Sun 30 Oct: RLWC: Samoa v France KO 17:00

[EagleEyePie]

12 hours ago, eal said:

This France team are very poor and way off the pace of the elite nations and even the tier below that. I think we always talk up how things are improving in France out of hopefulness, but on the international stage at least they seem as bad as they've ever been.

Do the French have any more quality than they did say 3-5 years ago? I know there are a few players missing but their squad for this world cup is appallingly weak. Are there really any genuine top quality players in that side. In years gone by at least in the past they had a few forwards who you'd think could go toe to toe with some big names, the likes of Ferrioll, Casty, Bousquets etc. but their pack is so poor.

Just having increased numbers of French players doesn't seem to have improved the talent pool very much.

[Harry Stottle]

2 hours ago, StandOffHalf said:

I don't want to see him hurt but he could certainly do with being knocked off his high horse.

I've been involved in this sport for a very long time, and there has always been those who have that arrogance and swagger about them that fans want to see them taken down a peg or two but invariably the dislike for them comes from being very adapt at what they do on the field of play. 

[Davo5]

4 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Hi Ray, these days the World Cup is the pinnicle of our game and all other International fixtures should be utilised to build up to the next one, considering the next one has the shorter time span of 3 years to get ready and prepare for time is at a premium and should be utilised accordingly.

Now, should England win this tournament they must not rest on their laurels they should play the best teams to maintain monentum, conversely should they not win it this year, a programme to play the best should also be sought after, it is a well known fact that any individual or team only improves by competing against better opponents.

Whilst all that is very true in respect of France playing England does it really help and assist England's preperation? Mr Wane quite rightly for very insular reasons opted to play a team of stronger opponents from SL representing other nationalities rather than France in this year's preperation for this tournament, considering that will Mr Wane opt for helping the French to improve on an annual basis before the next WC when he could ask for more meaningful fixtures even if it means travelling to the other side of the planet or inviting better than France to these shores, this may sound inward-looking but the England management should only be concerned with their own preperation and not other nations if that includes France so be it.

Surely England can do both.

[Harry Stottle]

5 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Surely England can do both.

A question Dav, knowing Mr Wane as you should do being a Wigan fan do you think he would want other than the best preperation possible going into the next tournament?

Yes, I still think he will be the England coach come '25, if he wins it he will want to do it again to prove to himself that it was no fluke, lose it and he will consider he has some unfinished business to attend to, he is one of those characters who doesn't take kindly to being second best.

[Damien]

38 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

There’s been some shocking calls in this World Cup,the Aussie refs seem lost without the bunkers constant involvement,having said that Hicks & a few VR’s have made some awful decisions to.

As I said previously I'm not sure why the IRL are allowing NRL refs with little NRL refeering experience. In some cases some of these referees haven't refereed a NRL game for quite some time and have been merely touch judges. Providing work experience for NRL referees is not what this tournament is about.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Damien

[Davo5]

19 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

A question Dav, knowing Mr Wane as you should do being a Wigan fan do you think he would want other than the best preperation possible going into the next tournament?

Yes, I still think he will be the England coach come '25, if he wins it he will want to do it again to prove to himself that it was no fluke, lose it and he will consider he has some unfinished business to attend to, he is one of those characters who doesn't take kindly to being second best.

You do realise we have very few options in the NH.

We bang on about Australian indifference to international RL,given we haven’t beat them for nearly 2 decades yet you advocate the same in regards to France.

[Davo5]

16 minutes ago, Damien said:

As I said previously I'm not sure why the IRL are allowing NRL refs with little NRL refeering experience. In some cases some of these referees haven't refereed a NRL game for quite some time and have been merely touch judges. Providing work experience for NRL referees is not what this tournament is about.

Oh I agree with you but our own officials have been culpable of some shocking decisions too.

[StandOffHalf]

39 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I've been involved in this sport for a very long time, and there has always been those who have that arrogance and swagger about them that fans want to see them taken down a peg or two but invariably the dislike for them comes from being very adapt at what they do on the field of play. 

It's not really to do with how he plays. His contemptuousness and attitude just don't appeal to me, Harry.

[MatthewWoody]

14 hours ago, SydneyRoosters said:

France have 96% French born players, having 1 Heritage/Residency player is fine, even having half the squad heritage is alright, But Samoa are entirely Heritage.

If your wife has been in England for 20 years she’s English, most of these Samoan boys have never stepped foot in the country. 

