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Best crop of French youngsters I've seen


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36 minutes ago, Damien said:

Like many other SL clubs then.

You'd have thought clubs would have learned by now - its no coincidence that the clubs that have had the most GF success are the ones who bring through the most juniors and embed into their first team as regulars.

Those that try to 'buy success' inevitably fail ! 

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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2 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

You'd have thought clubs would have learned by now - its no coincidence that the clubs that have had the most GF success are the ones who bring through the most juniors and embed into their first team as regulars.

Those that try to 'buy success' inevitably fail ! 

Well don't just single out one club.

The definition of buying success is an awfully subjective term. Plenty of teams that have won stuff have signed plenty of players to do so. I'm not sure why some levels of this are fine and others aren't. Only in RL do some fans seem so against buying success, and usually that argument only seems to apply to certain clubs.

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21 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

1 - Been hearing that for the last 15 years, and even when one does come through they still just buy an overseas player and leave the french lads as back-up players.

2 - They haven't, neither team are champions of their respective leagues

You really don't like the french do you lad..

1 - As has been said on here its the same for all clubs - SL or NRL- they buy the best they can and try to get their good young players to integrate.

2 - Err yes both the French teams have won their leagues and im sure there will be some photos online after the weekend of them holding up their respective trophys. Do you even follow RL kidda??

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38 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

1 - Been hearing that for the last 15 years, and even when one does come through they still just buy an overseas player and leave the french lads as back-up players.

2 - They haven't, neither team are champions of their respective leagues

Wow, some people on here are so miserable and negative 

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I've been critical in the past of McNamara's use of French players but their increased use this year has directly led to their success this year. Bousquet and Goudemand have had by far their best seasons, Dezaria has been a bit of a revelation, Garcia is probably the best 13 in the comp outside Knowles and then you've still got Baitieri and Jullien filling in as well plus the likes of Le Cam and Chan starting to become involved.

Granted, there is more work to do in the backs but Yaha is consistently reliable, Mourgue has delivered several key moments (but needs to become a starter next year) whilst Rouge and Laguerre have looked like future stars when they have had minutes.

There's a difference between wanting them to bring through French players (which this season they undoubtedly have) and expecting them to be the French XIII by proxy. My one big disappointment is that they haven't done everything possible to bring Fages home.

 

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

Well don't just single out one club.

 

Except none of the other clubs were parachuted directly into SL partly on the back of promises to significantly increase french player numbers at the top level and provide a much stronger national team with a view to having regular competitive games with England / GB.

I have nothing against the French clubs as a whole and if Toulouse win promotion then good luck to them, they'll have earned the right to be there, unlike Catalans. It was a similar story with Toronto, they won their way through the lower leagues and earned their place in SL, and I was more than happy to see them in SL on that basis.

 

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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1 hour ago, Mr Frisky said:

2 - Err yes both the French teams have won their leagues and im sure there will be some photos online after the weekend of them holding up their respective trophys. Do you even follow RL kidda??

Hate to break it to you but neither team have won the league title, SL or Championship, the Champions are decided by a play-off system.

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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6 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Except none of the other clubs were parachuted directly into SL partly on the back of promises to significantly increase french player numbers at the top level and provide a much stronger national team with a view to having regular competitive games with England / GB.

I have nothing against the French clubs as a whole and if Toulouse win promotion then good luck to them, they'll have earned the right to be there, unlike Catalans. It was a similar story with Toronto, they won their way through the lower leagues and earned their place in SL, and I was more than happy to see them in SL on that basis.

 

French player numbers have increased quite significantly. That is a fact and beyond doubt.

Have you a link to these promises?

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38 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Hate to break it to you but neither team have won the league title, SL or Championship, the Champions are decided by a play-off system.

Hate to break it to you but both have won their leagues ( hence the trophy Cats have won is the league leaders shield) - your talking about winning a GF - which, as when Leeds won from 6th proves is a totally different thing.

As I said do you watch RL??

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2 hours ago, Mr Frisky said:

Hate to break it to you but both have won their leagues ( hence the trophy Cats have won is the league leaders shield) - your talking about winning a GF - which, as when Leeds won from 6th proves is a totally different thing.

As I said do you watch RL??

Congratulations, they've won a virtually meaningless hubcap. Start crowing if they're ever champions !

