England v France double header 2024

[paulwalker71]

14 hours 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.

Makes sense. If Fev releases Springer and Lacans, then if Toulouse releases two of their players, then surely that's fair enough.

[Barley Mow]

17 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

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.

Yes, that's the theory.

They usually end up making an agreement with clubs that no more than two or three players will be selected from any one club. With France relying much more heavily on players from just two clubs than England do, that can have a big impact - as we saw at Warrington last year. It would have been much better to ensure that Toulouse did not have a match that week.

Edited February 1 by Barley Mow

[marklaspalmas]

Various posters lining up to tell Fev & TO to release their players.

But we can all see something quite different to the normal 'international release of players' rules in these particular circumstances, yeah?

Tremendously bad planning.

[Barley Mow]

58 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Various posters lining up to tell Fev & TO to release their players.

But we can all see something quite different to the normal 'international release of players' rules in these particular circumstances, yeah?

Tremendously bad planning.

The two governing bodies should simply have made it a non-issue by making sure two of the top three clubs providing France's players were not playing that week - never mind playing each other in the same stadium the following day!

[IM2]

On 30/01/2024 at 17:31, moorside roughyed said:

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

I enjoyed it. went with mates I havent seen for a while then went out after. loved it. match was a bit ###### but id rather it happened than didnt. think if its on I think an away game in France first followed by return makes sense. gives France chance to work on it

[Sports Prophet]

On 01/02/2024 at 18:13, marklaspalmas said:

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.

 

I was being very facetious.

In reality, I have no problem with France organising a test match against their strongest local opponent, in Toulouse and backing it up the days after with a Championship fixture against the two most likely Grand Finalists.

As for purchased tickets and flights… I sympathise, but, I am a read the terms kind of guy as well. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is if an invested supporter has lost out financially because of the actions.

[Whippet13]

On 01/02/2024 at 17:30, Barley Mow said:

The two governing bodies should simply have made it a non-issue by making sure two of the top three clubs providing France's players were not playing that week - never mind playing each other in the same stadium the following day!

I think the opposite, they may well have done it precisely because of the international and the RL publicity that will generate. Toulouse playing a competitive home game should bring more attention to them and generate a larger crowd than on any other random weekend.