EOYT: France vs Samoa, 24/11/2012

[barthelemy]

Seems that Samoa starts to be a bit tired and France are putting themselves together .

16-14 France

Ouf !

 

[Surefire]

Penalty to Samoa.
Missed, score stays the same.

 

[barthelemy]

Lucky us, the samoan kicker not in a great day.

 

[Surefire]

Seems that Samoa starts to be a bit tired and France are putting themselves together .

16-14 France

Ouf !

I was thinking the same, but then Samoa seems to just tear through French defense.

 

[Surefire]

Win or lose France will b very happy when this game is over. I was impressed with Samoa vs Canada then Wales, and they came to play again today. I love the fact that they are mobile, aggressive and fearless!

 

[Surefire]

Another turnover for Samoa five meters from their line! Awesome defense, 10 minutes left

 

[barthelemy]

Yep agreed, whatever the margin we will be happy to win this one. Easy penalty kick for France now.

 

[Surefire]

Machenaud has had two great tackles, and I believe he adds a dimension Parra does not. No argument Parra is a better pure SH, but I see Machenaud adding more to the team.

Michelak slots another long penalty. 22-14. France

 

[barthelemy]

22-14 France, really happy for the win, it has been a very tough match and thanks to some odd calls to France..

 

[Surefire]

Samoa has had a great tour, and should be very excited about the future. This game was tight throughout, hard to say who played the better game. Really enjoyed watching this. Thanks B.

 

[Big Ewis]

Stupid match.
Good efforts Samoa, that physicality sure is affecting the games...
We played very good defence, though they were so strong physically they would penetrate every once in a while...
Breakdown play sucked for us, they had some good moments.

I loved the fat bearded guy strangling Papé (again Papé) but with TWO HANDS this time...very pro.
Pisi as far as I'm concerned (his last two matches) doesn't know what a penalty kick is. And don't anyone dare get ****** off, you've seen the last two games as I have, not my problem, his problem...
I guess the "bad" France showed up, and though Samoa showed up (again, excellent 3 matches), no upset occured.

2 tries to 1 Samoa. Their first try was lucky, our try was on a major mistake (Michalak was RIGHT THERE, never ever should have kicked) so no glory.
Their second was fine.
Thought we at least should have scored our second, but it never happened. Could have been on a few occasions, the last Huget effort should have been it but...meh...I'll take the win, and 3 in a row now. A rarity in French int'l rugby.

 

[Super Sub]

Classless, yoe91. Typical from you.

Congrats to France on the win.

 

[Big Ewis]

Wow, I'm building myself one hell of a reputation on here !
I don't mean to offend anyone (ppl say that, but I really don't, nothing I say is spiteful). I'm just stating what I've observed.

And yeah congrats to France on a win 1 interception try to 2 actual tries (well they got lucky on that first try too to be fair...)!!....^_^
well...3 victories in a row though, can't say this about any other 6N...

 

[Super Sub]

Sure, I believe you

The first try was just a bit of skill and awareness, I didn't see it as luck - but then it seems you find it hard to compliment Samoa. It's either a backhanded compliment or nothing with you.

 

[Big Ewis]

noooooo, you're reading into things that aren't there ! ohhhhhlalaaaa !
It wasn't exactly an Allblacks type try :lol:!
It took skill for sure, and it was legal. It's a try, but obviously not your standard try where a team's attack is just perfectly set and outplays the defence...nothing like the stuff happening in Ireland earlier today for e.g.

I can't exactly compliment Samoa a whole lot...it's amazing they got Wales, it's very very good they got close in Paris...but in this particular game neither team deserved a whole lot of praise. I hope that's not too classless (well I couldn't care less really, there's nothing wrong with what I said but ppl are weird enough to be offended by anything these days...)...I AM wearing a very classy pair of boxers at the moment though.

I'm curious to hear what the Samoa fans have to say this time to defend the Great Pisi and his magic boot.

I hate false humility. I'm not gonna say "oh WOW fantastic match guys wow !!" when there's no good reason to. I'm impressed by Samoa overall, who the hell isn't this past November ?! I'm looking forward to seeing what they've got and what they can do against other Tier 1 nations, because in Cardiff and Paris they've impressed a lot. But those are just two games.
France looked FANTASTIC in the first two, mediocre in this one; maybe they'll suck in Feb, dunno.

 

[admartian]

Saw the scoreline; and based on their performance this EOYT; they deserve the praise they can get. No need to naysay it.

