Kenya v France

[rlno1]

14 hours ago, Mumby Magic said:

This is why we should have an open World Cup Qualifying Tournament where only the hosts and previous winners qualify. Imagine starting a World Cup of RL in Brazil, Kenya via Jamaica or Cook Islands and it ends at Wembley or Sydney. 

 

Sorry I just woke up....

 

The NRL couldn't make a profit

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Gomersall

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

 

[Gomersall]

They must have had a recount.

 

[Odsal Outlaw]

That’s more like what I expected in the first match, assume less travel fatigue and maybe more fresh faces for France in the game than Kenya?

Still looks like a positive trip overall.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Odsal Outlaw

[Gomersall]

 

[theswanmcr]

14 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

 

Great to see Castleford hosting an international match.

[JonM]

Just now, theswanmcr said:

Great to see Castleford hosting an international match.

I was thinking Maxime Greseque must have fond memories of the fans at Post Office Road 

[Neil_Ormston]

On 02/12/2023 at 11:47, JonM said:

We don't have an official definition of a test match in RL. I believe the record keepers club or whatever they're called has come up with some formulation along the lines of recognised senior men's international. As it's off-season for Catalans and Toulouse (and I believe Catalans are the last to start their pre-season), I suggest it's probably the best squad they could put out for players who are available to fly out to East Africa for a few days in December. France have explicitly said that this is not France A, or France B, it's the full France team.

Kenya have won the World Rugby (sic) Sevens comp. They have some very fast & elusive runners and some huge forwards - there's plenty of potential there and it's a huge boost to get a country like France visiting. They're not likely to get that in football or rugby union. Amazing what Eddie Rombo, Lucas Onyango and other Kenyans who played RL here in the UK have been able to go back and set up.

Do you think anyone in the Pacific cared that BARLA wasn't a full strength GB team when they did the tour that helped the sport get going in Tonga, Fiji, Cook Islands etc. or when the King of Tonga turned up to meet them?

France had a 21 hour journey from Toulouse to Nairobi. They're playing at 1795 metres altitude, they arrived on Friday night and are playing Saturday afternoon and another game on Tuesday. We've seen GB teams struggle in PNG under similar conditions, this will be a good test for those players.

I genuinely don't get the negativity around this. France beat Gibraltar 14-0 in a football European championship match this week. I don't see football fans calling the Euros a waste of time or whatever.

 

I found this thread whilst doing some work for the Record Keepers' Club on the international games this season. I thought this would be of interest: https://www.intrl.sport/news/why-sims-not-tests/

Well worth reading the full piece, as it's not too long, but in short, IRL's official term for a match played for world rankings points is "Recognised Senior International Match". At the RKC we use the shorthand "Full International" for this, as it's more commonly used and has historical relevance. The RKC worked with IRL in provided the summary linked above, and was part of IRL's History & Heritage Group who compiled the historic list of Full Internationals, which are used as IRL's official records; the RKC has also aligned to this list for all the international stats on our website.

HTH.