The RFL can invite whoever they want. If they want a warm up game against some warm bodies then this is what they will get. If they want a true test then they need to organise one of those instead.

They selected a small stadium for an untelevised warm up game and fans like you are wondering why nobody, including the french cared. Its weird that you are surprised by it. We didnt care about the game and treat it in such a manner, why are we surprised they did the same?

It may come as a surprise to someone as parochial as you, but there is a fair old difference between a small provincial stadium like the LSV and Wembley, with plenty in between.

That thing going wizzing above your head was the point.

Good job you noticed and managed to point out some of those games were low profile poorly attended meaningless games and some were proper competitive games. It took a genius of your intellect to to decipher the subtlety of the titles "england v france in small stadiums" and "in a game treated like a proper international" without your clever interjection nobody would have seen through my fiendish plan to present them as exactly the same.

The game in Avignon was not a 4N or WC game though.

The point is that when the game is organised with some respect and as an event with importance behind it, and not just a friendly for the sake of a little run out, the French put their hands up and the fans show up.

If you schedule a game as a meaningless training run that you can't even get on the radio and bang it in a small stadium (lovely as it is, it's not big enough for a proper international) in a small town, no one will give a toss.

We could stick all of the NZ games in stadia the size of Leigh and I bet they wouldn't sell out. Not because there aren't the fans, but because the perception is it isn't that important so people aren't as inclined to go. We've been playing against NZ in 25k stadia for years and very rarely fill them, if ever; but as soon as we've taken one to an iconic ground with a big push and a huge capacity, people have begun to come for the event. They feel it isn't just a small game.

The international game is run like an afterthought.

In what context, given a 3 game test series against a higher ranked team is to be played from next week, would anybody consider this anything more than a warm up?

Either the French didnt have the players, or they chose not to play them, the 1 st I can accept, the 2 nd I cant, if it is the 2nd and we see their best play next week, I doubt theyll get an invite again

Simple answer is we play them in France, if that is they are capable of organising it?

Nobody did consider it anything more than a warm up. Hence the result and the attendance.

Why are the french expected to provide their best side, to the possible detriment of their performance in the European Championship to provide England with a better warm up? France have some fully fledged international competition coming up, why are they supposed to care about a warm up game?

If the French are incapable of providing credible opposition for England as they proved yesterday ( and as they proved in the last WC and Euro's ) they wont get acorded the respect being suggested on here

Pointless game be it at Leigh Wembley or Whitebank stadium, bring back the Exiles, certainly confirms the correct decision regarding Toulouse

Oh dear Smokey resorting to insults when people pick apart his points.....again shock horror.

Why were the games at Wigan and Doncaster presented as proper internationals? Because they were proper internationals with results important.

Again, and try a mature response instead of your default childish responses....why would you even list friendlies up against Internationals that had something riding on the result?

Truth is you wanted a stick to beat the RFL with so left out the detail of those matches. Simple as that and quite easy to see through.

The french dont play RL to prepare England to play other nations.

They have more important games to play this year than a hastily organised warm up game nobody watched.

What that has to do with Toulouse god only knows

You need to focus on finding the point before worrying your little head about picking them apart.

What? You want to try this one again? Is there something else you are saying here other than the pretty self-evident point that proper internationals are proper internationals?


Lets try and lay this out simply for you.

The point:
The french dont care about being our warm up game, they dont care about friendlies played in small stadiums with a low profile and as such dont send their best players and dont perform to their best. When the games are treated as a proper international then the french put out a better team, the game is closer and the attendances are higher.

Evidence:
A comparison between games which are friendlies played in small stadiums with a low profile and games which are proper internationals which shows not only a higher attendance but a closer result aswell.

Your counterpoint:
Yeah but you failed to mention those proper international games that you called proper internationals were proper internationals with something riding on the result. Stop leaving out details so you can have a stick to beat the RFL with.

Given the French have important games to play, youd expect them to consider yesterdays game as a warm up to those games, if not, why even bother?

It works both ways, but it does give us an insight to how poor French RL currently is, if they want respect, then they need to do a lot more to earn it

They did treat it as a warm up game.

Yes because that's what it was.....so why are you b*tching about it.

Erm.......For the reasons already put. Thats kind of how this works.

