Planet Rugby Forum

For what it's worth (!), this is the interesting moment in the Top 14 season. We're officially in January, new year's started and all teams have played a majority 14 games each, and therefor the "phase retour" is about to start.

Gentlemen, the table is as follows:



As vous pouvez constatate, La Rochelle and Montpellier are the two dominant entities, then Castres a bit surprisingly, Racing is wisely sticking around with their 4th and Toulon and Toulouse hog those easy final two spots. Early season sensation Lyon have been kicked out of the lounge, now at 7th. then UBB, Pau, Clermont, Paris and Brive..

The remodeling of that map at this particular junction is a very sensitive period of the season: who ends up in your final 6 ?

Happy new year you useless feckers.

Here's to the obvious glory that Brunel (?!) is going to bring us in Le Tournoi.

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:Happy new year you useless feckers.

Here's to the obvious glory that Brunel (?!) is going to bring us in Le Tournoi.

Yes I'm looking forward to France getting 5th place and being just about as bad on the field if not slightly better than under Noves, and the good people of the country feeling all glad and mighty promoting their eternal protégé braying "see, that didn't change anything !" as if to basically justify Noves was really without reproach or could somehow be associated with efficiency of a sort.

There's often a difficulty in this country to understand the mere notion there can be bad and then worse, people feel the absolute need to pick a side and then hang onto that, a systematic insistence to force a Manichean scheme right onto the frame of reality: there's good and evil. Right now Noves is Good and Laporte and his gang are Evil, there are no in-betweens and Laporte is the money-grabber, Noves and staff for example were of course paid in peaches and cashew nuts as everybody knows, and it's not like Laporte just got this God-forsaken land the next fukking Rugby World Cup just like a month ago.

lets see if Vakatawa gets picked by the new coach as a centre instead of a winger, i rate Thomas as a better winger, partnering yoann huget on the wings...

comets wrote:lets see if Vakatawa gets picked by the new coach as a centre instead of a winger, i rate Thomas as a better winger, partnering yoann huget on the wings...

you know fùck all about rugby

Laurent wrote:

comets wrote:lets see if Vakatawa gets picked by the new coach as a centre instead of a winger, i rate Thomas as a better winger, partnering yoann huget on the wings...

you know fùck all about rugby

We should make him the new coach.

As far as I'm concerned, kicking Noves out mid-term to throw Brunel (and let's not forget Ellisalde for the backs...) in his place is just stupidly controversial, costly, and ultimately more of the same. I could forgive the first two if it wasn't for the third, but as is, it seems self-defeating: the hopes of any meaningful improvement are slim, but the impact on Bernie's already tainted leadership seems disproportionately heavy. Imho, if he wanted to change things at the top of the french XV, he should have spent the next two years tapping up the best coaches around and identified 3/4 candidates for after the WC.

The staff move is just whatever. Absolute whatever. The tournament will be more a social event than a Rugby event in the country, closer to something like the Trump v H.Clinton prez race so with more emphasis from the people on personal egos and earning the right to say "I told you so !" than actually worrying about the very stake, i.e. the xv de France and potential progress. It'll be a highly politicized event, practically not a sporting event.
It will be a France 6N about hyperbolic scrutiny, about scorn and ultimately, about frustration.

So... No more summer training camps at Marcoussis and no more "elite list"...

Typical.
Try something half heartedly, realise it isn't going to bring miraculous results and then ditch it.

That is this country in a nutshell.

Salut les filles!

Happy new year to you all buggers.

The FFR is a joke and now we have Brunel instead of Noves. Much improved roster...

The sad news as well is that Young French players get hammered on the Top14 pitch, and some almost got slaughtered. The Clermont trip to Paris shows the gap between Top14 and our Espoir championship...

clementinfrance wrote:So... No more summer training camps at Marcoussis and no more "elite list"...

Typical.
Try something half heartedly, realise it isn't going to bring miraculous results and then ditch it.

That is this country in a nutshell.

Classic example of copying what everyone else is doing but not understanding it and so executing it half-arsed and then being surprised at the outcome. Marcoussis, rather than a training centre for pushing boundaries sporting excellence, simply became a rugby Butlins and so did the opposite.

Imagine if, just imagine like - if somehow, like it really doesn't matter how exactly - France win .. the Grand Slam. Bam. They actually win the Slam. I swear I'd be too busy trying to survive the continuous hysterical laughing to really feel utterly happy. I so wish it would happen. Like, they can go on and lose the next three summer tests by 70 each, I'm cool with that, but a 2018 Grand Slam.

