He's not the man of the situation and he will never be.
He should speak a quite fluent French no? How can you be performant when some players don't understand him at trainings... That's really shocking imo.
Trent speaks a superb French and the team did a great season.

quite agree about Bousquet - Robinson will play him wisely just as he has done with Eloi last season

as for Chisholm,he's now 21 and just waiting for someone to take a chance on him - he has a lot to learn of course and it will depend on his coach on how he progresses I suppose as well as his attitude which seems to be very positive

no idea about Tony Gigot,I thought he was still with UTC ?

I don't think the language is a major barrier because most of the french boys speak enough english to understand and ther is always Cologni to help out nowadays
I haven't heard any criticism of Bobby from any of the french squad i'm in contact with - I believe any problems are with Bobby & Guasch which puts Larrat & FFR13 in the middle
In reality it odesn't really matter who the coach of france is because he will always have the problem of Guasch to contend with and you can understand M Guaschs' wories considering the majority of the squad comes from the Catalans

Confirmation, he still plays for UTC

Chisholm will maybe play for Limoux and will join the Catalans before the super league, but he will miss the preseason ... Weird

seems a strange one - he would do well at Catalans but where would he fit it ? as for Limoux this would not surprise me

speaking to Andrew Henderson he says brother Kevin will play at Montpellier - is he there already ?

Some really interesting posts there lads, great read.
One disappointing thing for me has been the lack of awareness outside of Perpignan. Last night and this morning we were in Beziers and we didn't meet a single person who knew the game had taken place. A few thought we were talking about today's union derby between Beziers and Narbonne. I've just had a drink in an Irish bar here in Narbonne and neither of the barmen knew what I was on about when I explained I'd come up for the international.

Agreed, they should be looking to the future and with Eloi or Kane on the bench its hard to justify two players like that on the bench
I think reading between the lines, that is the case. Bobbie certainly wants to coach in the UK.

Tony Gigot was always rubbish mate!

I agree with you here to a point, I would say the same team underperfomerd under their last coach too, time will tell if history repeats itself after Bobbie. I think Bobbie's a legend and he has done some good things in this job, It just seems the world is so quick to jump on him regarding his coaching credentials and a lot of people expect big things from the French. Even though this group of French players, for the most part are not stars at their club and some (the most experienced players) have not had a proper off season since the inception of the Dragons into Superleague in 2006.

I think the present crop of french players available is stronger than a couple of years ago and a coach will always be judged on his results - BGs big problem was the shock defeat in Albi against the welsh where they expected to just turn up to win and qualify for the Four Nations - this turned out to be a bitter blow for the FFR as well as BG and one that will always haunt him

it's easy to criticise any coach but a lot of things have happened within the politics of the french game which has made life more difficult for Bobbie - call it a cultural thing if you like but any non-french coach will always find it difficult when working with the FFR & Guasch

regarding Tony Gigot - to say he is rubbish would be unfair IMO
he is one of those players of which there are many including the likes of Shad Royston,Jamie Rooney,Liam Finn etc who are too good for Championship level RL but not up to SL standard - they are stuck somewhere in the middle - Tony did well for TO13 last season,even when asked to play FB in one game but the step up to SL & Catalans is just too much for him
It's good to see he is still in the reckoning along with William Barthau who was unlucky to be subjected to the St Helens game in 2010 when OE was sent off - this shattered his confidence and was unconsolable after that game - I hope he will come back a better player with the confidence TR has shown in him.

I'm not sure about the squad being stronger, its very much a muchness IMO but your probably right about Bobbies failure to quaify. Its impossible to say though, I feel Bobbie would have got greif even if France had managed to qualify for the 4N. I just feel he's never been given the respect for the things he's acheived as France coach. I suppose its the same for any coach of a different nationality coaching a national side too that mate. Bertie Vogts was labelled a disaster for Scottish Football when they were in an awful state and Sven went down like a lead balloon in the end. In RL Tony Smith has proved himself an exellent club coach but didn't do a great job for England and to a degree was judged by his nationality.
I know mate, It was a little bit tounge in cheek. He's certainly not a player i rate highly though. His skill with the ball and size means he should have been so much more, he just seems to lack the heart and needs too much direction to be a quality half. Barthau still has time i guess but i havent seen that much of him to comment properly.

Ireland on saturday. www.rlef.eu.com/news/article/344 ... ad-to-face

Ireland on saturday. www.rlef.eu.com/news/article/344 ... ad-to-face

Julien Bousquet is out due to suffering ankle injury at yesterdays training in Toulouse & is replaced by Romaric Bemba

another solid lump of meat and deservedly getting a run out

nice kid too

Gets the call up but doesn't make the final 17. I feel for the guy as like you said Sanj, he deserves another go in the side.

Same starting 13 as last week. On the bench are Pellisier, Simon, Cardace & Sadaoui

2min gone Ireland lead 4-0

Do you watch the game or listen it to the radio?

sud radio mon ami

Oh same. But rugby union annoys me!

Try Bentley

oui Cata c'est enervant!

C'est meme la cata!(strophe)

Too many errors from les francais, they could already kill the game