It was played at the wrong venue, Whitebank would have been more suitable, I doubt many others like myself will be paying to watch them again

So to answer the OP? , nope, and unlikely ever to

You are aware that only 6 Catalans players played against England yesterday? They have 18 French players in their first-team squad, and only six played against England. That is the bigger issue, not some fantastical explanation about Catalans not developing enough players. Also I'm really not sure that Huddersfield can boast 18 home-grown players in their first-team squad, but I'm sure you know more about that than me.
Yeah, small-time, unambitious, penny-pinching clubs with no interest in junior development. And Leeds, who have a ready-made feeder system and so no need to run reserves.

In what way was leaving out half the players likely to play against Wales a "warm-up" for that game?

The French will have learned nothing and gained nothing from the hammering England gave them that will be of any use against Wales next week. Had they picked a stronger side, they may at least have been able to work on some combinations, set plays etc.

They chose to sacrifice that instead for resting players and giving those who were chosen a second-class set of training facilities.

I look forward to the Leeds Rhinos picking their first team to play on boxing day, or in the Lazenby cup.

Ultimatly the long held argument held by the Aussies that they could put out 5 teams to beat us similarily applies to us with the French, how they can go about redressing that is probably a bigger task than us catching the Ockers

That would be a club side who get to spend nearly all year together compared to a national side who get limited time and matches together to work on things and put them into practise.....another sparkling comparison.

I don't know why you're trying to use a result of a France team missing pretty much all of it's full time players to make sweeping generalizations about the sport in France. Yes, they aren't as strong and have nowhere near as much depth as England, but a team including the likes of Fages, Gigot, Casty, Duport, Mounis, Pelissier, Baitieri, Bosc, Garcia, Elima, Yaha etc would more than provide a challenge. The fact is that I probably follow French RL closer than most and the squad yesterday had players that even I've never heard of. It was a virtual development team, they had an 18-year-old who was playing RU a month ago. I don't know why they selected this team and they definitely didn't do themselves any favours, but in realistic terms this result is not at all reflective of the level of France.

Also I'm not sure if you're aware that Australia are no longer the number 1 team in the world, I know you're usually a little bit behind.

Possibly a sweeping generalisation, but still a true one, outside the dozen players missing ( why do that I also havent a clue ) they are very poor, it wasnt just ability, no spirit,fight or even disapointment, the England lads werent even trying, it was embarrasing

Despite what you might think you know of my opinions about expansion of the sport I was hugely dissapointed with the French decision to rest a whole team ( if thats what it was ) , it will have damaged the future of the fixture and the credibility of the French

Not good

They don't have much depth outside of the 20 or so full-time players that play regularly at their clubs, but the team yesterday wasn't the strongest they could've fielded even with the players missing. They could've picked a bunch of senior players who have played for the national team in the past like the Bentley brothers and many others from the French league who could've kept the scoreline relatively respectable, but they just seemed to go with youngsters or completely obscure players. As I said, it was more of a developmental team than a legit international team and really should've been billed as France A.

I agree that the match was a joke and it was hugely disappointing turn out from the French, but the issue here is why they ended up fielding this team rather than any problems with the quality of players that they have or the development of the sport. Maybe the earlier poster is correct and they did this because the match was treated as a joke from the start. Either way, it's definitely not good and hopefully being humiliated like that will be a wake-up call for them in terms of the national set-up.

You do realise some French players have just finished a long hard season right? Whereas some are just starting their year right?

You keep trying don't you, in spite everything you keep trying.

I guess the question of whether France can challenge England is similar to asking whether Hudds can challenge in the play offs: there's a case to be made that they could, but the total lack of supporting evidence inevitably leads to a lot of scepticism.

Catalans can't develop many players to get into their best 17. Absolutely pathetic. Throwing money at antipodeans and bringing through very little quality when they are the only SL team in the country.

Few teams if any can 'boast' 18 home grown players in their squad with so many clubs sharing the same catchment area. So comparing English home grown players with French players in the Dragons is idiotic. The Giants - with 3 other SL teams in west Yorkshire (4 other til very recently) - compare pretty well with the Dragons who have no SL competition. The 4 West Yorks clubs can find 20 or so home grown players to play each week despite competition from big Lancashire clubs & Hull. Catalans with no local SL competition struggle to get 5/6.



Your suggestion that clubs running several junior teams + scholarships right the way through to the U19s are not interested in development because they dont want an U23s is plain daft. Many prefer the current pathways + dual registration. Very few want U23s.