

[CAB_for_ever]

After this season.....would settle for a win by one point but a win would be really good if only to put more pressure on "Les ciel et bleu de Bayonne"!!!!!!

Oh no, I hope Bayonne will stay in top 14, even if I would lik Oyonnax safe ... in fact, I would prefer USAP to go in Prod D2 (after Agen, Brive would have definitively been avenged )

 

[Tony Manx]

Oh no, I hope Bayonne will stay in top 14, even if I would lik Oyonnax safe ... in fact, I would prefer USAP to go in Prod D2 (after Agen, Brive would have definitively been avenged )

I have to want Bayonne to suffer by virtue of my being a Biarritz supporter but do not really want them to go down and if it has to be Oyonnax, so be it!!!

 

[CAB_for_ever]

I must recognise that Bayonne usual attacking style suits me better than Lagisquet did for BO in the past... and few years ago, against Toulouse, I was there hearing "la Peña Baiona"... wow !

In fact, I didn't understand why BO is so bad this year, on the paper, the team is great, but it seems many haven't truly done their best when they played... they haven't wet the jersey as they should have...

 

[FrenchFan]

Oh come on, everyone says that for décades and décades and since then France did three RWC finals and 2 semis... We have always complained about the number of foreigners which will impact french rugby... in fact, it has had a great and good impact... making french players to face what's the better in their own domestic league, I think it's a chance and not a problem... even if I am not against a ratio. Top 14 is the best championship, and I have canal+, I see super 15 and sorry, I prefer top 14. Many are complaining about french and NH referees, but when I see SH poor referring, I think our referees aren't that bad : SH ref have no clue about conquest and scrum, they don't WILLINGLY whistle half of the infringements to let the ball flowing, the game continuing etc...

It's time to go back on the scrum rules which has killed the spirit of rugby, favorising poor scrum teams etc...

I agree 100%. Of course it is making the french players better. The competition for places is huge so the french guys who are regular starters have to prove themselves even more. If anything the foreigners are pushing standards higher in the league.
Rules at the scrum have to be reviewed, they have de-powered the scrum.We'll end up with a rugby league type scrum. I see so many forward passes in the Super 15 that wouldn't be allowed here. But it is still great rugby.

 

[CAB_for_ever]

I agree 100%. Of course it is making the french players better. The competition for places is huge so the french guys who are regular starters have to prove themselves even more. If anything the foreigners are pushing standards higher in the league.
Rules at the scrum have to be reviewed, they have de-powered the scrum.We'll end up with a rugby league type scrum. I see so many forward passes in the Super 15 that wouldn't be allowed here. But it is still great rugby.

You have pointed the thing ! The scrum has become a farce and anglo-referees did it even worse. I have looked all 6N match, and honestly, french ref have referred the scrum far better than the others... France have a true academy of scrum and clearly, the new rules have disadvantaged us clearly, but it has even more disadvantaged us because of poor referring by foreign referees... How can you sanction the best scrum on the picth... ? excepted over Italy (which has almost the same approach of the scrum than French), we have been in difficulty in scrum ONLY because of interpretation of the referee !

THEN forcely, when a french referee did his job in scrum, it surprises ! SH never or almost never sanction scrum, it's truly stupid. British referees are still 50 years in the past, considering that French are cheaters and then must be more sanctionned than their opponents !

 

[Tony Manx]

I agree 100%. Of course it is making the french players better. The competition for places is huge so the french guys who are regular starters have to prove themselves even more. If anything the foreigners are pushing standards higher in the league.
Rules at the scrum have to be reviewed, they have de-powered the scrum.We'll end up with a rugby league type scrum. I see so many forward passes in the Super 15 that wouldn't be allowed here. But it is still great rugby.

A review maybe but let us not get back to "the hit" which was never in the rule book but refs so often penalised teams for not taking it.....the scrum is and was always about hooking a straight put in and pushing on the feed not 8 "goliaths" running at each other to generate a "hit" of cataclysmic proportions........

 

[Tony Manx]

I must recognise that Bayonne usual attacking style suits me better than Lagisquet did for BO in the past... and few years ago, against Toulouse, I was there hearing "la Peña Baiona"... wow !

