French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

nc6000

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I thought the Top 14 final would be on TV5 monde on freesat but doesn't appear to be. The semis were on.

It is on. I'd say they are waiting for kickoff. No build-up.

Newtown90

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I thought the Top 14 final would be on TV5 monde on freesat but doesn't appear to be. The semis were on.

Working here...

Tigerandahalf

Ya on now. No build up. Strange.

LuckyGent88

Not great start for parra from the tee. 2 missed kicks already

aimee1

Clermont must find their place kickers in this box ......

Buer

Parra doing his bit for the Clermont choke.

RuggieBear

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Not great start for parra from the tee. 2 missed kicks already

neither difficult either

Buer

Don't know about that penalty. Chasers stopped. Abendanon jumped and turned himself horizontal despite no other player jumping. Then he lands into a standing player who doesn't put a finger on him and NA gets the penalty?

Any channel with english commentary?

Edit: Found it

LuckyGent88

Now Steyn is missing the kicks.

Stade scrum is well on top now though

aimee1

brock missing now, straigthforward one too

Kiwi_knock

Far too much kicking out of hand from both sides.

LuckyGent88

Looks like another final lost by Clermont. Two lineouts where the ball was ripped away from them were very costly.

matthew8

Stade are champions. What a poor game of rugby.

Dave_The_Sheep

It's a minute from when you make your choice, or when the penalty is awarded?

I ask because there was 1 minute 20 there when it was awareded. Parisse wasted a bit making the decision to bring it to a minute (good thinking on his part).

pickarooney

The bridesmaid's dress is decidedly yellow.

vienne86

Disappointing game that. Disappointed for Clermont, but Stade put in the effort and were more disciplined.

Kiwi_knock

That was a poor game, but Stade did enough to win.

aimee1

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

It's a minute from when you make your choice, or when the penalty is awarded?

I ask because there was 1 minute 20 there when it was awareded. Parisse wasted a bit making the decision to bring it to a minute (good thinking on his part).

the ball went over with 4-5 seconds, game should have restarted. irrelevant because clermont were never going to score a try and convert it

matthew8

That takes Clermont to one win and 13 losses in finals. Wouldn't really call this one a choke, ran into a better side though the early missed kicks proved costly. Very little spark in the backline with all the players missing.

aimee1

SMM seats to be replaced with these.

The Lost Sheep

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

It's a minute from when you make your choice, or when the penalty is awarded?

I ask because there was 1 minute 20 there when it was awareded. Parisse wasted a bit making the decision to bring it to a minute (good thinking on his part).

Kick must be taken within one minute from time the player indicates intention to kick at goal. Intention to kick is signalled by the arrival of the kicking tee or sand, or when the player makes a mark on the ground.

vienne86

Those poorClermont fans - they are a great crowd and they deserve better from their team.

Wang King

vienne86 wrote: »

Those poorClermont fans - they are a great crowd and they deserve better from their team.

Beaten European cup finalists in a cracking game, and beaten Top14 finalists in a match that was probably 1 game too many for them over a long season, injuries & fatigue, they aren't doing too badly

nc6000

When I saw the Clermont line-up I pretty much assumed Stade would win.

total former

Clermont have signed Hosea Gear for two seasons.

total former

Toulon have also confirmed Duane Vermeulen and Matt Stevens.

Full list of French comings and goings:
http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/transferts/2014/top-14-mercato-tous-les-transferts-club-par-club-pour-la-saison-2015-16_sto4784620/story.shtml

Buer

Some serious signings by both Clermont and Toulon. Can't see them being dislodged as the top two sides in France next season.

total former

Bit perplexed by Toulouse's total inaction on the transfer front.

sydneybound

total former wrote: »

Bit perplexed by Toulouse's total inaction on the transfer front.

Their tightening the belt I believe, budget won't be as big next year also with a new coach they'll want to get his input before splashing out.

Buer

total former wrote: »

Bit perplexed by Toulouse's total inaction on the transfer front.

They seem to be trusting their academy and own development. They had a few forwards on the bench against Clermont who are only 20-22. I'd expect them to play a serious role next season but they might suffer a bit in the short term.

Happy to see it, to be honest. Much rather that than the approach of Toulon (Vermeulen, POC, Nonu, Manoa) or Clermont (Strettle, Gear, van der Merwe, Spedding).

Clermont, despite priding themselves on their running, attacking rugby, don't have a single back produced by themselves for next season aside from Rougerie, who will be 35. Someone like Fofana is debatable but he was signed as a 20 year old from lower leagues.

thomond2006

Teams have to use at least 12 JIFFs in the matchday 23.

