France U17 v England U17

[Damien]

On 23/07/2022 at 10:17, Gomersall said:

Full stands on either side, 38 to 10 for France after 15 minutes in the 2nd half
 English overwhelmed by French fury!

What a fantastic crowd.

[sweaty craiq]

Watching body shape you can see these lads aren’t in the academy set up

[barnyia]

French team announced, 5 changes made, nice touch from the staff that everyone in the squad gets at least one game!  1 born in 2007 2 in 2006 and the rest in 2005. 

On my way to Marseille, very warm and even worse with the ground being in the city centre right next to the velodrome. 30 degrees but the weather forecast reckons it'll feel more like 39 degrees at kick off, 

Allez les bleues. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by barnyia

[barnyia]

32 to 8 for France, 15 minutes to go, longest match I've ever been too, lying down, water breaks, ref blowing his whistle non stop, 

[barnyia]

38 8 14 to go 

[barnyia]

44 to. 8 7 minutes to play 

[barnyia]

44 14 no idea how long is left 

[barnyia]

Try from kick off by France 48 14 game over 

[Eddie]

Over 1,000 people for a youth international in Marseille. Shows there is still some interest in the game in that area, and that international games attract crowds. 

[Dunbar]

Well done France and what a terrific turnout.

[The Daddy]

France U17 coach, "We have a golden generation".

https://treizemondial.fr/patrick-limongi-on-a-une-generation-en-or/ 

[sweaty craiq]

10 hours ago, The Daddy said:

France U17 coach, "We have a golden generation".

https://treizemondial.fr/patrick-limongi-on-a-une-generation-en-or/ 

Then let’s pray they can be competitive on the intl stage in 5 years or so

[glossop saint]

3 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Then let’s pray they can be competitive on the intl stage in 5 years or so

Let's hope they get the opportunity to develop. I was just reading on the Elite 1 thread how due to Brexit there were limited opportunities to join championship teams. Hopefully the SL clubs (including but not exclusively Catalan and TO) pick them up and help them shine.

[Eddie]

Let’s hope they don’t get picked up by French Union clubs too, I don’t know how many part time players get paid in Elite 1 but I suspect most are not even on par with salaries in the third tier of French Union. 

[Saint Toppy]

While they may all be in the same age group, and without detracting from the French performance & result, it wasn't exactly a 'like for like player comparison. Most (if not all) of the French lads are associated with Pro / semi-pro clubs and have received that level of coaching. None of the English lads are in the Scholarships / Academies of any of the English Pro / semi-pro clubs.

We'll never know what the result would have been had England sent over a team made up of their best players in that age group. 

[glossop saint]

14 minutes ago, Saint Toppy said:

While they may all be in the same age group, and without detracting from the French performance & result, it wasn't exactly a 'like for like player comparison. Most (if not all) of the French lads are associated with Pro / semi-pro clubs and have received that level of coaching. None of the English lads are in the Scholarships / Academies of any of the English Pro / semi-pro clubs.

We'll never know what the result would have been had England sent over a team made up of their best players in that age group. 

To be fair that has been pointed out and acknowledged. I don't think any sensible person would expect a similar result against a '1st team' of a similar age group. 

Regardless it would be good to nurture them and the coach obviously thinks they've got a good group.

[barnyia]

7 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:

While they may all be in the same age group, and without detracting from the French performance & result, it wasn't exactly a 'like for like player comparison. Most (if not all) of the French lads are associated with Pro / semi-pro clubs and have received that level of coaching. None of the English lads are in the Scholarships / Academies of any of the English Pro / semi-pro clubs.

We'll never know what the result would have been had England sent over a team made up of their best players in that age group. 

Not this again, No they're not, they're all from clubs in the French leagues, I've heard this a few times since the first game, if you're being picky, 2 Lads have signed for Halifax academy in the English team and I've seen photos of two in the Wakefield scholarship shirts and one in Castleford, 

My son plays for Lézignan u17s coached by one of the players dad's, I've coached my son from u5s and he's  never had a coaching session from a pro coach or a paid coach, all the others are the same, elite 1 teams are the equivalent of st pat's, it's your local club, you start there and if you stay you can play up to u19s , everyone is welcome, when I coached the 19s I had French u19s  internationals down to lads who want to give it a try and never played before, it's semi pro in the first team, ( with paymens between 200 euros and 1400 euros a month,  all the players come from clubs dotted around the south of France, Carpentras are in elite 2, salon too, Lyon have no adult team, limoux, Lézignan, Carcassonne, Toulouse (amateur elite 1) XIIi Catalan (not Catalan dragons) Villeneuve sur Lot, etc all coached by volunteers and parents if the players are lucky enough to make the first team they then get coached by a semi pro coach,   there is no money in France, there are 14 u19s teams in the whole of France, Toulouse and Catalan don't invest in French RL, there are more teams in the north west of England  than the whole of France, 

I've coached over here from u5s to u19s and now I'm an assistant in elite 1 and still helping out with my youngest son in the u15s I've a total of 22 years experience in France as a player and coach so I have a pretty good idea where the players come from, 14 of the squad are lucky enough to be part of the pole espoirs,  it's extra rugby after school, nothing to do with pro clubs or the Catalans or Toulouse,  

France had 2 15 year olds and two 16 years olds (first year u17s ) play in the second test. 

They can only play the team the English send over, yes it would have been different with academy players, but would have been a close game, 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by barnyia

[UTK]

20 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:

While they may all be in the same age group, and without detracting from the French performance & result, it wasn't exactly a 'like for like player comparison. Most (if not all) of the French lads are associated with Pro / semi-pro clubs and have received that level of coaching. None of the English lads are in the Scholarships / Academies of any of the English Pro / semi-pro clubs.

We'll never know what the result would have been had England sent over a team made up of their best players in that age group. 

To provide somewhat of an answer to the hypothetical posed in your last sentence on the previous page of the thread you'll notice I've gone through some of the recent results of full-strength England Academy v France age group teams and the French regularly beat their England academy counterparts.

Obviously the scorelines aren't as significant but from what I can tell over the last 5-6 years the French have won on more occasions than England.