In fact, I didn't understand why BO is so bad this year, on the paper, the team is great, but it seems many haven't truly done their best when they played... they haven't wet the jersey as they should have...

Think we should move this to the Top 14 thread!!

 

[CAB_for_ever]

Think we should move this to the Top 14 thread!!

You're totally right ! ...

and I will have to improve my English, it's a long time I haven't been obliged to speak it ! lol Must be funny for anglo-speaking to see Frenchmen speaking English together LOL

 

[gaston le gaff]

Just seen something quite amusing, Jonnie Wilco will finally hang up his boots and become the kicking coach and club ambassador for Toulon, Toulon have Giteau and probably the best in the world at the moment Halfpenny, as club penalty takers, but they still need a coach of Jonnies quality......... The French team have no kicking coach so are Doussain Machenaud and Tales so good they don't need one or is the French team run by some misguided muppet, if i remember we have missed several penalties during this 6 Nations campagne

 

[CAB_for_ever]

Just seen something quite amusing, Jonnie Wilco will finally hang up his boots and become the kicking coach and club ambassador for Toulon, Toulon have Giteau and probably the best in the world at the moment Halfpenny, as club penalty takers, but they still need a coach of Jonnies quality......... The French team have no kicking coach so are Doussain Machenaud and Tales so good they don't need one or is the French team run by some misguided muppet, if i remember we have missed several penalties during this 6 Nations campagne

errr, it seems many kickers have failed too... and I think that Doussain and Machenaud aren't true kickers... if you want a french good one, pick Germain

and it's terrifically french to criticize France in difficulty... OOOh and it's not PSA which is kicking bad, which is doing bad passes, doing bad choices on the field... etc...

Frenchmen are total burnout due to a too long championship... and due to clubs which have no interests in the national squad...

 

[Big Ewis]

for the english-speakers, when CABforever says "conquest" he means 'at the breakdown'. And welcome CAB, great to have a fan of Brive on here, it changes from all those stereotypical fake Toulouse fans !

About the scrum: Mas himself and Domingo have both explained they've felt destabilized by the new scrum laws.
- We had the ascendency over England with ease in the first match, with Dan Cole on.
- Italy had a few good pushes on us but then we got right back into it, and had especially a couple of enormous pushes, one of which saw them backpedaling all the way back when the scrum was stable, with De Marchi+Castro in.
- in Wales, I suspect Jenkins' play in the scrum, both he and Mas got yellowed...and Domingo actually managed to contain Adam Jones alright, but Wales overall had the upperhand it seemed.
- in Scotland: we actually had the upperhand but got penalized because we couldn't adapt to the SH ref. But the fact that Scotland asked for a scrum at a point, and that they managed to drive into us a couple of times is downright alarming.

* Ireland are a much improved team in the scrum, and I wouldn't be concerned if everything was as before but things have changed and with Ross on form and Healy a powerful scrummager at LH they may actually get a few good pushes. I never thought I'd be concerned about the scrum against Ireland in Paris, but ehh that's what it's come to.

EDIT:

and I will have to improve my English, it's a long time I haven't been obliged to speak it ! lol Must be funny for anglo-speaking to see Frenchmen speaking English together LOL

Hah yeah well it's great we can all be beautifully bilingual so that we can penetrate their world and mix it up with different influences and opinions...and your english is just fine, just stay on here and both that and your knowledge of the int'l game will improve. But no your humor, sadly, it will drop immensely considering the level here...

 

[gaston le gaff]

errr, it seems many kickers have failed too... and I think that Doussain and Machenaud aren't true kickers... if you want a french good one, pick Germain

and it's terrifically french to criticize France in difficulty... OOOh and it's not PSA which is kicking bad, which is doing bad passes, doing bad choices on the field... etc...

Frenchmen are total burnout due to a too long championship... and due to clubs which have no interests in the national squad...

If it was only that simple!!!!!!!!!

 

[CAB_for_ever]

for the english-speakers, when CABforever says "conquest" he means 'at the breakdown'. And welcome CAB, great to have a fan of Brive on here, it changes from all those stereotypical fake Toulouse fans !