SAMOA!

 

[Surefire]

Was a good game, not a poor one. Everything Samoa got, they earned with team play and effort. France did well in contact, and defense was good, but they seemed less determined at times and maybe a little hesitant. The ref sent decisions both ways and I don't think he was to blame or to credit for the result.

Michelak was superb with the kicking duties when Parra left. Machenaud was for me the better SH. His tackling and game management. However I would like to hear your thoughts on this, ZeFrenchy, after you get a chance to review the game if you have not yet. Or other posters views for that matter.

Yoe91, the reason France did not play well, is because Samoa did not let them. The irritation from your posts is that you believe France played poorly making Samoa look good. This is almost never the case. Teams play what is in front of them, and today it was very difficult for France to dominate with the forwards like they did with Australia, or have very fluid phases as in the Argentina match. Samoa, to their credit, showed great skill in supporting the runner, having the runner offload, and then attacking the rucks and turning the ball over! This was not a stupid match. This was mobile, aggressive rugby, and fun to watch.

 

[Super Sub]

noooooo, you're reading into things that aren't there ! ohhhhhlalaaaa !
It wasn't exactly an Allblacks type try :lol:!
It took skill for sure, and it was legal. It's a try, but obviously not your standard try where a team's attack is just perfectly set and outplays the defence...nothing like the stuff happening in Ireland earlier today for e.g.

I can't exactly compliment Samoa a whole lot...it's amazing they got Wales, it's very very good they got close in Paris...but in this particular game neither team deserved a whole lot of praise. I hope that's not too classless (well I couldn't care less really, there's nothing wrong with what I said but ppl are weird enough to be offended by anything these days...)...I AM wearing a very classy pair of boxers at the moment though.

I'm curious to hear what the Samoa fans have to say this time to defend the Great Pisi and his magic boot.

I hate false humility. I'm not gonna say "oh WOW fantastic match guys wow !!" when there's no good reason to. I'm impressed by Samoa overall, who the hell isn't this past November ?! I'm looking forward to seeing what they've got and what they can do against other Tier 1 nations, because in Cardiff and Paris they've impressed a lot. But those are just two games.
France looked FANTASTIC in the first two, mediocre in this one; maybe they'll suck in Feb, dunno.

I still don't see how that explains why you'd call it a lucky try.

You can't compliment or you don't want to compliment?

I don't think any Samoan defended Pisi's boot here, that was Physic Duck, who I think is a Welshman.

Our results this year are not really different to last year, so it's not just two games -we've been consistently competitive for a couple of years now. I always find it funny when a big team can't thrash us, it's because they played badly and not us playing well enough to make them play badly, but hey, we're quite use to that excuse now.

 

[admartian]

I still don't see how that explains why you'd call it a lucky try.

You can't compliment or you don't want to compliment?

I don't think any Samoan defended Pisi's boot here, that was Physic Duck, who I think is a Welshman.

Our results this year are not really different to last year, so it's not just two games -we've been consistently competitive for a couple of years now. I always find it funny when a big team can't thrash us, it's because they played badly and not us playing well enough to make them play badly, but hey, we're quite use to that excuse now.

This.
I hope Samoa can sustain their improvement and continue to be part of more INTL fixtures.

 

[Big Ewis]

meh...fun in parts but it's never great when you see plays in the making never concluding now is it ? We love watching a nice play start (in any sport) with great fluid passing and all, until the exclamation point, the finish. The entire play is meaningless without a finish. So a lot of frustration, on both sides. What I call a "stupid game", full of half-assed ideas, half-entertaining, momentum-broken moments.

Yes you're right Samoa pressured France very well, but France still didn't play as well collectively AND individually as the two other games. Michalak threw a few poor passes and was SPOT ON in the other two for e.g. Picamoles was strong as always resisting tackles but wasn't as pivotal as the other two, they didn't make an effort to find him enough, he wasn't used properly.
The only constant for France was the defense. Gooood stuff, coz Samoa was looking threatening almost every single time.

I think all this stuff ppl are throwing at me is more due to their own frustration of having someone underestimate Samoa only a bit and pointing out their flaws (which they don't accept) rather than me having a problem complimenting this side or another.

You want to criticize us (France) based on our flaws ? Go ahead, I'd be glad to hear different opinions, things I may have left out. Please, this is a forum, made to discuss points, not to applaud every single team like happy little smurfs after test matches for no fkn reason.