Chiocci, Guirado, Ma'afu, POC, Taofifenua, Manoa, Armitage, Vermeulen, STB, Cooper, Mitchell, Nonu, Bastareaud, Habana, Halfpenny

Etrillard, Menini, Chilachava, Suta, F Lobbe, Pelissie, Giteau, Armitage

There's 12 in that 23!

pickarooney

Montpellier gearing up for a run at the Currie Cup by the looks of things. Meanwhile clueless Castres nick half of Oyonnax and Australia are looking thin at 9 next year.
Carl Hayman looks to have his first coaching job lined up too...

ssaye2

http://www.the42.ie/montpellier-du-plessis-brothers-signings-2166787-Jun2015/?utm_source=twitter_self

MONTPELLIER HAVE CONFIRMED the long-rumoured signings of South African international front row pair Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis.

sydneybound

pickarooney wrote: »

clueless Castres nick half of Oyonnax

The former coach of Oyonnax has taken at Castes so not surprising he's taking a lot of players with him. Oyonnax should go down next year.

Will Genia has been poor this season for the Reds and hasn't been as good in the last couple of years. I think Stade are going to be paying over the odds for his services.

The worst thing about French clubs (Toulon, Montpellier plus others) place little emphasis on bringing through young players.

pickarooney

sydneybound wrote: »

The former coach of Oyonnax has taken at Castes so not surprising he's taking a lot of players with him. Oyonnax should go down next year.

Will Genia has been poor this season for the Reds and hasn't been as good in the last couple of years. I think Stade are going to be paying over the odds for his services.

The worst thing about French clubs (Toulon, Montpellier plus others) place little emphasis on bringing through young players.

SF and ST are doing all right on that front, whether by accident or design. Toulon will be playing with mostly home grown front rowers next season too but they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot by doing the same in the backs. Possibly more worrying is the smaller clubs signing so many mediocre foreigners where French players might expect to get a chance. I'm not sure what the best solution is to get young French players enough game time that clubs will take a punt on them long term. The U20s weren't at the races against NZ the other day and that vicious circle is likely to continue. Ireland's youths are not any better but they'll all get some chance to develop.

Expanded super rugby and more cash in the Premiership are probably amongst the best things that could happen.

Kiwi_knock

Queensland Reds have given up trying to keep Quade Cooper, so that confirms he will be a Toulon player next season.

http://www.redsrugby.com.au/News/NewsArticles/tabid/581/ArticleID/15547/Queensland-Rugby-exit-Quade-Cooper-negotiations.aspx

sydneybound

From what I understand the Reds and the ARU were going to have to pay a large amount to get Quade out of his Toulon contract and they weren't prepared to do it. From the Reds point of although it would have been great to keep him he was their top earner who was injured a hell of a lot so maybe getting him off the books is good business. In regards to the ARU Quade is on 53 caps, if they can get him up to 60 from the Rugby Championship, friendly against the U.S. and WC he'll still be able to play for them while he's at Toulon, so again the move mightn't do them any harm. Besides the franchises and the ARU are badly in need of money and can't be throwing silly sums about just to get people out of contracts. Quade should never have signed it in the first place.

nc6000

I wonder what Toulon make of this. He's only just signed for them, hasn't even played a game yet and it looks like he's trying to get out of the contract.

Rightwing

Buer wrote: »

Some serious signings by both Clermont and Toulon. Can't see them being dislodged as the top two sides in France next season.

The former will simply have to start winning something before they can be considered in the top 2. Stade are number 2 in France now, and I can see them surpass Toulon next season, the departure of B Laporte will be significant.

sydneybound

nc6000 wrote: »

I wonder what Toulon make of this. He's only just signed for them, hasn't even played a game yet and it looks like he's trying to get out of the contract.

I bet their happy that the Reds & ARU have given up trying to resign him. They won't be happy if he goes off playing in rugby championships or autumn internationals down the line though!

pickarooney

Laporte has another year left at Toulon

thomond2006

It's a very strange statement for a player who had already signed for another club!

Laporte will be a loss but he is staying until January to smooth the transition to Dominiguez. While the team has lost a lot of experience a lot of experience is arriving. For once they have a difficult European pool though so that will be a new challenge.

Buer

Rightwing wrote: »

The former will simply have to start winning something before they can be considered in the top 2. Stade are number 2 in France now, and I can see them surpass Toulon next season, the departure of B Laporte will be significant.

