Best possible French team:

[iMorgan Escare

Fouad Yaha, Anthony Gigot, Vincent Duport, Jordan Sigismeau,

Thomas Bosc
Theodore Fages

Jason Baitieri
Gregory Mounis, Benjamin Garcia,
Remi Casty, Eloi Pelissier, Olivier Elima[/i

[uInterchange[/u: [iKane Bentley, Julian Bousquet, Mickael Simon, Antoni Maria[/i

Injury replacements: [iGadwin Springer, Mathias Pala, Jean Philippe Baile, Luc Albert, Damien Cardace[/i

Duport is most unlikely to play, and Casty also is recovering from surgery so doubtful.


For me the crucial factor for France being able to hold England to less than 18 or not is the coach.

Are you dismissing Kevin Larroyer and John Boudebza from the French squad?

Non Monsieur.

In short, no. Evidence of recent years suggests that the French are a tier below England, more on a par with Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

They might catch an England side with its eyes on a bigger prize cold in a one-off game, but that's their best hope.

No. I am instead suffering from post-Grand Final fatigue. I just plain forgot about them!

Boudebza should be on the interchange bench ahead of Bentley, and Larroyer ahead of Maria.

Apologies to Hull KR fans and to French fans and selectors.

Probably the best French team for awhile but England are still in a position were they can experiment with debut players and different positions and still win.

England never really raise there game with France and usually players tend to get carried away trying silly things. I don't agree with it personally and it's down to bad coaching but hey ho point stands, France are in the 'warm up game' category and wether they win on occasions or not won't challenge England consistently.

I hope there's more teams than just France who improve in that respect. International standard needs to improve.

Best possible French team (revised):

[iMorgan Escare

Fouad Yaha, Anthony Gigot, Vincent Duport, Jordan Sigismeau,

Thomas Bosc
Theodore Fages

Jason Baitieri
Gregory Mounis, Benjamin Garcia,
Remi Casty, Eloi Pelissier, Olivier Elima[/i

[uInterchange[/u: [iJohn Boudebza, Julian Bousquet, Mickael Simon, Kevin Larroyer[/i

Injury replacements: [iGadwin Springer, Kane Bentley, Antoni Maria, Mathias Pala, Jean Philippe Baile, Luc Albert, Damien Cardace[/i

Duport is most unlikely to play, and Casty also is recovering from surgery so doubtful.


For me the crucial factor for France being able to hold England to less than 18 or not is the coach.

No

They could beat England in a one off friendly just like the Italians did before the World Cup if England don't turn up to play. But it wouldn't be a true indicator of where they are.

Of course they can, with a great team effort and excellent tactics. Will that occur? Probably not.

The French were extremely close to England after half-time in the quarters of the RLWC 2013. They need a much better start to the game, with better tactics to take it to the English at the commencement, and they could make it a very close game. They have some good quality players in key positions these days.

2004 against Australia should continue to be the model France should work towards. They nearly pinched a win that match.

I know, because I was at that match, and at the after match reception. On that day France had Maxime Greseque and Jamal Fakir in their primes. Maxime scored one try and created another with a magnificent bomb that no Australian player was willing to try and catch on the full. Frederic Zitter got the favourable bounce and scored. Jamal Fakir ran straight into Darren Lockyer, knocking the Australian champion back several feet and to the ground, enabling Jamal to score a try.

France today has some players of the calibre of Greseque and Fakir. Benjamin Garcia is probably much more talented than Jamal Fakir, and half Luc Albert (still very young -- just 1icon_cool.gif is potentially going to emerge as better than Maxime Greseque. Full back Morgan Escare is an exciting talent, and Eloi Pelissier is probably one of the top dozen hookers in the world. Rookie 18 year old Fouad Yaha is beginning to look like becoming the best winger France has ever produced. It is all looking up for France, if only the national team could find a decent coach!

No they can't and the main reason is....... Agar the coach!

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!??!