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

[Dave T]

I just find this stuff pie in the sky. Europe RL is nothing like the Pacific Nations. And let's be honest, there hasn't been real development anywhere, possibly PNGRL is in a stronger position. 

Tonga almost beat NZ in 1995 at Wilderspool when the RFL staged the first larger scale WC, it's just the same now, they can get a good team of players with Tonga heritage together and get some great results. 

There is nobody comparable in Europe. We need to stop pretending that the RFL has Europe and the NRL has the Pacific - they are nothing like each other in the slightest. 

 

 

[Balmainboy]

40 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I just find this stuff pie in the sky. Europe RL is nothing like the Pacific Nations. And let's be honest, there hasn't been real development anywhere, possibly PNGRL is in a stronger position. 

Tonga almost beat NZ in 1995 at Wilderspool when the RFL staged the first larger scale WC, it's just the same now, they can get a good team of players with Tonga heritage together and get some great results. 

There is nobody comparable in Europe. We need to stop pretending that the RFL has Europe and the NRL has the Pacific - they are nothing like each other in the slightest. 

 

 

Good points but that doesn’t change the fact that English rugby league is on the decline and without a growth strategy that isn’t reliant on the southern hemisphere that will only continue. 

[Hopie]

England's future lies in developing a team that can beat Australia and New Zealand, and using that to launch into the national consciousness, and use that to get into schools and regional development to start again from the bottom in most of the country.

I'm of the opinion we should accept our position as a feeder comp to the NRL but purely from a player development perspective, if all England players are NRL based ,who cares? Problem is we are more likely to let the NRL takeover the competition on some misguided route to prop up a handful of English clubs and pay a handful of players to stop them going down under for a couple of extra years instead of using what little money we have to develop pathways and structures.

[eal]

6 hours ago, Damien said:

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

I saw a few people mention it on both Facebook and TotalRL, including one just a couple of pages earlier on this thread.

Edited June 30, 2024 by eal

[NRLandSL]

Pretty disappointing game in all aspects to be honest. Oh well, can only hope for the future. Surely can’t get any worse than this you’d think.

Some positives though, France definitely looked alright in patches. Having a full team of consistent SL players definitely shows. They just need to control the ruck better and slow the game down. Also the Edge defence was pretty poor, Romano and Zenon being out were big big lossses I’d say. 

Garcia was certainly France’s best as usual, he is a terrific player. Also well done to young Enzo, only just turned 19 and didn’t look out of place, the future of this France team look’s exciting.

Edited June 30, 2024 by NRLandSL

[Big Picture]

8 hours ago, Dave T said:

Then you aren't really understanding what is going on here. 

I'm embarrassed by RL. Which is the opposite of what I described. 

That's how I've felt ever since the Wolfpack misadventure and the small time response to it from so many in the sport.

In time today is liable to be seen as another nail in its coffin.

8 hours 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. 

As I said earlier, the FFR XIII is even more hard-up than the RFL, which itself always does things on the cheap precisely because of how hard-up it is.  Assuming that they have the know-how to do things much better (an assumption we can by no means guarantee), neither organization has the money needed for that, and no way to get it either.

[Big Picture]

8 hours 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 

The top teams are in smallish, unfashionable, economically disadvantaged towns in a part of the UK with a steadily declining share of the country's population which the British public doesn't rate because they don't associate those towns with big time major pro sport.

Just how is anyone ever going to make that box office???????????

[Harry Stottle]

12 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

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.

And there are those on here who continually say it is up to the RFL to sort out the game in France both domestically and internationally, we simply cannot afford to do that both financially and structurally, we have ourselves to sort out first and foremost, we should treat it like the safety announcement we hear when travelling on an aircraft when the instruction is "Put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others" it simply means take care of yourself first, otherwise you may not be in a fit condition to look to anyone else.

The picture you paint of the officers of the FFR, is the image I have had for years Paul, how do you think the game in France would be but for allowing Catalan into our structure in 2006?

[JT RL]

“Random internationals, dropped into random grounds at random dates, with random history & setting, will get random outcomes (low, sporadic crowds, and will eventually fall by the way side …”

I posted this in June about the Samoa series. And similar in the past about games against France.

The positive is that the French squad is getting better and deeper.
But how can it be a surprise to anyone that this event would not be a dud.

Absolutely nothing going for it, with no audience.

10 year plan and commitment - integrate the fixture into calendar - same weekend for 10 years - once a year - rotate home/away annually - proper ground - north of the Watford gap - build the event - create gravitas - generate media stories through history 

(which means no games at plough lane, no Tuesday night games in Leigh, no pop-up games in Toulouse)

 

[JT RL]

4 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

And there are those on here who continually say it is up to the RFL to sort out the game in France both domestically and internationally, we simply cannot afford to do that both financially and structurally, we have ourselves to sort out first and foremost, we should treat it like the safety announcement we hear when travelling on an aircraft when the instruction is "Put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others" it simply means take care of yourself first, otherwise you may not be in a fit condition to look to anyone else.

The picture you paint of the officers of the FFR, is the image I have had for years Paul, how do you think the game in France would be but for allowing Catalan into our structure in 2006?

Think what adding Catalan has done to strengthen the game over here ? Another buoyant and solvent club .. not been many of those coming through the English system recently. Having a plan for Catalan and sticking to it has delivered something worthwhile.

There is a possibility of doing the same with the French national team - cooperate and develop together.

We will struggle to be offered games against the Aussies until we get this fixture in order 

 

[graveyard johnny]

5 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

 Surely can’t get any worse than this you’d think.

 

of course it could get worse - we could have half the picture missing so we can only see one team - the players surrounded by a green glow - 2 commentators, one having a coughing fit the other with hiccups

have some ambition man!