They're not. They hit a good run against three very tired and injury hit sides in Clermont and Toulon in the T14 knock outs. They won only 5 of their 12 league games in 2015 and didn't even have to play in the ECC nor were they particularly affected by international call ups. They finished 4th in the league and that's about right for them.

A full strength Clermont is almost certainly better than full strength SF. Clermont were missing half a team for the final through injuries and were exhausted. Despite that, it was still a one score final, played in their back yard where Parra missed a couple of sitters off the tee.

They're much more similar to the Castres side of 2 years ago than Toulon or Clermont; decent domestic season and caught the stronger sides on the hop at the end of a very long season for those better teams.

If they want to move to the next level and be capable of competing on two fronts, they needed to make some more acquisitions than they have done. Willem Alberts should be arriving and will be a good signing for them but in Genia, they've signed someone who is actually playing worse than the incumbent. They haven't brought in anyone else of note.

Rightwing

Buer wrote: »

They're not. They hit a good run against three very tired and injury hit sides in Clermont and Toulon in the T14 knock outs. They won only 5 of their 12 league games in 2015 and didn't even have to play in the ECC nor were they particularly affected by international call ups. They finished 4th in the league and that's about right for them.

A full strength Clermont is almost certainly better than full strength SF. Clermont were missing half a team for the final through injuries and were exhausted. Despite that, it was still a one score final, played in their back yard where Parra missed a couple of sitters off the tee.

They're much more similar to the Castres side of 2 years ago than Toulon or Clermont; decent domestic season and caught the stronger sides on the hop at the end of a very long season for those better teams.

If they want to move to the next level and be capable of competing on two fronts, they needed to make some more acquisitions than they have done. Willem Alberts should be arriving and will be a good signing for them but in Genia, they've signed someone who is actually playing worse than the incumbent. They haven't brought in anyone else of note.

All of that reads well, but the bottomline is: Stade have the championship, Clermont the excuse.

Buer

Rightwing wrote: »

All of that reads well, but the bottomline is: Stade have the championship, Clermont the excuse.

It reads accurately as opposed to well. Castres had the championship ahead of Toulon. Meant shag all in terms of which was the better team to anyone who knows the sides.

thomond2006

pickarooney wrote: »

Now that Aix have made it to ProD2, Marseille have come along and stuck their name on the team and the logo is changing to some poxy silver fern lookalike with an olive branch. Next they'll move the team and change the strip to white and blue.

Why bother building your own team when you can just steal your neighbours'? Pricks. I think Lyon basically did the same with Bourgoin.

It's just been confirmed: http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/pro-d2/2014-2015/pro-d2-aix-en-provence-le-parc-devient-provence-rugby_sto4792671/story.shtml

I wonder if that means they will share home matches between Marseille and Aix. I suppose it makes business as the club's catchment area has just exploded in size! I remember a few years back there was a Marseille-Provence club but IIRC it went bust. Jonah Lomu played a few games for them at number eight and then sued for unpaid wages. Anyway it looks like this new 'Provence' club has got a lot of money to spend with some of their recent signings.

pickarooney

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's just been confirmed: http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/pro-d2/2014-2015/pro-d2-aix-en-provence-le-parc-devient-provence-rugby_sto4792671/story.shtml

I wonder if that means they will share home matches between Marseille and Aix. I suppose it makes business as the club's catchment area has just exploded in size! I remember a few years back there was a Marseille-Provence club but IIRC it went bust. Jonah Lomu played a few games for them at number eight and then sued for unpaid wages. Anyway it looks like this new 'Provence' club has got a lot of money to spend with some of their recent signings.

Yeah, Marseille-Vitrolles was a venture doomed to failure. Nobody gave a damn, even with rugby's greatest ever star hobbling around every month for them.

Aix have signed 15 new players so far, half from Top14 clubs. Hayman is strongly rumoured to be forwards coach there next season and there was a somewhat optimistic attempt to sign Michalak on a 2-year contract that fell apart at the weekend. They're just about JIFF-compliant as it is, which is a bit of an indictment of French rugby. Second and even third division teams have so many foreign players it's hard to see where any local players are going to break through. They need some kind of ITM/Currie Cup equivalent.

nc6000

The Guardian have an article suggesting Quade Cooper might yet sign for The Waratahs for next season and buy himself out of his Toulon deal.

pickarooney

Bad news for Lille - after winning promotion to Pro D2 they've been held back for financial reasons. Dax, relegated at the end of the season, get a reprieve.

I can't imagine the headaches that will cause. The transfer deadline is in a couple of weeks and each club was basically transitioning from a Pro to an amateur club or vice versa.