slowdive

Brimson Young Wardle Farnworth Johnstone Welsby French Pearce-Paul Radley Nsemba Thompson Lewis McMeeken Knowles Smithies Oledski Clark

I think the front row looks a bit on the old side, but it's exciting to see some of the young french talent coming through. I'd like the French to play teams like PNG and Fiji a bit more often. The England test is a nice idea but I don't think they're at the level quite yet for it to be worthwhile. Losing comprehensively is more damaging than beneficial for me. I think if or when Toulouse make it into SL, there will hopefully be a bigger pool to pick from. Any decent players with New Caladonia heritage they can use?

I was going back a while to be fair and not necessarily thinking of the dragons themselves. I think Mcnamara made the dragons competitive but I dont find them very interesting to watch anymore.

I agree. It would be nice if they were able to move back to or at least incorporate more of a traditional french style of play. I don't whether the game has just moved on too far from that, but French sides used to be fun to watch.

Looking at the stats, Morgan smithies has made 773 tackles this year at 97.7% efficiency. I can't easily find how this compares more generally but it seems pretty good to me. Does anyone know how this ranks compared to other players this season?

What position/how old is he?

I think Bateman is coming to the end as well so I'd be looking in another direction although I'm not sure who.

Thanks for that...I was responding to someone else's musings on the matter. I personally don't think it's a great name.

Did you miss me writing or?

What about trying something like Mercia or maybe even something which isn't specifically geographic?

I've not seen loads of him to be fair. I suppose I just don't really remember seeing him stand out when i have seen him play. Happy to defer to people who've seen a lot more of him. I do hope he does well cos I really enjoy watching all of the brits in the nrl.

I'm not sure he's at that level either tbh. Hope I'm wrong though.

Really sad news.

I think he's done a brilliant job at Catalan and has proved a perfect fit for that club. However, i don't think he would necessarily be able to replicate that at other clubs. I think being a Head coach especially at bigger clubs requires a certain way with people, call it charisma if you like, which frankly most of us don't have. I think in a strange sort of way being at a foreign club with the language differences almost works in his favour. It reminds me of Steve Maclaren the football coach who managed to win the Dutch league with a fairly unfancied side but who has never really cut the mustard managing sides in England even though he widely recognised as an excellent coach. So, not a great coach for me because as well as he has done at Catalan, he's not really been able to match what he's done there anywhere else.

Looks like Catalan have managed to get to the playoffs with their big money players available..I reckon they'll just have enough.