Sat 29th Jun: France Vs England. Stade Ernest-Wallon 17:00 BST (SL+)

[Skids]

6 minutes ago, latchford albion said:

It was the second time he said it as well.

Shambles 

[sam4731]

We can't give France any more help to make this fixture competitive. No fan interest, no commercial interest, no broadcasting interest. It was a valiant effort but there's no point playing the fixture until France improve their standards drastically.

There's genuinely a chance that the Knights could beat France.

[StandOffHalf]

Nice heads-up play from Smith to dab it over for Johnstone's wing after the French drop-out. Johnstone crosses for another. He is a silky, wonderfully fast wing-man.

Side-line conversion good as well, to make the final score 40-8.

[Hopie]

That game as total merde.

England were awful and beat France 8 tries to 1. Learnt nothing.

[StandOffHalf]

I enjoyed the game and the French coverage on Sport en France.

I think this is something worth persisting with, although it might be better as a later evening kick-off in Perpignan.

[north yorks trinity]

2 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

We can't give France any more help to make this fixture competitive. No fan interest, no commercial interest, no broadcasting interest. It was a valiant effort but there's no point playing the fixture until France improve their standards drastically.

There's genuinely a chance that the Knights could beat France.

That wasn't far off the Knights if we had all players available. Well half way there probably. But not sure how things will improve by not playing. Bit like the mentality that said retreat to smaller stadiums in the north for internationals till they get taken more seriously!

[Mumby Magic]

2 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

We can't give France any more help to make this fixture competitive. No fan interest, no commercial interest, no broadcasting interest. It was a valiant effort but there's no point playing the fixture until France improve their standards drastically.

There's genuinely a chance that the Knights could beat France.

You pull the fixture it gives France no bench mark to work towards. To pull it I'd a very RL thing to do and we wonder why we are in the position we see ourselves in as a sport.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

7 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

But I still don't get why a keen supporter would give up.

If you listed all of the reasons why people attend sports events, then checked that list with this game, and the next game, you'd see why supporters give up.

[StandOffHalf]

1 minute ago, Hopie said:

That game as total merde.

England were awful and beat France 8 tries to 1. Learnt nothing.

18-8 and Goudemand fumbles the ball over the line. 18-14 with French tails up would have made things more interesting.

Easy to get hung up on the score. I think there are things to build upon there.

England's speed and incisiveness was the big difference.

[Trojan Horse]

Left edge superb. Defended everything, caused havoc and went well. Right edge pretty poor today overall. Wasn’t impressed by the forwards today either. 
 

 A few players today not really good enough. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

5 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

I enjoyed the game and the French coverage on Sport en France.

I think this is something worth persisting with, although it might be better as a later evening kick-off in Perpignan.

I enjoyed it up France still being within a couple of scores but after that it becomes a foregone conclusion and I lose interest

The coverage was not great for me.....specifically the very quiet stadium noise ....feels weird

[StandOffHalf]

Just now, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I enjoyed it up France still being within a couple of scores but after that it becomes a foregone conclusion and I lose interest

The coverage was not great for me.....specifically the very quiet stadium noise ....feels weird

Yes, the lack of pitch-side/stand atmosphere was the biggest shortcoming in terms of the French coverage. I suppose the mics simply weren't there.

[Damien]

There has to real questions asked about why the crowd tanked for this fixture and how we can improve things.

We've had plenty of decent crowds in France for this fixture with 16,866 and 14,276 in Avignon and considerably more than we saw today in Perpignan, Paris and even Toulouse had 8,326 the last time.

Edited June 29 by Damien

[graveyard johnny]

Was talking to a coach from lock lane today - he had no idea the game was taking place- WTF?

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

There has to real questions asked about why the crowd tanked for this fixture and how we can improve things.

We've had plenty of decent crowds in France for this fixture with 16,866 and 14,276 in Avignon and considerably more than we saw today in Perpignan, Paris and even Toulouse had 8,326 the last time.

I fear they may release a crowd figure over 5000 when it was about 2000

[eal]

As predicted, talk of a French victory was madness. I think people forget just how far away French RL is from being healthy and competitive. The game is hanging on by a thread there, particularly outside of Catalans.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 minute ago, graveyard johnny said:

Was talking to a coach from lock lane today - he had no idea the game was taking place- WTF?

Not entirely unsurprising.....it was not well publicized

[north yorks trinity]

10 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

If you listed all of the reasons why people attend sports events, then checked that list with this game, and the next game, you'd see why supporters give up.

I understand that a lot of boxes would be un ticked but the biggest reason for me to attend is to watch a potentially exciting game of RL. I'm absolutely not arguing that we do internationals well but it surprises me that so many of our keenest supporters need more than a potentially exciting game to encourage them to go to the game.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

12 minutes ago, Mumby Magic said:

You pull the fixture it gives France no bench mark to work towards. To pull it I'd a very RL thing to do and we wonder why we are in the position we see ourselves in as a sport.

There is a wisdom that internationals are the absolute key for breaking the game through 

I am not convinced that it is completely necessary 

The spread of league into NZ (and maybe / hopefully the eventual take over) hasn't been done via internationals.....all of USA sport has done the same 

Maybe we just focus on making the club game as box office as possible 

[north yorks trinity]

3 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

 

Maybe we just focus on making the club game as box office as possible 

Absolutely. But it doesn't have to be either/or. A poor international programme in addition to a superb club competition is better than no international programme at all.

(For the avoidance of doubt I'm not suggesting we accept a poor international game!)

[Damien]

10 minutes ago, eal said:

As predicted, talk of a French victory was madness. I think people forget just how far away French RL is from being healthy and competitive. The game is hanging on by a thread there, particularly outside of Catalans.

Who talked about a French victory? I havent see a single person say this anywhere.

[Hopie]

16 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

18-8 and Goudemand fumbles the ball over the line. 18-14 with French tails up would have made things more interesting.

Easy to get hung up on the score. I think there are things to build upon there.

England's speed and incisiveness was the big difference.

If France were a lot better and England worse it could have been competitive, I'm not particularly excited about England's continuing decline but even that won't make France competitive in the short or medium term. 

We wouldn't improve a mid table Championship team by making them play the top 4 Super League teams every fixture with no option to sign better players. France should play at their level, and England should play at theirs. Then both will improve, at the moment this does nothing for either, and probably drags the game down rather than build it up.

Congratulations on the 90th anniversary FFRXIII, but we won't be coming back next year.

[Mumby Magic]

11 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

There is a wisdom that internationals are the absolute key for breaking the game through 

I am not convinced that it is completely necessary 

The spread of league into NZ (and maybe / hopefully the eventual take over) hasn't been done via internationals.....all of USA sport has done the same 

Maybe we just focus on making the club game as box office as possible 

Or maybe we could have both. At the moment we have neither.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

4 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

Absolutely. But it doesn't have to be either/or. A poor international programme in addition to a superb club competition is better than no international programme at all.

(For the avoidance of doubt I'm not suggesting we accept a poor international game!)

I guess ....hope they make more of an effort for the fans in the Samoan games 

Maybe at least put something proper outside the ground and some food vendors 

I'm undecided if I'm going having dinner two of the Tonga games 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 minute ago, Mumby Magic said:

Or maybe we could have both. At the moment we have neither.

Of course both would be ideal

I have to say the crowd today was very surprising .... Was expecting at least all the main stand to be decently attended