French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

vienne86

Sky showing Toulon match yet again!

matthew8

What a try from Toulon. Nice to see a French team play away with a bit of confidence.

vienne86

matthew8 wrote: »

What a try from Toulon. Nice to see a French team play away with a bit of confidence.

Toulon away to OYONNAX.....I think Toulon have every reason to be confident.

thomond2006

vienne86 wrote: »

Toulon away to OYONNAX.....I think Toulon have every reason to be confident.

If fairness Oyo beat them there last season.

vienne86

thomond2006 wrote: »

If fairness Oyo beat them there last season.

Fair point.....I'd forgotten that.

nc6000

Oyonnax were a bit unlucky there.

thomond2006

Is there a better 10 in Europe than Giteau now?

vienne86

Only three points in it in the end. Much closer than I expected.

iroced

Fa'asavalu (deserved) YC changed everything. Oyonnax did manage to keep the LBP though. That could count at the end of the season.

Bordeaux v Clermont on SS2 at the moment, Bordeaux up 17-6.

phog

Clermont down to 14 mins, man in sinbin and losing 24-9

sydthebeat

James having a James

Ooof, a Bordeaux player knocks out his out scrum half. Looked nasty, hope he's alright.

sydneybound

How did it end? Bordeaux have great supporters bet there was over 20,000 at the game...

Micky Dolenz

Clermont getting thrased.

73 minutes.

49-14

Conversion to follow

iroced

sydneybound wrote: »

How did it end? Bordeaux have great supporters bet there was over 20,000 at the game...

51-21. 6 tries to 2. Great game. Very lively (21 min "effective" gametime - not sure what's the correct wording - in the first half). Bordeaux sent a message this afternoon. You just don't put 50 pts to Clermont without being a serious contender to the finals.

19543261

can't believe I missed it

19543261

19543261 wrote: »

can't believe I missed it

Sky will probably repeat it, well worth a watch.

19543261

dont have the channel unfortunately.

anyone know if it'll be up online anywhere?

vienne86

19543261 wrote: »

dont have the channel unfortunately.

anyone know if it'll be up online anywhere?

Never thought to record this. Pheck it anyway. Big Bordeaux fan. Brilliant result.

iroced

Ah FFS we are the most frustrating side to watch...

15 (2T)-3 up at Jean Dauger. YC for a Bayonne lock. And we start to underplay. Bayonne scores a try, counter our line-out, gets penalties, turns over our rucks... Pffffff...

--- edit 1 ---

And Trinh-Duc who's missing everything. 2/6 and a missed DG attempt. Fortunately Bayonne kicker wasn't better. Apparently the wind was "whirling".

--- edit 2 ---

Well we secured the win à l'expérience at the end. Petit bras but efficient. Galthié wanted one away win out of our 2 games in Toulon & Bayonne. Job done. But we're not in control. Not at all.

iroced

GW8 results:

Oyo - RCT : 18 (LBP) - 21
UBB - ASM : 51 (TBP) - 21
RM92 - CAB : 46 (TBP) - 32
CO - Gre : 51 (TBP) - 10
AB - MHR : 10 (LBP) - 15
SR - LOU : 29 (TBP) - 10
ST - SF : 22 - 10


Rankings:

RCT - 28 pts (4 BP / 6W, 0D, 2L)
ASM - 27 (3 / 6, 0, 2)
RM92 - 23 (3 / 5, 0, 3)
MHR - 22 (2 / 5, 0, 3)
UBB - 22 (2 / 5, 0, 3)
SF - 22 (2 / 5, 0, 3)
Gre - 20 (4 / 4, 0, 4)
AB - 16 (4 / 3, 0, 5)
SR - 15 (3 / 3, 0, 5)
CO - 15 (3 / 3, 0, 5)
ST - 14 (2 / 3, 0, 5)
LOU - 13 (1 / 3, 0, 5)
CAB - 13 (1 / 3, 0, 5)
Oyo - 12 (4 / 2, 0, 6)


Castres woke up. Toulouse stopped the hemorrhage. Montpellier & Toulon grabbed important away wins. Bordeaux impressed. La Rochelle capitalised at home. RM-Brive was the game to watch (11 tries, very lively game, Racing defense at fault at times, Brive mistakes in their attacking phases cost them but if they can develop that much playing most times they should manage to secure their position in top14).