Torquemada 1420 wrote:

clementinfrance wrote:So... No more summer training camps at Marcoussis and no more "elite list"...

Typical.
Try something half heartedly, realise it isn't going to bring miraculous results and then ditch it.

That is this country in a nutshell.

Classic example of copying what everyone else is doing but not understanding it and so executing it half-arsed and then being surprised at the outcome. Marcoussis, rather than a training centre for pushing boundaries sporting excellence, simply became a rugby Butlins and so did the opposite.

ouais mais les gars, zavez été trop longtemps expats chez les rosbifs pour vous souvenir, mais nous on est des romantiques, des instinctifs, on aime le beau, pas les feuilles excel, pas les retroplannings, pas la branletteOnly pendant la coupe du monde. Du coup, ça peut pas marcher tout ça.

Ce qu'il nous faut vraiment c'est du téton qui pointe sous une blouse d'infirmière dans un petit matin d'été sous un soleil levant. C'est ça qu'il faut au XV de France. Le reste, c'est de la jelly.

jolindien wrote: Ce qu'il nous faut vraiment c'est du téton qui pointe sous une blouse d'infirmière dans un petit matin d'été sous un soleil levant.

I'm going to cling to that image for a long time.

Le printemps revient bien vite (Jo est en rut )

L'équipe semble vouloir la tête de laporte

https://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Article/So ... ond/865610

Laurent wrote:Le printemps revient bien vite (Jo est en rut )

L'équipe semble vouloir la tête de laporte

https://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Article/So ... ond/865610

Can't read past the paywall but I saw a new one this morning: apparently Bernie is handing over a FFR car to a player from RCT (Ory) with whom he's got a local business. That's illegal since the insurance only covers FFR staff. The player denies it, but the car is regularly seen at the RCT training grounds, and the lad is apparently dumb enough to have lots of pictures of it on his Instagram account...

But even better, that's a player for whom he personally intervened in the Nat.B playoffs last year to allow him to play despite the proper license not being presented pre-match:
http://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/rugby/ffr-une ... 48391.html

He simply can't help himself.

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

Laurent wrote:Le printemps revient bien vite (Jo est en rut )

L'équipe semble vouloir la tête de laporte

https://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Article/So ... ond/865610

Can't read past the paywall but I saw a new one this morning: apparently Bernie is handing over a FFR car to a player from RCT (Ory) with whom he's got a local business. That's illegal since the insurance only covers FFR staff. The player denies it, but the car is regularly seen at the RCT training grounds, and the lad is apparently dumb enough to have lots of pictures of it on his Instagram account...

But even better, that's a player for whom he personally intervened in the Nat.B playoffs last year to allow him to play despite the proper license not being presented pre-match:
http://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/rugby/ffr-une ... 48391.html

He simply can't help himself.

yep Sarko was perfect match for him

The silence of Laura Flessel, our Ministre des Sports, in those matters is deafening...

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

Laurent wrote:Le printemps revient bien vite (Jo est en rut )

L'équipe semble vouloir la tête de laporte

https://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Article/So ... ond/865610

Can't read past the paywall but I saw a new one this morning: apparently Bernie is handing over a FFR car to a player from RCT (Ory) with whom he's got a local business. That's illegal since the insurance only covers FFR staff. The player denies it, but the car is regularly seen at the RCT training grounds, and the lad is apparently dumb enough to have lots of pictures of it on his Instagram account...

But even better, that's a player for whom he personally intervened in the Nat.B playoffs last year to allow him to play despite the proper license not being presented pre-match:
http://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/rugby/ffr-une ... 48391.html

He simply can't help himself.

Mackay is not an idiot. It's a measure of how immune he is from rugby or judicial authority that he can do what he likes.

Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

jolindien wrote:Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

tu es un redrebel multi ?

Laurent wrote:

jolindien wrote:Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

tu es un redrebel multi ?

putain... j'suis pas un expat qui passe son temps à mater les news et à jouer au solitaire moi !

jolindien wrote:

Laurent wrote:

jolindien wrote:Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

tu es un redrebel multi ?

putain... j'suis pas un expat qui passe son temps à mater les news et à jouer au solitaire moi !

Laurent non plus, c'est un pur parigot maintenant.

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

jolindien wrote:

Laurent wrote:

jolindien wrote:Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

tu es un redrebel multi ?

putain... j'suis pas un expat qui passe son temps à mater les news et à jouer au solitaire moi !

