barnyia

Thompson does a lot of work but seems to always be the support runner to another forward and second or third man into the tackle. Tough work but the aussies don't seem to have 3 to 4 players in the tackle and all his tackles seem to finish with him around the legs, in the early games it was like he was pacing himself, maybe the new coach has noticed that and told him to do more in shorter stints. When he does take the ball up he runs very hard and often wins the tackle and gets a quick play the ball

He'd make less metres in the pack. Yes he's passed it and wouldn't have scored a couple of the 5 tries that the other winger scored, but he does a job and can't be blamed for not trying or not getting scoring opportunities.

If he's not getting scoring opportunities on the wing it's not his fault, if he's not doing his work in the middle or coming looking for the ball it's his fault, by his stats he's not being lazy, with Robinsons game plan I reckon he'll be happy with halls performances and stats, the roosters play with speed through the middle and prefer to hit a second row outwide one on one and get another quick play the ball than pass to the wing and get caught close to the touch line.

Bateman and Williams make a good partnership on the right hand side.

Ricky Stuart's tactics? Every time he does the drop off its to get near the posts to set up an attack or to attack a particular player.. It is a little boring to see, like giving up a tackle or an attacking chance. But it is the nrl, so most teams play the percentage /safety game (not a criticism)

His dad is English, Sam burgess said it on the matty johns show if I remember right

Tupau only touched the ball once in an attacking sense, they where breaking through too easily to need to go around Brisbane

Hit a lot of balls up, looked shakey in defence

Don't forget that Williams came through the wigan system when they played a very very structured game, that fed through to the academy etc, Which is even more impressive that he can adapt to off the cuff rugby

To put his price up even more?

He's normally a full back isn't he?

He started limping after the first ball he took up, was definitely not 100% after that, I thought he had a good game in a bad team

Hère in France they've tried the same set up but with 3 x 8 from the beginning, it's just coming to the split now were the groups become smaller, nobody seems to know what is happening, the games seem to being played and nobody seems to be interested! To make things worse over here, is that we've a bonus system and teams are going for goal whilst losing 22 12 with 20 mins to go just to get the losing bonus points, The icing on the cake is the top division teams get 2 bonus points if they've a 7 a side women's team! You need 7 girls signed on to qualify, You think you've got it bad over there!

Loved the 4 hit ups at the end and then the tackle! Great advert for rl.

hello alot of the new clubs have come fom old clubs from higher levels breaking up and creating extra teams at lower levels; here in carcassonne le cabardes were in elite 2 last year and have stopped, just from the cabardes team 4 teams have been formed or reformed, each team has 3 or 4 players from cabardes and the rest are new players from football or handball, the cost for cabardes playing in elite 2 was enormous considering its around 1500 euros for a bus and a driver for the day.the long trips around france including paris, lyon and entraigues, the closest away game was toulouse which is 1 hours drive, and there is not much amateur sport in france, not many people play for free, also the cost of a playing licence in elite 2 is quite expensive, the clubs being formed are mostly all in the stronghold and around perpignan its massive now, the dragons are having a good effect but only in the stronghold as the rest of france never hear anything about league,

hello All the clubs wanted a local aude league but the aude commitee left it too late, as the clubs recieved the fixtures at the beginning of september,it was too late to change the fixtures. when the aude clubs saw that we had 3 mini leagues mixed with the catalans we weren't very happy.so the the comite de l'aude have decided to have another competition running alongside the original competition with two leagues of 4 who play each other home and away then play cross league games for different cups, 1st v 1st for the aude cup, 2 v 2 for the shield and so on, so infact we've lots of games and lots of cups for no real reason. why have it simple when you can make it difficult!!! Its a shame has they've put the 4 strongest teams in one league and the weakest in the other!!!! Carcassonne are pushing strongly with junior development they have a rugby school in the city and lots of sattelite clubs in the surrounding villages which are coached and helped out by the carcassonne club and the players are under the carcassonne club. since the catalans started new clubs are appearing eveywhere in the rl stronghold of the south. pity the media coverage is terrible everywhere else.if you see rugby league in the national papers in franceit's because someone has been caught for drugs or the french national team have lost with 70 points, even in local papers in carcassonne(which is very good for rl) you struggle to find the toulouse results. alan

also audois check out the site www.dragonsgavatx.fr then the galerie, there's over 100 photos of the game plus photos of all the elite finals and frederale games.

He's not done anything!!! thats the problem, i've heard he's not interested and just enjoying the good life in the south of france. they hope that putting him in the lower grades may force him out, but the same money to play at a lower level!!!! Thanks Audois we where getting ready but the games have been cancelled for the french rl's magic weekend. The game to come to see, will be against villeghailanc xiii,players from both teams are good mates and most of us played together last year for le cabardes in elite 2. the text messages between the players have started already. i believe its on the 17th october.

xiii catalan/st esteve is the reserve of the dragons. a few of their younger players play for both teams.

hello daniel wagon has signed up as player coach, and chris walker has been demoted to the st esteve treize catalans team. i believe they're trying to get him to break his contract rather than the catalans sacking him!!!

hello i read in the french paper that in the lower union competitions they will have just one chance at the scrum. any infringement its a penalty straight away and if the ball comes out and the scrum collapses its play on. barney

on the french websites and the villeneuve sur lot site, it says he's signed to come over to france and play for villeneuve, barney

hello lezignan are paying out good money for wages, they are recruting all the best players and are spending big money to win a championship that they could spend less money and still win easily. I would like to see them in the championship but it would kill the elite 1 league. Also its not really a place to spend a long weekend, i've had a couple of good nights in lezignan but a weekend would be way too long, there's 4 cafe's and 6 restaurants in lezignan, The place is rugby league through and through and almost every rugby league team in france will have a player in there team that has passed through the lezignan ecole de rugby. barney

we could send the wingers on a aussie rules football crash course!!!!