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

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

7 minutes ago, Hopie said:

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.

I think we will 

What's the alternative?

[Damien]

12 minutes ago, Hopie said:

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.

France aren't improving until they get the players to improve. They simply do not have the full time player pool to choose from to do so. Playing England once a year isn't going to improve them to any meaningful degree. It's the lack of players and teams that needs to be addressed.

[sam4731]

43 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

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!

 

42 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.

How is that different from saying why not play Albania every year to improve their standards. We've been banging the same drum for ages and getting the same rhythm.

[ATLANTISMAN]

One thing is for certain Toulouse is not the place anymore to play internationals only 15 + years ago France had crowds of 11000 + for matches v New Zealand and Australia.

The organisation today was non existant and an embarrassment for the sport right  from the stadium presentation to the TV coverage.

No-one in Toulouse is aware that an international match took place today outside of a few loyal fans.

The only gig in town this weekend is Stade Toulousian and the Euros.

It's such a crying shame as i can see the commercial sucess of the Dragons on a regular basis, however the game is being run here by a medieval system of blazers and ties who are not in the real world and are totally clueless.

To put it in perspective everything is financed by government hand outs fees and fines no commercial organisation exists outside of what the clubs do on a local basis.

 

 

Edited June 29 by ATLANTISMAN

[Ullman]

1 minute ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

The only gig in town this weekend is Stade Toulousian and the Euros.

 

 

Not to mention the Tour de France getting underway today and the saturation coverage it receives on TV, radio and in the printed media.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

37 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

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.

What criteria do you judge makes a game potentially exciting? 

I'd hazard a guess that this doesn't achieve much of it. If it was a potentially exciting game, we'd at least have a start.

[Griff]

46 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

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

Says the fella who had it down for July.

[Lowdesert]

1 hour ago, Archie Gordon said:

My apologies too.

ouRLeague was the same - occasionally sweet, sometimes sour. I just expected SL+ to be more reliable. It's no good some folk finding it fine and others being made angry by it. Even the tries I've seen on facebook are properly blurry. Having given several free volunteer hours to RL today, being unable to then watch my national team on a reliable platform has left me upset.

I am in a one horse town in Spain called Mansilla de las Mulas and I watched it all on my phone.  No blips and the picture was clear enough.

Have you dusted Archie?

[Hopie]

26 minutes ago, Damien said:

France aren't improving until they get the players to improve. They simply do not have the full time player pool to choose from to do so. Playing England once a year isn't going to improve them to any meaningful degree. It's the lack of players and teams that needs to be addressed.

Same reason we can't beat Australia, we need to invest our money into producing players, at least we still have some!

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

15 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

One thing is for certain Toulouse is not the place anymore to play internationals only 15 + years ago France had crowds of 11000 + for matches v New Zealand and Australia.

The organisation today was non existant and an embarrassment for the sport right  from the stadium presentation to the TV coverage.

No-one in Toulouse is aware that an international match took place today outside of a few loyal fans.

The only gig in town this weekend is Stade Toulousian and the Euros.

It's such a crying shame as i can see the commercial sucess of the Dragons on a regular basis, however the game is being run here by a medieval system of blazers and ties who are not in the real world and are totally clueless.

To put it in perspective everything is financed by government hand outs fees and fines no commercial organisation exists outside of what the clubs do on a local basis.

 

 

Play it in Perpignan from now on?

[ATLANTISMAN]

1 minute ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Play it in Perpignan from now on?

Avignon

Carcassonne 

Perpignan 

P

[Lowdesert]

1 minute ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Avignon

Carcassonne 

Perpignan 

P

Avignon

[welshmagpie]

6 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Avignon

Carcassonne 

Perpignan 

P

We’ll see how things fare this autumn then

[north yorks trinity]

31 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

 

How is that different from saying why not play Albania every year to improve their standards. We've been banging the same drum for ages and getting the same rhythm.

That's true but we won't get a better rhythm by giving up banging the drum.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

This is not the RFL's doing really, is it?  It's the FFR XIII who "organised" the whole thing. England's job is to turn up and play.

The only part of this that is down to the RFL is OurLeague, which I assume is all contracted out - and given that it's a free stream, presumably done on a small budget. 

Did the RFL not know that Toulouse were playing Fev tonight at the same ground?

The starting point of this was flawed. And the execution was poor. I logged into SL+ just fine to be fair, using my TV app, but the quality isn't good enough on a large screen and it was dire. 

[langpark]

10 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Play it in Perpignan from now on?

I realise we have the benefit of hindsight, but yes I think Perpignan or London (Plough Lane) would have been ideal for this match.  I think PL is unavailable at the moment, but maybe one to consider for the future?

I was happy they showed ambition and held it in Toulouse at a 20k venue, but they just did not have the budget, marketing, execution etc. to match it.  So if that is the case, then they should go to a smaller and "safer" venue.