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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47 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Congratulations, they've won a virtually meaningless hubcap. Start crowing if they're ever champions !

Honestly?! 

Catalan are doing everything correctly. Great number of young players coming through; after years of investment in the structures needed to produce such players. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Our sport is obsessed with everything being homegrown and done immediately. Reality is far far different. Look at Melbourne. Millions upon millions upon millions pumped into the sport in Victoria and little coming though the pipeline. Catalan are doing brilliantly with far less investment. They should commended, not belittled.

Massive achievement for them to finish top of the regular season; even more so under these extreme circumstances.

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1 minute ago, GeordieSaint said:

Honestly?! 

Catalan are doing everything correctly. Great number of young players coming through; after years of investment in the structures needed to produce such players. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Our sport is obsessed with everything being homegrown and done immediately. Reality is far far different. Look at Melbourne. Millions upon millions upon millions pumped into the sport in Victoria and little coming though the pipeline. Catalan are doing brilliantly with far less investment. They should commended, not belittled.

He sounds bitter because Catalan finished above Saints. There's no other explanation for being so negative about them

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21 hours ago, Mr Frisky said:

Thought we were talking about the league title, not the GF lad.🤣🤣 Clueless.....

 

Now who's clueless - There's no such thing as the league title !!

There's a league leaders shield and the SL Title is decided by the GF - CLUELESS 🤣

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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13 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

Now who's clueless - There's no such thing as the league title !!

There's a league leaders shield and the SL Title is decided by the GF - CLUELESS 🤣

Don't put yourself down son - at least you now accept both the French teams finished top of their leagues- so won them.

Your not totally clueless then...

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I really do find it exceptionally strange when English fans (this is more prominent on other online platforms than on here) are so vehemently opposed to the idea of having Cats/Toulouse in the British system. Having these sides in the competition objectively improves the strength of the French national team - even if the French haven't been as competitive as we'd hope they would without doubt be much worse off without 2 fully professional sides. 

England needs France.

If we want to talk about teams getting 'tonked' look no further than PNG v GB in 2019, indeed the whole tour is a much better example of an underperforming national side than the French. Fast-forward two years and we see England (granted - understrength) lose to a side cobbled together a couple of days prior, overwhelmingly comprised of guys who would not start for the other sides they were eligible for in the WC. Putting aside the unforgiveable context in which the WC postponement occurred, England's performance is perhaps the greatest benefactor of the postponement as they receive a stay of execution that allows another year for some quality young players to develop further. If the WC had gone ahead this year, England were well on track for a Quarter-Final exit. 

As England has slipped further behind, it has become painfully obvious they need a competitive neighbour in their own backyard to provide regular test matches. We've already seen the reluctance of AUS/NZ admin to travel beyond their own countries to make international competition happen, in the current state of play there are likely 6 SH countries on par with or better than England. Considering the perspectives of the AUS/NZ admin, why would they travel across the world to face competition than is equal/lesser than those found at home? 

The consequence of this context is that England needs France to continue to develop into an opponent that can regularly challenge them and provide actual test matches that aren't just Combined Nations expats. The best way this can be facilitated at the present time is through a fully professional Cats/TO, they're both currently bringing through a strong crop of young players that provide hope for achieving competitiveness in the future. There's no guarantee they all kick on to become world-beaters but the fact they are getting the chance is hard to view as anything other than positive.

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On 13/09/2021 at 10:01, Saint Toppy said:

So much for your super french players. Put 12 overseas players in your team and they're competitive, put 12 french players in the team and they get tonked at home by Huddersfield 🤣

Lussick,Sironen & Hopoate,all good St Helens lads.

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Really good news to hear Patrick Alberola taking the reins at the Pole Espoirs in Carcassonne. Has coached Carcassonne and Pia as well as involvement with French set-up too. Lots of experience. Good bloke.

 

Patrick-Alberola-Carcassonne-XIII.webp.da33b7bd2ab8fb015e9b5bc26e88d737.webp

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Pulga said:

For anyone that doesn't know Manu is probably Australia's most famous chef. He's a Frenchman. 

He was recently on that SAS show Sam Burgess won. 

Is that because his culinary expertise extends further than putting a few shrimps on the barbie? 

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