I am aghast with Agar. How he has got this job after his poor resume in Super league is beyond me.

However what if McNamara chooses Matthew Smith as his half back? That would surely be an advantage for France, because if the French forwards can hold their own, Theodore Fages and Thomas Bosc will will run rings around Smith.

Hunslet Hawks could beat France right now, because the French team is rubbish.

In reply to the op. NO.

France are currently some distance below England in the international standings and this is likely to remain for some time.
Of course they have some excellent players, just nowhere near enough of them to compete.

Its the reliance on Dragons players who struggle away from home that holds them back.

Maybe once (If) Toulouse are established and the players can come from a number of top tier clubs in France then yes, they can.

But Catalan struggled and a lot of the squad come (naturally) from them.

No, not until they have more FT players playing in SL or the NRL. Take a look at how many kiwi eligible players there are in those two comps, that's how many frenchmen you'd need for them to put a competitive national side together. We need Toulouse in SL, better Jnr system funding in France and better scouting by NRL and SL clubs of French junior teams, though it is probably harder to get a 16 year old French lad to move to Yorkshire than a kiwi kid to move to Sydney.

Agree with that. The language barrier is areal disincentive to young French moving over here.

But I'd still introduce salary cap benefits for clubs signing French players in an effort to encourage clubs to sign more of them. If there were some method of ensuring Catalans weren't significantly disadvantaged by the rule.

I think your (alleged*) enthusiasm is admirable but your analysis leaves a bit to be desired at times.

I don't think Garcia is better than Fakir. Jamal was a great talent and certainly at this point a better player.

Escare is a fantastic player but needs to work harder on the errors. He reminds me a little of the way Billy Slater was early in his career - enormous potential but too prone to making crucial errors. Eventually this was largely removed from Slater's game and he became a great.

Pelissier is an excellent hooker so you are right there.

Yaha looks a great young talent too but it is a bit early to put him past the likes of Ducasse, Voron, Marsolan, Contrastin, Cantoni, Moya, Pellerin and the like to pick a few at random!

*still not convinced

In any event, this is the biggest game for France in some time. They need a good performance so this becomes a regular event. It is a shame the regular two Test per year schedule between France and GB/England was ever allowed to deteriorate but that is international rugby league admin in a nutshell.

I watched Levy Nzoungou playing for St Helens youth v Wests Tigers yesterday and he is a beast for his age, if he continues to develop he will be a vital player for France in the coming years.

Boudebza is also an excellent hooker

France are still way behind Eng, Nz and Aus. We should be playing them every year so they can improve and one day compete and win games. They are improving though with more players across Super League and the NRL.

Is this game on the box?

It doesn't seem to be. Why not!??!

No

Next!

Nigel Wood didn't want rugby league to become overexposed in the period of the RUWC. So no TV.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nigel doesn't even show up at LSV.

The French need at least 20 year program which sees playing numbers rise every year.
England and UK as a whole needs the same to challenge the Aussie on a regular basis.

So you were talking rubbish then?

Since its not on TV I'm sure the RL community will come out in force to support the international game, and show the RWC what it can do, by packing out the LSV to its capacity.

One would hope so. But it will be mostly the car owners and their friends who will show up, given the difficulty of getting to LSV by public transport.

Is the game being shown on TV in France? If so, I'm pretty sure there'll be a stream of it somewhere online.

I bet there are a few hanging out for discount codes, given the £10 ticket price too.

Ive just done a bit of searching and cant seem to find anything saying it is on tv, doesn't mean it isn't though it was just a quick search.

I think we can say with a degree of certainty that it will be full. Last England game there was against Wales in the four nations and the attendance was approx. 10,500 and after that there was Tonga v cook islands in the world cup with about the same so if they can fill it for a low level group game then England will no probs!

Something is inherently wrong when the NZ warmup game against a leeds elect side is on TV but the England warm up game isn't.

Leeds will also sell twice as many tickets as the ground the England v France game will hold.

And according to wiki less than France got in france against both Samoa and NZ 2 years ago, less than they got against Wales in 2012, less than they got against Scotland in 2011, less than they got against England in 2011, less than they got against Wales and Ireland in 2010.

lets be realistic though, there is one pro youth development pathway in france, we are always going to be massively limiting the pool of those coming through by expecting them to come over.

We simply arent going to get vast numbers coming over at 16/17/18 and the few who would be able to come over at 19/20 are going to be years behind their cohort.