By the way Heritage players definitely don’t make the international game more competitive, we’ve seen Italy, Scotland, Cook Islands, Even Samoa and a lot of other heritage filled nations get destroyed by 60+ points.

it would be worse with teams made of Amateur players

[Harry Stottle]

6 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

You do realise we have very few options in the NH.

We bang on about Australian indifference to international RL,given we haven’t beat them for nearly 2 decades yet you advocate the same in regards to France.

Again Dav, what do you think Mr Wane would want and desire, get the best preperation possible for his team or assist France in theirs?

I think we both know the answer to that, hence him turning down the opportunity to play France mid season, it doesn't matter what you or I advocate Mr Wanes priority is to England no one else.

[Harry Stottle]

8 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

It's not really to do with how he plays. His contemptuousness and attitude just don't appeal to me, Harry.

Yes and the game has been littered with those over the year's.

[Davo5]

15 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Again Dav, what do you think Mr Wane would want and desire, get the best preperation possible for his team or assist France in theirs?

I think we both know the answer to that, hence him turning down the opportunity to play France mid season, it doesn't matter what you or I advocate Mr Wanes priority is to England no one else.

And again we don’t have any real options other than playing France & possibly Wales regularly,we need to help NH nations develop to provide competitive opposition.

[Guest]

Always nice when people tell us of mixed backgrounds what we should feel about our heritage.

Great stuff. 

[Dave T]

10 hours ago, Jean de Bordeaux said:

Big mistake to not have admitted Toulouse in SuperLeague for a 2 years franchise !

Impossible for us to have a decent national team.

I think it is a dangerous rabbit hole to go down to believe we deliver international development trough SL. 

[Harry Stottle]

42 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

And again we don’t have any real options other than playing France & possibly Wales regularly,we need to help NH nations develop to provide competitive opposition.

At OUR expense other than focusing on OUR preperation for WC '25?

Anyway read back my first post, I did say play better teams even if it means we have to travel overseas or invite them here.

Also I take it you agree with me regarding Mr Wane, unlike you to avoid any input when you have something to say!

 

[Davo5]

36 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

At OUR expense other than focusing on OUR preperation for WC '25?

Anyway read back my first post, I did say play better teams even if it means we have to travel overseas or invite them here.

Also I take it you agree with me regarding Mr Wane, unlike you to avoid any input when you have something to say!

 

Didn’t I state we should be playing both,unfortunately we can’t play the Southern Hemisphere teams mid season & tours down there tend to lose money unless it involves Australia & they don’t want to play us every year so again we need to help the NH nations to get better to give us more competitive games,is that really that hard to understand.

[Harry Stottle]

7 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Didn’t I state we should be playing both,unfortunately we can’t play the Southern Hemisphere teams mid season & tours down there tend to lose money unless it involves Australia & they don’t want to play us every year so again we need to help the NH nations to get better to give us more competitive games,is that really that hard to understand.

And Mr Wane, I asked you direct questions about him Dav why keep avoiding to answer?

[Davo5]

2 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

And Mr Wane, I asked you direct questions about him Dav why keep avoiding to answer?

I don’t know him so I haven’t a clue but I do hope that both him & the RFL I don’t share your silly self-centred views & can appreciate the bigger picture.

[Harry Stottle]

3 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

I don’t know him so I haven’t a clue but I do hope that both him & the RFL I don’t share your silly self-centred views & can appreciate the bigger picture.

OK, "I don't know him" that has never stopped you having an opinion about many others previously.

There is no bigger picture than our national team winning the WC Dav.

[Davo5]

3 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

OK, "I don't know him" that has never stopped you having an opinion about many others previously.

There is no bigger picture than our national team winning the WC Dav.

Yeah ok 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

I don't get why people think that England playing France regularly will improve France because it won't. It will just mean France get whacked regularly, the players won't magically get better. If France want to be competitive they need better players, it's as simple as that. More French players in SL and some in the NRL would help but they need to be good enough to play at that level. France has much deeper problems than not playing England regularly.

[JohnM]

19 hours ago, Hvy wg said:

Serbia should have made the world cup 

Who made it, then? Serbia not known for its trophy-making skills.

[JohnM]

3 minutes ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

I don't get why people think that England playing France regularly will improve France because it won't. It will just mean France get whacked regularly, the players won't magically get better. If France want to be competitive they need better players, it's as simple as that. More French players in SL and some in the NRL would help but they need to be good enough to play at that level. France has much deeper problems than not playing England regularly.

I agree. A parallel with soccer: national teams of smaller countries benfitting from their players in Premiership teams, German,French leagues