19543261

vienne86 wrote:

Never thought to record this. Pheck it anyway. Big Bordeaux fan. Brilliant result.

Me too. If anybody comes across it on YouTube/Torrent or if its shown again on sky could they let us know here.

Winters

Gavin Mortimer reporting that LNR looking to change the Top14 salary Cap in light of PRL changing theirs. Race to the bottom.

sydneybound

Didn't have chance to watch any games this week although I caught last nights highlight show which is pretty good in fairness.

26,000 at the Bordeaux match which is the largest attendance this season in the Top14. What the little I saw Jonathan Davies had a shocker.

Good win for LaRochelle against Lyon and there are picking up a few bonus points which should stand them in good stead come the end of the season.

sydneybound

Winters wrote: »

Gavin Mortimer reporting that LNR looking to change the Top14 salary Cap in light of PRL changing theirs. Race to the bottom.

He also said Camp Nou will hold the Top 14 final in 2016, that will be something else.... great move.

thomond2006

2016 Final in Barcelona

Paul Goze, the LNR president, used to be president of Perpignan.

Hmm...

sydneybound

thomond2006 wrote: »

Paul Goze, the LNR president, used to be president of Perpignan.

Hmm...

What has Goze got to do with it? Maybe I'm missing out on something, I thought he's only involved with rugby league these days

icdg

thomond2006 wrote: »

2016 Final in Barcelona

Paul Goze, the LNR president, used to be president of Perpignan.

Hmm...

More likely due to Euro 2016 taking place in France in June. That would be fine except for the late start to the Northern Hemisphere season due to the Rugby World Cup will mean the French rugby season playing well into June and the Stade de France will have been turned over to UEFA before the Top 14 final takes place. To put it into context, the 2012 Top 14 final took place on 9th June 2012, but UEFA Euro 2012 had commenced on 8th June. Parc des Princes won't be available either.

iroced

icdg wrote: »

More likely due to Euro 2016 taking place in France in June. That would be fine except for the late start to the Northern Hemisphere season due to the Rugby World Cup will mean the French rugby season playing well into June and the Stade de France will have been turned over to UEFA before the Top 14 final takes place. To put it into context, the 2012 Top 14 final took place on 9th June 2012, but UEFA Euro 2012 had commenced on 8th June. Parc des Princes won't be available either.

This.

thomond2006 wrote: »

2016 Final in Barcelona

Paul Goze, the LNR president, used to be president of Perpignan.

Hmm...

Under Paul Goze's time at the head of USAp there were many attempts to develop rugby interest on the other side of the Catalan pyrenees . So despite icdg meaningful points I'd say Barcelona is not a random choice . Camp Nou is a wonderful stadium so that should add to the game. That said I'm surprised FC Barcelona agreed to this. I guess their season will be over and they'll have time to get the field back to a golf green standrad :pac:.

thomond2006

Toulon's squad for the trip to Toulouse:

Menini, Chiocci, Orioli, Burden, Hayman, Castrogiovanni, Botha, Suta, Williams, S. Armitage, Gorgodze, Fernandez Lobbe, J. Smith, Masoe.

Tillous-Borde, Claassens, Giteau, Habana, Wulf, Mermoz, Bastareaud, O'Connor, D. Armitage, Halfpenny.

Pick a team from that! I reckon Toulouse are in big trouble. Halfpenny will finally make his debut, Ali Williams is back from injury while Bakkies, Habana and Fernandez Lobbe are back from the RC.

thomond2006

Brive were a missed conversion away from winning in Grenoble, that would have been huge. 26-25 FT

Judgement Day

thomond2006 wrote: »

Brive were a missed conversion away from winning in Grenoble, that would have been huge. 26-25 FT

So much for your -10 tip so. Not to worry, I managed to lose the whole weekend budget on the Munster game instead.

thomond2006

Judgement Day wrote: »

So much for your -10 tip so. Not to worry, I managed to lose the whole weekend budget on the Munster game instead.

