Re: French national team !!! : Thu Oct 18, 2018 9:58 pm  

Him wrote:

Why is anyone surprised? Every member of the England team plays in either of the top 2 leagues in the world.

Half of the French team play in a semi pro league.

Get rid of half the England team and replace them with Championship players and see how well we do against Australia.

The argument that Catalans hasn’t improved the French team is just daft and far too simplistic, but then that kind of argument is the norm in RL.

Exactly this

Just imagine if there were no FT players in the French squad, England would be getting close to a century of points.
The harsh reality is that we have a squad of FT pro players and right now, the best pack in world RL and unless France are able to catch up (which at present looks impossible), they will remain a "second tier" International side.

Their fully fit first choice 13/17 are ok but, there is absolutely no depth and how could there be ??

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:37 am  

I think Printer's idea is good - give salary cap incentives for other SL sides (including Catalans) to sign French players, like the marquee exemption. One other thing is up to the French - they seem to have a lot of players who aren't that bothered about playing for France, and the effort often just isn't there. Compare and contrast to the new pacific sides, Tonga but also Samoa and Fiji, where the attitude is fantastic amongst the players.

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:26 am  

JEAN CAPDOUZE wrote:

Typical Leyther drivel. The French team was without several of its stars, including Julien Bousquet, Benjamin Garcia, Morgan Escare, and Romain Navarette.

maybe they should of played Leigh instead of England to balance the skill level on the field

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:34 am  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I think Printer's idea is good - give salary cap incentives for other SL sides (including Catalans) to sign French players, like the marquee exemption. One other thing is up to the French - they seem to have a lot of players who aren't that bothered about playing for France, and the effort often just isn't there. Compare and contrast to the new pacific sides, Tonga but also Samoa and Fiji, where the attitude is fantastic amongst the players.

Slightly unfair comparison with Fiji and Tonga, who fill their national team with "Aussies" and "Kiwis".
They both played with immense pride in the World Cup but, France dont have the same advantage when it comes down to having qualifying grandparents etc.

The only way fro France to become more competitive is to have more full time professional French players, which means having more playing in SL (either for Catalan or other SL clubs) but, how can this happen with just one French club in the elite competition ?

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:05 am  

snowie wrote:

maybe they should of played Leigh instead of England to balance the skill level on the field

A bit unfair that Snowie, Leigh haven't even got a team, but I know what you mean.

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:44 am  

Fair enough if you argue that half the team are semi-pro, but you have to then ask the question why they are playing a test match against England every year? It can't do those players any favours to go out and get pumped by half an England team.

From an England perspective, there's not a lot to be gained from that preparation, we are going into a test series pretty cold, whilst the Kiwi's are coming over off the back of winning a high-intensity, high-quality game against Australia.

Re: French national team !!! : Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:58 pm  

Some England players haven’t played in a month, they needed a game prior to the Kiwis.

France without their injury crisis and players missing due to playing in the Grand Final would have been much stronger.