England v France double header 2024

[moorside roughyed]

No thanks. Went to the last one at Warrington,it was grim. Shame as I love the Halliwell Jones.

[crashmon]

  England v France in France is what we have asking for..... Just need Cats and Tolouse to allow the french to field a full team.....   Much better than England vs Milky way Galaxy allstars (or whatever combined nations passes for in 2024)

[wilsontown]

Combined Nations has been entertaining but it isn't a proper international. I think there's a place for it though.

[JM2010]

Where is it being played?

[JM2010]

Just read the article. It’s in Toulouse. Won’t be any Toulouse players in the squad though as they are playing the day after

[Gomersall]

23 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Just read the article. It’s in Toulouse. Won’t be any Toulouse players in the squad though as they are playing the day after

I don’t get the logic of virtually guaranteeing that there will be no TO players in the French team.  I’m not confident it will be much of a challenge for England. If the French aren’t willing to take the match seriously then what’s the point of it?

[Lowdesert]

Got a link to that mate?

[Gomersall]

1 minute ago, Lowdesert said:

Got a link to that mate?

Unconfirmed.
https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/double-header-international-seemingly-confirmed-for-england-rugby-league-87726/

[Lowdesert]

Thanks G.  I’ll give that one a miss.  
 

Can't find anything on the FFR13 website.
 

[Lowdesert]

Ah.  Steve Brady tweet from Catalans media. 
 

 

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Lowdesert said:

Ah.  Steve Brady tweet from Catalans media. 
 

 

Common sense at last.

[sam4731]

If it's not on Bastille Day, I'm not interested.

[moorside roughyed]

19 hours ago, wilsontown said:

Combined Nations has been entertaining but it isn't a proper international. I think there's a place for it though.

Agreed .

[sam4731]

22 hours ago, wilsontown said:

Combined Nations has been entertaining but it isn't a proper international. I think there's a place for it though.

I would prefer an all stars game pre season. Not sure the combined nations route is the way to go though as I don't like England packaged as such outside internationals.

[barnyia]

triple header with Toulouse v featherstone? Bit of a surprise that the Toulouse players won't be playing for France, same for the couple of french players at featherstone. 

[Damien]

14 minutes ago, barnyia said:

triple header with Toulouse v featherstone? Bit of a surprise that the Toulouse players won't be playing for France, same for the couple of french players at featherstone. 

Yeah it's really poor. England can cope with any loss of players but France certainly can't.

[Whippet13]

I've not seen anything to say eligible Toulouse/ Featherstone players won't be selected for France. SL clubs have had players pulled to play for England in recent years up to a maximum(2?) so I don't see why anything different will apply for these two teams.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

57 minutes ago, Whippet13 said:

I've not seen anything to say eligible Toulouse/ Featherstone players won't be selected for France. SL clubs have had players pulled to play for England in recent years up to a maximum(2?) so I don't see why anything different will apply for these two teams.

How many French players would be picked from the Toulouse side? I imagine a fair chunk, which would ruin their chances of competing against Featherstone.

Typical rugby league. One step forward, 2 steps back.

[Sports Prophet]

On 31/01/2024 at 02:49, Gomersall said:

I don’t get the logic of virtually guaranteeing that there will be no TO players in the French team.  I’m not confident it will be much of a challenge for England. If the French aren’t willing to take the match seriously then what’s the point of it?

 

On 31/01/2024 at 02:20, JM2010 said:

Just read the article. It’s in Toulouse. Won’t be any Toulouse players in the squad though as they are playing the day after

I assume Featherstone won’t be releasing any players for England either, so it may still be an even matchup.

[Gomersall]

Don’t you posh Aussies have a hunt ball or something you should be attending?

[marklaspalmas]

11 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

 

I assume Featherstone won’t be releasing any players for England either, so it may still be an even matchup.

The game is 5 months away but there are Rovers fans who have bought flights and made arrangements for the match on Saturday. I wonder if the club was consulted about the change to Sunday.

Springer, and perhaps Lacans, would expect to be in the French squad. In terms of the England squad, even our better players would be a long shot.

 

[gingerjon]

Not like French Rugby League to shoot themselves in the foot with both barrels.

[Barley Mow]

30 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Not like French Rugby League to shoot themselves in the foot with both barrels.

Isn't this the RFL's fault?

They have agreed an International event for that weekend, they have factored a break in the Super League season to account for it, but have chosen not to have a break in the Championship fixtures - knowing the impact it would have on France's strength due to Toulouse being in the Championship. It is the RFL that run the Championship not FFR XIII. The fact that the FFR XIII have chosen to play the game in Toulouse with TO at home the next day is largely incidental in my opinion - the RFL shouldn't have had TO playing a match that week.

I do recall some fans of Championship clubs complaining that they had a break for last year's international when none of their players were involved, but I think the RFL really should have given this more consideration, even if it was just TO and their opponent who didn't play that week.

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

Isn't this the RFL's fault?

They have agreed an International event for that weekend, they have factored a break in the Super League season to account for it, but have chosen not to have a break in the Championship fixtures - knowing the impact it would have on France's strength due to Toulouse being in the Championship. It is the RFL that run the Championship not FFR XIII. The fact that the FFR XIII have chosen to play the game in Toulouse with TO at home the next day is largely incidental in my opinion - the RFL shouldn't have had TO playing a match that week.

I do recall some fans of Championship clubs complaining that they had a break for last year's international when none of their players were involved, but I think the RFL really should have given this more consideration, even if it was just TO and their opponent who didn't play that week.

A fair response.

[Sports Prophet]

42 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

Isn't this the RFL's fault?

They have agreed an International event for that weekend, they have factored a break in the Super League season to account for it, but have chosen not to have a break in the Championship fixtures - knowing the impact it would have on France's strength due to Toulouse being in the Championship. It is the RFL that run the Championship not FFR XIII. The fact that the FFR XIII have chosen to play the game in Toulouse with TO at home the next day is largely incidental in my opinion - the RFL shouldn't have had TO playing a match that week.

I do recall some fans of Championship clubs complaining that they had a break for last year's international when none of their players were involved, but I think the RFL really should have given this more consideration, even if it was just TO and their opponent who didn't play that week.

I think as the Championship is a sanctioned league of the RFL, then the clubs would also fall under the requirement to either release players or not play them on a weekend where any such player has been selected for a sanctioned IRL match. Should the player wish to play for their nation of course.

Similar in the way the NRL clubs had no leg to stand on to stop their players playing in Denver all those years ago.