Gutted. I thought Grenoble would stuff them.

It's a mad season so far, teams have been much stronger on the road than last year.

Hagz

Brive will be fuming. A penalty kick that went over wasn't given in the first half.

iroced

thomond2006 wrote: »

Brive were a missed conversion away from winning in Grenoble, that would have been huge. 26-25 FT

Crazy situation for this conversion too. Germain was suffering from cramps, his staff was very slow (unprofessional?) to react. It took them ages to bring him his tee. Don't know why they didn't have someone else to take it (I don't know very well their team but apparently Rian Swanepoel can kick). And the "icing on the cake" for the poor Germain the ref strangely stopping him twice, first to make him move 2 m aside (he was not in front of the place they scored the try), second to remind him the clock was almost up... Apparently he had an overall good game so this zealous excess is weird...

Hagz wrote: »

Brive will be fuming. A penalty kick that went over wasn't given in the first half.

Hmm... Didn't know that. Think there were a couple of abusive "home" decisions in Grenoble favour last year too. Is Grenoble becoming the new Biarritz ? Serge where are you :pac:?

sydneybound

Fuming I switch over at halftime as I thought Grenoble were going to romp home. Great start to the Top14 weekend with the big one still to come on Sunday.

thomond2006

Bordeaux making bits of Castres. 29-0 (5 tries) with 30 minutes left.

sydneybound

thomond2006 wrote: »

Bordeaux making bits of Castres. 29-0 (5 tries) with 30 minutes left.

Castres piss poor away from home again they probably brought a C team.

thomond2006

sydneybound wrote: »

Castres piss poor away from home again they probably brought a C team.

Le XV de départ du CO :
Palis ; Evans, Cabannes, Combezou, Martial ; (o) Tales (cap), (m) Garcia ; Diarra, Beattie, Bornman ; Samson, Gray ; Fa'anunu, Mach, Lazar.

Remplaçants : Rallier, Taumoepeau, Faasalele, Caballero, Dumora, Grosso, Whetton, Montes.

Edit: Strong selection as most of absentees (Forestier, Capo Ortega, Kockott, Lamerat, Sivivatu) are unavailable.

iroced

thomond2006 wrote: »

Le XV de départ du CO :
Palis ; Evans, Cabannes, Combezou, Martial ; (o) Tales (cap), (m) Garcia ; Diarra, Beattie, Bornman ; Samson, Gray ; Fa'anunu, Mach, Lazar.

Remplaçants : Rallier, Taumoepeau, Faasalele, Caballero, Dumora, Grosso, Whetton, Montes.

Edit: Strong selection as most of absentees (Forestier, Capo Ortega, Kockott, Lamerat, Sivivatu) are unavailable.

Yeah bar Kockott that's pretty much their best squad.

Granted Castres are struggling this year but on the other hand UBB are more and more impressive :eek:! FT 59-7 9 tries to 1 :eek:!

---

On other news, huge blow this afternoon at the Altrad Stadium with Trinh-Duc presumably long term injury (could be a broken shin). The team looked shell-shocked but managed to secure a 25-9 non-bonified victory. If I'm being cynically pragmatic Id say it's 1 wasted point. But with TD (and the form he was in) gone we might have lost much more than 1 single point this afternoon...

vienne86

So Stade won the Paris derby, but Racing picked up a bonus point.

Castres seem to be in a bad way - not bad news for Leinster. But Bordeaux - WOW! I love watch them and just wish Sky would show them instead of insisting we watch Toulon most weeks.

former legend

Who is Montpellier reserve out half? Will Monsieur Altrad be going shopping?

thomond2006

former legend wrote: »

Who is Montpellier reserve out half? Will Monsieur Altrad be going shopping?