[Harry Stottle]

5 minutes ago, JT RL said:

We will struggle to be offered games against the Aussies until we get this fixture in order

How long do you want?

[Dave T]

8 hours ago, Balmainboy said:

Good points but that doesn’t change the fact that English rugby league is on the decline and without a growth strategy that isn’t reliant on the southern hemisphere that will only continue. 

The growth thatvthr RFL can deliver is not European-wide, it can barely cover parts of the North of England. The sport as a whole needs to work together via a world governing body. 

[Gomersall]

11 minutes ago, Dave T said:

The growth thatvthr RFL can deliver is not European-wide, it can barely cover parts of the North of England. The sport as a whole needs to work together via a world governing body. 

I don’t disagree but I just can’t see it happening. The will isn’t there IMO.

[moorside roughyed]

Didn't watch it as I tried watching the women's game and it kept buffering so I switched it off. The score said it all really. International rugby league is in a right old state,has been for years. There's an article about it on"love rugby league". Couldn't agree with it more.

[Henson Park Old Firm]

RFL is rub by "Joe Bidens"

[Balmainboy]

34 minutes ago, Dave T said:

The growth thatvthr RFL can deliver is not European-wide, it can barely cover parts of the North of England. The sport as a whole needs to work together via a world governing body. 

Don’t disagree that an effective  world governing body is needed but unfortunately I can’t see that happening anytime soon. RFL need to take some responsibility. 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

11 hours ago, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

The decision to split GB into home nations, only to then not have England ever play any of them seemed crazy to me. Decisions could have been made to invest in player pathways in those other home nations, but instead funding was reduced or cut altogether.

This. 

The idea was to create more international opportunities and invest in the home nations. Obviously this was before the financial collapse of 2008 and austerity governments that followed. Up to 2007, I really thought we were on a real high as a sport over here in terms of progression. 

If we're not going to bother with the other nations, we might as well just be GB. Not that it would make any difference to revert back now. 

I really do hope we get our act together.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

I don’t disagree but I just can’t see it happening. The will isn’t there IMO.

No, it isn't, which is my point. So we accept that the likes of Wales and France etc will just trundle along. 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Balmainboy said:

Don’t disagree that an effective  world governing body is needed but unfortunately I can’t see that happening anytime soon. RFL need to take some responsibility. 

With respect though, that's just a soundbite. What does take responsibility look like? It probably can't afford to do much, if anything more than it does in Wales and France, definitely not anywhere else. 

[Dave T]

25 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

This. 

The idea was to create more international opportunities and invest in the home nations. Obviously this was before the financial collapse of 2008 and austerity governments that followed. Up to 2007, I really thought we were on a real high as a sport over here in terms of progression. 

If we're not going to bother with the other nations, we might as well just be GB. Not that it would make any difference to revert back now. 

I really do hope we get our act together.

This is a real failing of the world governing body. We've been happy to play world cups with these teams, but there has never been development in between the tournaments. These world cups and 4N were meant to fund development, yet let's be honest, there is nothibg happening in the likes of Scotland and Ireland. 

But, I would say that whilst the approach may have been frustrating, it's hardly holding the game back. It's just not a thing. England is the equivalent of GB, and England has carried on performing at GB levels. 

I think this is often quoted and is a red herring. It could be chalked off as a missed opportunity, but not something that has harmed the game as such. It's not like we used to be strong in Scotland and aren't any more. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Why are we playing these games?

Is it helping England?

Is it helping France?

Are they making money?

[Damien]

12 minutes ago, Dave T said:

This is a real failing of the world governing body. We've been happy to play world cups with these teams, but there has never been development in between the tournaments. These world cups and 4N were meant to fund development, yet let's be honest, there is nothibg happening in the likes of Scotland and Ireland. 

But, I would say that whilst the approach may have been frustrating, it's hardly holding the game back. It's just not a thing. England is the equivalent of GB, and England has carried on performing at GB levels. 

I think this is often quoted and is a red herring. It could be chalked off as a missed opportunity, but not something that has harmed the game as such. It's not like we used to be strong in Scotland and aren't any more. 

Let's face it we don't really have a world governing body. We have a bit of a farce of an organisation where people are parachuted in by the NRL and RFL, with a few others added, to give that world look and the semblance of being a serious sport. It doesn't even have a real role when it comes to the laws that are played. Even world cups are just sorted out by the RFL and NRL. The NRL has a veto on everything and the only things we get is what they allow and want.

A world governing body should have power and fulfill a real function in advancing and developing the game. Ours just feels like it exist just so we can say we have one when it comes to advancing the game in new countries, getting government recognition, grants etc. All fine but it should do far more than that and this does nothing when it comes to developing international RL at a professional level.

[LeytherRob]

50 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

This. 

The idea was to create more international opportunities and invest in the home nations. Obviously this was before the financial collapse of 2008 and austerity governments that followed. Up to 2007, I really thought we were on a real high as a sport over here in terms of progression. 

If we're not going to bother with the other nations, we might as well just be GB. Not that it would make any difference to revert back now. 

I really do hope we get our act together.

Even post 2013 things were in a good state. The other home nations had multiple fixtures every year which were televised (bbc red button or s4c for wales) and their stronger players continued to turn out for a bit. Pretty sure I remember us having the 4 nations and European cup running concurrently and being able to watch multiple games a day. Then we seemed to give up and just cut them all adrift.

[NRLandSL]

Joseph Manu just broke his hand, meaning that the roosters now have there 4 best centres all out for at least the next 2 weeks. Could be an opportunity for Griffier to debut, I Know Trent Robinson will be eager to Debut him.

Edited June 30, 2024 by NRLandSL