International Tier 2/3/4 Thread

JonnyF

Some of that Buddy idea could work, i know france have a really good record of playing matches against Romania and other european teams, remember hearing something about the sending Romania or Georgia a coach on secondment for a while too recently enough.

Player exchange would be tricky to manage though. For the tier 2 country it could be great to have their players playing in the Rabo or HCup but you'd have to make sure they would still be released for test matches so you avoid the whole top14 situation where PI teams can't get any of their players or guys like Samu Manoa at Saints have to decide between playing for the US or keeping their club job.

tolosenc

JonnyF wrote: »

They lost 30-10 with two red cards

Two joke shop red cards. I'm not suggesting that we be lenient on emerging nations to try to grow support, but having Garces there indulging himself (the first red was for a late tackle) can't have helped.

funky penguin

Sorry to bump, but I had the opportunity to go to a Top League game the evening.

It was Kobe Steelers vs. Ricoh Black Rams. (so I got to see Jacque Fourie play ^_^).

It was an initiative to move a game outside of the hotspots, to try get a new fanbase/spread the good word etc etc.

The ticket was free. In fact, about 50% of the people who went did so with free tickets. I got mine through the school I work in, and a crap load of tickets were given to school kids. Have to say, I was surprised with the amount of kids I saw there, mostly with families (and many anguished looking fathers trying to explain the rules). Most families had packed 'bento' (like a ready meal but reeeaaaallly nice) boxes which they bought for cheap on site, emphasizing the family day out atmosphere.

The teams.....

Kobe are traditionally the stronger (apparently), and they came storming out the blocks, their No.7 scoring a fantastic individual try. Some great footwork, but some shody defence too. They kind of lapsed though and Ricoh came back into the game with their own try in the 'championship' minutes of the second half. Kobe got it together though, and ended up winning 15-23. Tight game made for good watching, but these are the things I noticed:

Handling errors were quite frequent. I know it's easy to criticize from the bench, but you wouldn't get away with some of them in the Rabo.

As a result, I saw a crap load of scrums. The new 3 part call, 'crouch, touch, set' seems to work nicely, as I can only recall 2 resets, and no penalties from the scrums (that I can recall). Could have just been the teams. Digressing a bit.

Lineouts were mega competitive, and cleanly run.

Mauls were regularly used. Kobe were especially effective with them.

I haven't seen so much 'tennis' since the law changes about 4(?) years ago. That could be a Japanese thing though....I dunno.

Tackling was strong and precise at times, while school boyish at others.

Backline moves were there, but handling errors and a very 'old-school' nature to them, meant a lot of line breaks came from individual effort rather than use of space.

Finally, the Japanese aren't afraid of big hits. There were some sickening hits.

Overall, that might seem a bit negative, but there was a lot to cheer about. It was close, physical, competitive and there were some nice tries. It was definitely better than I was expecting.

As a small aside, the crowd were great. Very vocal, with lots of chants and dramatic 'ooooohs' and 'aaaaaahhhs' during big hits or line breaks.


EDIT: Here's a crappy iPhone pic: