barnyia

Rémi and Thibaut didn't play, Thibaut injured and apparently a car accident for Rémi.

https://youtu.be/53L2XTeXL3I

Paul what was the name of the summer regional comp in the early 90s televised, concerts, big crowds and then they somehow ran out of money, it's on YouTube somewhere but I can't find it, excellent coverage etc and then it came to an abrupt end.

His two sons play at carcassonne, Mathieu and Romain

Yes Villeneuve kicked a drop goal in the last second, u19s can't do Extra time as there's under 18s in the teams (federation rules ) so the game is deciding by red cards then tries scored I think, the cup semi between Carpentras and Carcassonne finished in penalties from 40 metres out.

You are allowed four non french players in your 17, both had four foreigner, Carcassonne 2 fijiens and 2 Aussies, Albi 2 kiwi and 2 Aussies I think, Lézignan had three Aussies (Maloney, norman , Dillon ) and one Papua (segayaro) Limoux, 4 Aussies (templeman, sadler, Clark and Santo) plus Mika who's now classed as french.

15h30 French time for both games.

Two good games this weekend, Carcassonne v Albi tomorrow afternoon on the carcassonne YouTube channel Sunday limoux v Lexi live on limoux YouTube channel

It was in the mid 90s I think, I was playing a team up there against barrow (I think) and remember asking why there was a cow/donkey on the field.

Anyone remember the barrow lotto? The pitch split into squares and then a cow roamed and where it did it's business the person who had that square won the prize? Or did I dream that? Or was it a donkey ?

Lézignan is in France but I meant he's been in the team and played in all their games since he arrived at Christmas.

I've coached all age groups over here from u5s to elite u19s, 3rd and 4th division adults and elite 1 adults. The coaching is good considering the small number of coaches, luckily they have a thing called the pole espoirs/pôle France in Avignon, Toulouse and Carcassonne, They choose the better players for the last 3 years of school (15 to 18 years old) who want to go there to study and train They train all week with the pole with excellent coaches, 3 or 4 field sessions and a couple of weight sessions per week, at the weekend they play for their respective clubs, this set up almost allows the kids to train like a pro. After this they're just let go into life and u19s club rugby, so back to 2 sessions a week or 3 if they are at an elite club, they get good coaching at club level but they don't improve as much as they did at the pole. Work, university takes over and quite a few stop playing or just stay playing with their mates. players that stay or transfer to the xiii Catalan u19s stop the pole , xiii catalan stop their players being part of the pole after the second year as they can't be at the Catalan club training during the week. They train 4 times a week at xiii catalan u19s. But at the Catalans you have to make a choice, leave home, change your school, sometimes change what your studying so you can fit studies around training, if you want a job it's not possible if you play at the Catalan 19s unless the hours suit the club. Toulouse have a centre of excellence for over 18s which includes studying and rugby during the day, I'm not sure how many players they have in this set up. As for playing numbers, there's around 16/17 under 15 teams in France, around 14/15 u17s and u19s teams, For the adults there's 10 elite 1 teams, 9 elite 2, Around 12 dn1/3rd division teams and at most 20 fourth division teams, Teams like Lézignan, limoux, Albi, catalan and Carcassonne have teams in all these categories, so the number of teams doesn't mean the number of clubs in France. This is for the whole of France,

Sounds like the opening credits of the a team

I thought it was Bradford was it called band of gold or something like that?

No he's been playing at Lézignan, played all the games and playing at least 60 mins a game, going through the motions but with the odd glimpse of how good he is when he wants to play.

There was a drama series a few years ago about that or was it a documentary

Some bloke from Valencia or bath, apparently he owns 4 teams, and wants to make elite 1 pro and merge with another competition that's just starting up I've just heard (joke)

Honest reply, no idea,

They're like amateur clubs in the UK, they survive off hand outs from the town, sponsors and money from the presidents, the grounds are all owned by the local council. Same for training facilities etc, stade Gilbert Brutus is owned by the local council.

If you go to Catalan you have to leave home, you have to go to their selection day for the u19s that play in the same comp as all the other u19s, they train 4/5 tmes a week and are hardly paid much if they're part of the elite 1 team, (free for the u19s players ) they have to study around training or work as they train every night, if they get with the reserve elite 1 team it's the same as they train during the day, I believe it's almost the same at toulouse, they don't or aren't allowed to contact players from other clubs (don't know why), they have to kind of negotiate secretly and sell them dreams.

My son is only 16 and played for France u17s last season at 15 years old, he wants to play in England one day soon, 4 or 5 of the players from this team are keen to play in England or Australia, some elite 1 players are keen to play in England this summer too, the problems are visas(since Brexit) and finding clubs interested and willing to provide accommodation etc These kids dream of playing pro but at 18, life takes over, driving licence, college or work etc they stay with their clubs and some manage to play elite 1, train 2 times a week 3 maximum. If these kids where surrounded by pros or pro coaching they'd go a lot further,

A french union player playing 5th or 6th division union earns more than an elite 1 player, so getting scraps from union teams will never happen unless there's money.

Money is needed, either a pro league in France or elite 1 mixed with championship and league 1. The work done in France is amazing saying how many actual RL teams and players there are, They can compete with England at u17s and maybe come close at u19s, saying there's only 14 under 17 teams in the whole of France and less u19s teams it's pretty impressive work by the clubs.