About the scrum: Mas himself and Domingo have both explained they've felt destabilized by the new scrum laws.
- We had the ascendency over England with ease in the first match, with Dan Cole on.
- Italy had a few good pushes on us but then we got right back into it, and had especially a couple of enormous pushes, one of which saw them backpedaling all the way back when the scrum was stable, with De Marchi+Castro in.
- in Wales, I suspect Jenkins' play in the scrum, both he and Mas got yellowed...and Domingo actually managed to contain Adam Jones alright, but Wales overall had the upperhand it seemed.
- in Scotland: we actually had the upperhand but got penalized because we couldn't adapt to the SH ref. But the fact that Scotland asked for a scrum at a point, and that they managed to drive into us a couple of times is downright alarming.

* Ireland are a much improved team in the scrum, and I wouldn't be concerned if everything was as before but things have changed and with Ross on form and Healy a powerful scrummager at LH they may actually get a few good pushes. I never thought I'd be concerned about the scrum against Ireland in Paris, but ehh that's what it's come to.

EDIT:



Hah yeah well it's great we can all be beautifully bilingual so that we can penetrate their world and mix it up with different influences and opinions...and your english is just fine, just stay on here and both that and your knowledge of the int'l game will improve. But no your humor, sadly, it will drop immensely considering the level here...

I considere that our scrum hasn't become that bad in a year... It's because of the new rules and even more cause of referee interprétations... About Irish scrum, I don't think it's a problem they have a great scrum, they have always had one in the last ten years (Munster was surely the best of the decade)... then they will be as disadvantaged as us. New rules has been done for weak and medium scrum, to permit them to compete with all latins (French, Pumas and Azzuries) and Irish. Australia and Scotland are the most advantaged by the new rules.

 

[CAB_for_ever]

""" If it was only that simple!!!!!!!!! """"

Sure it is...

Last years of amateurism around 1995-97... In 1994, France (amateurs) have beaten NZ (Professionals) twice in a round in NZ, and without a robbery would have surely won the RWC in 1995...

I don't want to come back to amateur era, but I think we could have done ANOTHER professionalism... more ruled !

 

[CAB_for_ever]

It's simple : sanction to clubs which doesn't released their internationals...

But before, we have to do a more realistic top 14 with NO play off... a championship in fact : the winner is the one which tops the ranking ! we earn then three match ... and if we do a top 12, we earn more dates... then seven dates a year, it's not that bad.

 

[gaston le gaff]

It's simple : sanction to clubs which doesn't released their internationals...

But before, we have to do a more realistic top 14 with NO play off... a championship in fact : the winner is the one which tops the ranking ! we earn then three match ... and if we do a top 12, we earn more dates... then seven dates a year, it's not that bad.

See how many of the TOP 14 club owners will agree to that, and as far as a TOP 12 who will go down the last ones who came up, thats going to upset 4 teams or no promotion from the Pro D2 and thats going to upset Lyon and another.. its all a little more complicated than that with an awful lot of money at stake, yes there are too many games but reducing the number of TOP 14 games is not the answer, reducing the number of games a player could play would be an idea and that would also help to give the clubs younger players a chance to show their worth. This situation has been going on for years the first thing would be to get the FFR and the LNR to start seeing eye to eye then there would be a base to work from and possibly a way to move forward.

 

[Tony Manx]

It's simple : sanction to clubs which doesn't released their internationals...

Ah simple then!! Except you forget one thing.......The clubs pay the wages and the FFR have, up to now, paid the clubs a pittance for the services of the Clubs' players on International duty................little more negotiations and a little more money to allow for proper replacements to cover their absence may resolve the issue but sanctions would result in no international team!!

 

[Big Ewis]

Well if we could be a bit more on-topic here:

PSA will field his 18th back row in his 2 1/2 years of "service".

And nobody has mentioned this yet, but could you imagine how horrible it would be if France and Ireland were to...DRAW for a third straight time ??? Nobody but England's happy then. Ireland lose their ***le one point shy, and France don't get anything out of it and concede a second straight tie to Ireland at home.