Laurent non plus, c'est un pur parigot maintenant.

Un bobo gauchiste quoi...

Vaha getting his timing just right over the current physicality debate:

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:Vaha getting his timing just right over the current physicality debate:

Noves' fault.

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:Vaha getting his timing just right over the current physicality debate:

Smooth phrasing too.

La soule wrote:

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:Vaha getting his timing just right over the current physicality debate:

Noves' fault.

Pas de souci, Bernie va vite faire remonter la copie de la lettre de Guy Môquet à Azema. C'est ça la nouvelle gouvernance. Interaction totale T14/FFF.

Dork Lard wrote:Imagine if, just imagine like - if somehow, like it really doesn't matter how exactly - France win .. the Grand Slam. Bam. They actually win the Slam. I swear I'd be too busy trying to survive the continuous hysterical laughing to really feel utterly happy. I so wish it would happen. Like, they can go on and lose the next three summer tests by 70 each, I'm cool with that, but a 2018 Grand Slam.

So now, you are a Brunel fan?

I heard Noves on an interview saying that he left aside one of the French players on the SA tour last spring, after the guy had spent 200 euros on boose the night before the game.

Any idea who it is?

TheFrog wrote:I heard Noves on an interview saying that he left aside one of the French players on the SA tour last spring, after the guy had spent 200 euros on boose the night before the game.

Any idea who it is?

Only 200? Must have been a youngster then.

GDBFC99 wrote:

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

jolindien wrote:

Laurent wrote:

jolindien wrote:Ptain, Frédéric Forte est mort

crise cardiaque il semblerait... ptain après tout le sport qu'il a fait... pas de bol quand même

tu es un redrebel multi ?

putain... j'suis pas un expat qui passe son temps à mater les news et à jouer au solitaire moi !

Laurent non plus, c'est un pur parigot maintenant.

Un bobo gauchiste quoi...

c'est fini les insultes

J'suis racaille de banlieue.

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

TheFrog wrote:I heard Noves on an interview saying that he left aside one of the French players on the SA tour last spring, after the guy had spent 200 euros on boose the night before the game.

Any idea who it is?

Only 200? Must have been a youngster then.

Fat kiwi prop from la rochele

TheFrog wrote: So now, you are a Brunel fan?

Well. I do like his mustache.

Watched these five minutes. Tried to follow the fellow and understand what he was saying:
https://video.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/xv-de- ... ideo.shtml

I detected about three main things. Denial (excuses...). Paranoia. And failure to understand the actual objective situation.

If you hadn't followed the events from 2016 til today, and you heard this man speak - you'd believe he was the object and center of a grand scheme, setup around him personally, in which he himself was completely innocent and certainly reliable.
It's always very interesting to hear the version of the culprit/main targeted party. How the ego will transform and twist around and select bits of reality to fit a subjective narrative. Guy Novès has done no wrong whatsoever, basically.

TheFrog wrote:I heard Noves on an interview saying that he left aside one of the French players on the SA tour last spring, after the guy had spent 200 euros on boose the night before the game.

Any idea who it is?

It was Atonio.


{EDIT} See Laurent ^

Bonne année, chers amis.

Je pense qu'on va gâtés au niveau hilarité générale en suivant les péripéties de notre cher XV de France (la France !), de son staff, de sa présidence.

C'est plutôt bien parti.

Bises,

Clouseau

Clouseau wrote:Bonne année, chers amis.

Je pense qu'on va gâtés au niveau hilarité générale en suivant les péripéties de notre cher XV de France (la France !), de son staff, de sa présidence.

C'est plutôt bien parti.

Bises,

Clouseau

We've run out of things to disagree about.

There was a famous tv programme in England called Spitting Image. Satirical puppets like Les Guignols. When they asked the producer if he'd do another series, he declined stating that politics had become such a parody of itself, there was no space left for humour.

I fear that's where we are with France. Perhaps only the direction of Six Foot Under is left. Either way....

Laurent wrote:

Toulon's Not Toulouse wrote:

TheFrog wrote:I heard Noves on an interview saying that he left aside one of the French players on the SA tour last spring, after the guy had spent 200 euros on boose the night before the game.

Any idea who it is?

Only 200? Must have been a youngster then.

Fat kiwi prop from la rochele

bah c'est dur alors, ya pas mort d'homme quoi, ça fait à peine 1€ du kilo.

quand on y pense, c'est une soirée à 70 balles en équivalent homme de la rue. Rien de méchant.