kiggy

James is staying, Daniel not. Unsure about Ilias, I assume staying (for now). Lloyd won't play again, he had a massive operation to fix his back, which is a shame for him. Lucas has an ACL injury and probably won't play for anyone before the end of May next year anyway.

Did seem a bit harsh to be honest. If the player is on their feet then fair enough, some skill is needed from the tackler(s) to keep the player up. On their knees is a bit rough though. A couple of the other "stripping" decisions were a bit off too. Wouldn't make much difference to the result though, NZ are a very good side. I do have a soft spot for the French No4, Lauréane, she came over for a weekend to help chop logs

Money, timing, availability. Plus the Ford/Killer mess didn't help.

Are you allowed to drag players into touch when they are on their knees?

iPlayer is geo-locked for something-something-or-something-rights-problems. We get the Red button OK, but it depends on your receiver. Sky and Humax boxes are OK.

An hour before the France v Samoa game we were out with the dogs and met 3 local lads we know, all under 12, all play Rugby 15's for the local club. We asked if they were excited about the French match...blank looks. The Rugby world cup... blank looks... You know, le Rugby a treize ? The response ... "Oh, no idea that was on, anyway, who wants to play treize? " That's the problem the FFR have.

Players released from contracts will get paid chomage...i.e. by the state. I believe it is 80% of your last job earnings for a year (I hear they are changing these rules...not sure if it has already been changed). So someone could be released and go to play Elite, the partners put up an apartment and car via the club and the player gets 7 months in the sun playing at a not-too-high-level.

Yes he did, and I think Cas too. Also coached TO and France. We joked about him coming out of retirement as a half as TO need a couple.

I would also love to see a French win, albeit by a few points. It does depend on better luck with a few things; a referee who spots forward passes, Gigot not having a brain fart and kicking a good game (a couple of 40-20's might help behind the Samoan defence), Éloi having another good game. Some solid defence. Justine not dropping the ball etc. I met Glen Knight on the flight back to France, I had no idea he lived up the road from me, he stopped to chat about Toulouse. We had a chat about the French team in general. I think we agreed that France would come up short against the Samoans but are happy to be proved otherwise.

I heard that Laguerre might be switching to the 1st team. Having said that, he will probably go to Fev now, like the rest of the young French lads have done recently

There is a Catholic school about 10mins walk just north of the stadium that charges £5, I was pleasantly surprised getting out, turned left, took the road via Rivington to Chorley, back in Lytham in under an hour. Great being at the match though, my first international and France made a fist of it. I'm glad Eloi is one of the players staying at TO next season

Is there parking the other side in Park Lands?

Big win by the English but we will be watching all the same. Just shared the plane over with Remi Casty, he is a genuinely nice bloke, and Mrs Pellisier and kids. Lots of French lads on the same flight going to the match too.

Of all the TO comings and goings over the last few weeks this one has grieved me the most. It was only a month ago that he was committing to TO and Sylvain for the forthcoming season. Talking to his parents end of last season they were saying he wouldn't stay at TO if they went down as he wanted to keep playing at a SL club, which is fair enough, but to see him do this and go to another Championship side is hard to take. TO just couldn't match his contract demands.

I can guarantee that Saints will field a close to full team next week, last run out before the play offs.

TO don't begrudge paying for the part-time teams - it has aways been so... it's the (SL) full time teams that they think should pay their own way.

I think that European teams should be encouraged to "bring" as much as they can to SL Europe. Stronger teams outside of the UK, coupled with a growing fan base can only be good for all teams. If you have to rely on NRL players to boost your chances of promotion to said SL (Leigh, Toulouse, etc), then the local pool of players is getting shallower. Why not promote the game in other rugby playing countries such as France, Italy, Georgia etc. It would only make the player pool stronger. Otherwise we get the same old same old merry-go-round of players shifting from team to team each season.

Oh, I think you could find a better word than childish. That's not the feeling in the camp.

Yes, very disappointing about the TV deal, Catalans have the same problem convincing the powers that be that it is a good idea. It has cost them an absolutely huge amount of money to get this far, it really does depends on a generous benefactor to go further. It's a shame as that, as ever, it boils down to money.

If they do manage to get into top position next season, and it's a huge "if" considering they may not even compete, let's hope they can convince the SL teams to pay for their own travel. The extra 300k would be better spent on recruitment.

Yes, exactly, a Marion sin bin for eff all which turned the match. Another "what's the point trying when this happens". Still, plenty of people quite happy to see the back of them. Let's hope they are back to poke the M62 tiger.

It was broken earlier than that to be honest. They reached the "what's the point" point a while ago

Gigot with COVID. Irrespective of the Trinity match I think this will be an easy win for Catalan and TO will have to regroup for the next season.

Depends. Charterering, if the teams want a fast turn around is about 30k return. Scheduled is a lot cheaper but the days where you get 100£ returns are long gone. I would be asking for receipts if I was the TO accountant! I don't know how it works but I would have thought some sort of invoice must be presented by the travelling club.

Bachelor's mushy peas are advertised in the Toulouse match day programme, I wonder how much revenue they make and what target audience they are aiming for. Advertisers need to expand their market to the maximum.