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France v Lebanon test series (Merged Threads)


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16 minutes ago, Dave T said:

So even this one international window we have means nowt.

They do not have a clue. 

International windows now are NRL events plus maybe whoever plays against England (in NRL approved matches not Denver).

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6 hours ago, crashmon said:

This is why Union will remain a bigger sport than League. Things like this pull in big money and get neutrals attention. As Eddie said, fans outside the heartlands don’t have a local club to support so let’s give them England. 
With SL’s tv money going down we need a strong International game which can pull in tv money and help create more interest in RL in general. Sadly, the WC is shrinking, England can only get 2 tests against Samoa and Lebanon aren’t allowed to play France. 
A big solution for RL to generate money is staring us in the face but for some reason International RL is an afterthought 

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11 hours ago, Dave T said:

So even this one international window we have means nowt.

I think, on balance, I'd have preferred a couple of weeks of "is this really Lebanon" with a couple of our Australians telling us that of course they are even if they have no actual Lebanese born players, versus this reality of no actual matches.

Of course, that does presume that we won't now see 'Lebanon' play some other heritage nation in Sydney.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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15 hours ago, langpark said:

So it's officially cancelled then? Fantastic news. Now how about they invest that six-fugure sum in local development? 

They won't be, because it was money that was specifically for touring France - So it will now no longer be available for them to use I imagine.

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I was looking to watch two games in France and fancied the venues for the Lebanon games as have never visited either town. Six days in the area would have been fun and the wife happy for a holiday with five complete days between matches.

The cost of accommodation put me off and on balance I doubt I would have gone but thankfully nothing booked. If we are going to cancel matches with barely a months notice, not sure how I can consider further overseas trips.

There is so much wrong with out sport. It’s bad enough turning up at Nottingham and the visitors don’t show let alone Albi. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, Click said:

They won't be, because it was money that was specifically for touring France - So it will now no longer be available for them to use I imagine.

Yes but as I have been saying all along.  Why choose to spend the money only on a Euro (end-of-season) trip rather than investing in something that may leave a long-term legacy for future generations?  Rhetorical question, not only for the Lebanese, but for everyone in RL.

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1 minute ago, langpark said:

Yes but as I have been saying all along.  Why choose to spend the money only on a Euro (end-of-season) trip rather than investing in something that may leave a long-term legacy for future generations?  Rhetorical question, not only for the Lebanese, but for everyone in RL.

Because it is private money and they have decided they wanted to watch Lebanon play France at the end of the year?

 

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26 minutes ago, langpark said:

Yes but as I have been saying all along.  Why choose to spend the money only on a Euro (end-of-season) trip rather than investing in something that may leave a long-term legacy for future generations?  Rhetorical question, not only for the Lebanese, but for everyone in RL.

You appear to be focussing only on the Lebanese side of things, without considering the impact on France. Grounds booked, tickets on sale, arrangements for squads etc. starting to be made. I don't know if it's the case now, but in the past government funding was somewhat dependent on playing international games and on how many you won, which is why France used to play in the Med Cup against Morocco, Lebanon, Serbia etc.  Now we have (yet again) newspaper stories about how amateurish the sport is.

The players being withdrawn are mostly not even in the NRL. There's probably 3 Lebanese players in the NRL, of whom only Kiraz is actually likely to feature in the finals, so I do wonder whether there's more to this - maybe the sponsor backed out after all? 

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6 hours ago, JonM said:

You appear to be focussing only on the Lebanese side of things, without considering the impact on France. Grounds booked, tickets on sale, arrangements for squads etc. starting to be made. I don't know if it's the case now, but in the past government funding was somewhat dependent on playing international games and on how many you won, which is why France used to play in the Med Cup against Morocco, Lebanon, Serbia etc.  Now we have (yet again) newspaper stories about how amateurish the sport is.

The players being withdrawn are mostly not even in the NRL. There's probably 3 Lebanese players in the NRL, of whom only Kiraz is actually likely to feature in the finals, so I do wonder whether there's more to this - maybe the sponsor backed out after all? 

The latter part is plausible.

@ATLANTISMAN you heard any more? 

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Think quite a few people could have predicted this since Lebanon aren't really a proper team. I mean they could have sent a team of locally based players or even played an under 21 fixture. But then we know they don't actually play RL in Lebanon.

Would have cost a fortune to fly out a team from Australia. Money which would be better spent on local development if that's what the aim of having a Lebanese team is 

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1 hour ago, OriginalMrC said:

Think quite a few people could have predicted this since Lebanon aren't really a proper team. I mean they could have sent a team of locally based players or even played an under 21 fixture. But then we know they don't actually play RL in Lebanon.

Would have cost a fortune to fly out a team from Australia. Money which would be better spent on local development if that's what the aim of having a Lebanese team is 

If it was a "this or that" choice then sure - But it wasn't. 

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7 minutes ago, Click said:

If it was a "this or that" choice then sure - But it wasn't. 

OK so they have money to fly a team of Aussies to France for a jolly but don't have any money to develop the game in Lebanon. To be honest they should just play all their fixtures in Sydney.

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Just now, OriginalMrC said:

OK so they have money to fly a team of Aussies to France for a jolly but don't have any money to develop the game in Lebanon. To be honest they should just play all their fixtures in Sydney.

They appear to have a private sponsor who wanted to pay for the Lebanon team to fly from Australia to play France.

It's not Lebanon RL or the French Rugby League who have this money.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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4 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

OK so they have money to fly a team of Aussies to France for a jolly but don't have any money to develop the game in Lebanon. To be honest they should just play all their fixtures in Sydney.

What Jon said,

This is private money that was "given" to Lebanon to pay for them to fly to France to play a series. 

The fact that they aren't flying to France, one would assume that they won't get that money anymore.

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