Enzo Selponi or Ebersohn? Altrad will probably go shopping but there's not many candidates, Toulon signed both Sanchez and Hernandez already to cover Michalak (injury) and O'Connor (going back to Oz).

I'm going to put it out there: Kurtley Beale!

iroced

thomond2006 wrote: »

former legend wrote: »

Who is Montpellier reserve out half? Will Monsieur Altrad be going shopping?

Enzo Selponi or Ebersohn? Altrad will probably go shopping but there's not many candidates, Toulon signed both Sanchez and Hernandez already to cover Michalak (injury) and O'Connor (going back to Oz).

I'm going to put it out there: Kurtley Beale!

Yeah. Selponi is the "official" team backup though today Ebershon replaced Trinh-Duc. That said we're officially searching for a "medical joker" (don't remember how you say in English...).

sydneybound

vienne86 wrote: »

But Bordeaux - WOW! I love watch them and just wish Sky would show them instead of insisting we watch Toulon most weeks.

+1

Getting a bit fed up seeing Toulon every week, need to get Bordeaux on more. Wouldn't even mind watching a bit more of LaRochelle at home.

thomond2006

Toulouse:
15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Gael Fickou, 11 Yoann Huget , 10 Luke McAlister 9 Jean Marc Doussain,
8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Nemiah Tialata , 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp

Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Iosefa Tekori , 19 Gregory Lamboley, 20 Jano Vermaak, 21 Thomas Ramos, 22 Arthur Bonneval, 23 Kisi Pulu.

Toulon:
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Rudi Wulf, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde,
8 Chris Masoe, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Juan Smith, 5 Jocelino Suta, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Alexandre Menini.

Replacements: 16 Jean charles Orioli, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Mamuka Gorgodze, 19 Ali Williams, 20 Mathieu Bastareaud, 21 Steffon Armitage, 22 Michael Claassens, 23 Carl Hayman.

This is a huge game for Toulouse, a win here would put them back on the horse. As it stands they are 10 points off the playoff positions. Toulon have rotated the team and Halfpenny, Lobbe, Williams and Habana are making their first appearance of the season.

The worry for Toulouse is the difference in the benches, Toulon's is by far the stronger. Toulouse have a lot of injuries which means there are many youngsters on the bench. Toulon have gone for a 6-2 split on the bench and the entrance of Gorgodze and Armitage in the second half is quite a prospect! A concern for Toulon however is Giteau isn't playing and he's been outstanding.

.ak

Is that game on at 7 or 8 our time?

Deano7788

.ak wrote: »

Is that game on at 7 or 8 our time?

8

Neil3030

thomond2006 wrote: »

Toulouse:
15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Gael Fickou, 11 Yoann Huget , 10 Luke McAlister 9 Jean Marc Doussain,
8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Nemiah Tialata , 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp

Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Iosefa Tekori , 19 Gregory Lamboley, 20 Jano Vermaak, 21 Thomas Ramos, 22 Arthur Bonneval, 23 Kisi Pulu.

Toulon:
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Rudi Wulf, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde,
8 Chris Masoe, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Juan Smith, 5 Jocelino Suta, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Alexandre Menini.

Replacements: 16 Jean charles Orioli, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Mamuka Gorgodze, 19 Ali Williams, 20 Mathieu Bastareaud, 21 Steffon Armitage, 22 Michael Claassens, 23 Carl Hayman.

This is a huge game for Toulouse, a win here would put them back on the horse. As it stands they are 10 points off the playoff positions. Toulon have rotated the team and Halfpenny, Lobbe, Williams and Habana are making their first appearance of the season.

The worry for Toulouse is the difference in the benches, Toulon's is by far the stronger. Toulouse have a lot of injuries which means there are many youngsters on the bench. Toulon have gone for a 6-2 split on the bench and the entrance of Gorgodze and Armitage in the second half is quite a prospect! A concern for Toulon however is Giteau isn't playing and he's been outstanding.

Strong Toulon bench. Carl Hayman is a fantastic prospect; an up-and-coming 34-year-old 120kg utility back who can cover the entire backline.