[north yorks trinity]

21 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

What criteria do you judge makes a game potentially exciting? 

I'd hazard a guess that this doesn't achieve much of it. If it was a potentially exciting game, we'd at least have a start.

I'm talking about the suggestion that today's game would put people off attending the Samoa tests which seems an odd extrapolation to me. My criteria for an exciting game are any one of: a big event; skilful players on show; a result that matters; a close game. I think the Samoa tests offer, at worst, at least one, possibly 2-3 of those.

[StandOffHalf]

1 hour ago, Hopie said:

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.

If England throw France away, what's to stop Australia throwing England away (even more than they already have).

Play it in Perpignan.

[north yorks trinity]

2 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

If England throw France away, what's to stop Australia throwing England away (even more than they already have).

Play it in Perpignan.

How would that be possible exactly?!

[StandOffHalf]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

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

I thought France could win, although my confidence was dented with Dezaria and Romano being absentees.

When Garcia found Goudemand, I thought France were right in it and could win - but then the replays showed the ball coming loose. That was a big moment in the game. Well done to Harry Smith for pressurising the put-down and forcing the dropped ball.

Edited June 29 by StandOffHalf

[Dave T]

16 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

I'm talking about the suggestion that today's game would put people off attending the Samoa tests which seems an odd extrapolation to me. My criteria for an exciting game are any one of: a big event; skilful players on show; a result that matters; a close game. I think the Samoa tests offer, at worst, at least one, possibly 2-3 of those.

It's quite simple. At some stage, you get fed up with being an international RL fan and decide to go and do something different instead. 

When the RFL are signing the England team up to play a curtain raiser to a Featherstone Rovers game, I'd argue that we have sunk to an all time low, and we've seen plenty of lows as RL fans. 

That is hardly something that motivates me to nip online and book travel, hotels and tickets for the Autumn. Quite the opposite. 

[StandOffHalf]

51 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

One thing is for certain Toulouse is not the place anymore to play internationals only 15 + years ago France had crowds of 11000 + for matches v New Zealand and Australia.

The organisation today was non existant and an embarrassment for the sport right  from the stadium presentation to the TV coverage.

No-one in Toulouse is aware that an international match took place today outside of a few loyal fans.

The only gig in town this weekend is Stade Toulousian and the Euros.

It's such a crying shame as i can see the commercial sucess of the Dragons on a regular basis, however the game is being run here by a medieval system of blazers and ties who are not in the real world and are totally clueless.

To put it in perspective everything is financed by government hand outs fees and fines no commercial organisation exists outside of what the clubs do on a local basis.

 

 

I was really saddened to read of the problems and issues you encountered today at the stadium. A great pity.

[StandOffHalf]

12 minutes ago, north yorks trinity said:

How would that be possible exactly?!

Binning the Ashes, haha. Saying that England don't deserve to play them.

Edited June 29 by StandOffHalf

[Damien]

45 minutes ago, langpark said:

I realise we have the benefit of hindsight, but yes I think Perpignan or London (Plough Lane) would have been ideal for this match.  I think PL is unavailable at the moment, but maybe one to consider for the future?

I was happy they showed ambition and held it in Toulouse at a 20k venue, but they just did not have the budget, marketing, execution etc. to match it.  So if that is the case, then they should go to a smaller and "safer" venue.

The past match in Perpignan got 6k. That's poor too and was as disappointing as today when you consider it's the home of Catalans.

Toulouse has done okay crowds wise previously, its the execution that was the problem from the very start with this match.

Edited June 29 by Damien

[Cerulean]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

What's the alternative?

I know it's not the question you asked, so please forgive me for an impassioned rant here:

The pinnacle of the sport in the Northern Hemisphere is now no more than repeated fixtures of Wigan v Warrington, St Helens v Leeds, Hull v Hull KR: it’s not enough, it’s not enough to capture the imagination, to hold the enthusiasm, to provide a backdrop for increased participation, to maintain or grow the sport.

And the present major generational review of the sport is nothing more than a spreadsheet and powerpoint exercise to select who bumps along the bottom of Super League, providing the few top teams with acceptable games. It’s not enough.

The alternative? A serious review of where the game is, what it can be, how existing enthusiasm can be maintained and then extended, how remaining resources can be retained, how the visual impact of the sport can stand out against the exponentially growing swamp of alternative calls on sporting and leisure spending, how youngsters can participate and progress through the levels of a wonderful sport filled with running, evasion, catching, kicking,exhilaration, teamwork, fitness, tactics, a proud history, a cultural grounding. A major review which, because there is no one else, can only be instigated by those few clubs who have the income, power, profile, and influence, to bring the game unselfishly together. A really serious major review.

It won’t happen.