Big Ewis
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- Oct 10, 2011
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hey,
just read about the first 26 pages of the '11 RWC Final thread....reminded me of the atmosphere back when I first joined this forum. Soooooo many more French posters, a shame they all left...would be nice to have some different perspectives sometimes...anyways.
That thread also reminded me of how much ppl respected France back then, after that match. World wide, everybody was really very respectful of the team...it's such a shame we couldn't quite keep the level that high subsequently...
A part from November 2012, that guaranteed us a spot in the Top 4 for 2015 after all, here's some of our record post-2011 RWC Final:
- 4th in 2012 6N
- 6th in 2013 6N
- haven't beaten England or Wales since RWC, i.e. in past two meetings.
- haven't beaten Ireland since 2011, a team we usually have our way against. Two straight draws.
- just lost clean sweep 3 test matches in NZ.
The thing is in almost each of these points there are some good things, until the 30-0 match in NZ where we really really sucked, we hadn't been CRUSHED by anyone these whole 2 years.
France as a rugby nation must have lost so much of that prestige it's ridiculous in the past couple of years. We have definitely under-performed consistently, absolutely no doubt. If it wasn't for that month of November, I suppose PSA would be hailed as the single worst coach in France history, potentially even int'l rugby history.
This is all eerily reminiscent of certain years where we sucked miserably but then rebounded in a quasi or entirely legendary way:
* 1999: Worst showing in 5N in decades. Even lost to Tonga that year, got crushed by NZ 54-7; only to come back and make the Finals after that insane upset in the semis of the RWC.
* 2007: get smaaaashed twice in a row in NZ, including our worst loss of all time, 61-10, only to again upset the AB in the RWC (forward pass or not, France played extremely well globally).
It's just a funny thing how France's popularity rating will fluctuate, seemingly for all time !..
just read about the first 26 pages of the '11 RWC Final thread....reminded me of the atmosphere back when I first joined this forum. Soooooo many more French posters, a shame they all left...would be nice to have some different perspectives sometimes...anyways.
That thread also reminded me of how much ppl respected France back then, after that match. World wide, everybody was really very respectful of the team...it's such a shame we couldn't quite keep the level that high subsequently...
A part from November 2012, that guaranteed us a spot in the Top 4 for 2015 after all, here's some of our record post-2011 RWC Final:
- 4th in 2012 6N
- 6th in 2013 6N
- haven't beaten England or Wales since RWC, i.e. in past two meetings.
- haven't beaten Ireland since 2011, a team we usually have our way against. Two straight draws.
- just lost clean sweep 3 test matches in NZ.
The thing is in almost each of these points there are some good things, until the 30-0 match in NZ where we really really sucked, we hadn't been CRUSHED by anyone these whole 2 years.
France as a rugby nation must have lost so much of that prestige it's ridiculous in the past couple of years. We have definitely under-performed consistently, absolutely no doubt. If it wasn't for that month of November, I suppose PSA would be hailed as the single worst coach in France history, potentially even int'l rugby history.
This is all eerily reminiscent of certain years where we sucked miserably but then rebounded in a quasi or entirely legendary way:
* 1999: Worst showing in 5N in decades. Even lost to Tonga that year, got crushed by NZ 54-7; only to come back and make the Finals after that insane upset in the semis of the RWC.
* 2007: get smaaaashed twice in a row in NZ, including our worst loss of all time, 61-10, only to again upset the AB in the RWC (forward pass or not, France played extremely well globally).
It's just a funny thing how France's popularity rating will fluctuate, seemingly for all time !..