Top 14 Day 4

[ZeFrenchy]

Lots of young Irish players in the Espoirs system at the moment. James Hart has been joined by Shane O'Leary in the Grenoble Espoirs (although it's likely that O'Leary will end up representing Canada at some stage) while Jerry Sexton and Rory Kavanagh have both made the move to Auch. It's nice to see that the guys who aren't getting picked up by the ultra competitive Leinster academy system are still able to pursue careers in pro rugby.

That's because of the aforementioned 'Jiff rule', that says that at least 50% of the side must have played at least three years in a french club's academy.

 

[Big Ewis]

Just saw CO and SF...
funny, Papé conceded in the post-match interview, about the season schedule: "it's catastrophic. I dunno who makes the calendar, but I'm pretty sure they've never played rugby..."
!! XD

Boring first half as shyt, awesome Castres in the second half. Love that team. Currently the best attacking team in the league, good scrum (though at difficulty tonight strangely...), good backs, good no.8 and no.10, a real french FB...sexy but not Hollywood. And a relatively small market beating Goliath of course to claim the ***le. Love that team.

 

[Tony Manx]

Missed the most of the match having dinner......subconciously obviously thought we mght get whipped at Fortress Oyonnax!! Actually got my time wrong!

Anyway..............not tooooo bad....2 point defeat and away bonus point and not even on the bottom thanks to the spanking that Brive got!! Mind you not sure just what a spanking we will get saturday when Toulon come to town but expect them to be severely weakened as they just do not need to put their top guys out..........!

Well done Gaston.....yet again good prediction and even better win away with that team.....depth is really there for you!

 

[Big Ewis]

man, Ronan O'Gara may have authored the most insane kick-pass in the history of the 6N last Feb. against Scotland, but the Irishman can manage speaking french ! Not bad at all ! obviously he could speak some before coming to France this year, and a bunch of mistakes here and there, but it wasn't ridiculous, he actually made sense.

 

[Tony Manx]

Toulouse got their expected and deserved victory over Racing...one wonders if Racing made Toulouse look good or were Toulouse good?

Think bit of both in an error strewn match which for me was perked up by the kicking of McAllister.....his field play was ok and certainly not enlightening but then Dussain did not do him a lot of favours today! The oik Richards in commentary made just the one decent comment, apart from tearing Dussain totally to bits rather unfairly, and that is that it will be interesting to see whether McAlllister can do it when the heat is on as he did not last season's back end. His form is a huge improvement on last season.

Thought Fickou and Huget looked sharp tonight and Gallin, when he come on, and the 19 year old prop were sheer class.................all in all, Toulouse will do far better this season than I thought if they can keep a front row fit..........

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I don't think Toulouse looked particularly impressive, to be honest. Huget played very well and very bad, alternating between the two Could easily have leaked two tries with his eff-ups in his 22.
Racing would've pushed them close if they had a similar strengthed side out, or even just bringing Sexton on earlier (e.g. if he came on at half time he certainly wouldn't have wasted the yellow card with that terrible dropgoal attempt).
But then with this ridiculous mid-week round you've got to manage the players game time.

 

[Big Ewis]

that Fickou try was awesome. Definitely glad we've got him slowly blossoming in Toulouse as Clerc ages. Good signs for 2015.

Speaking of which, nice to see Brice Dulin back for the mighty CO. He lost about 6kg because he couldn't move much with that jaw injury...but he looked good. He and J.M Butin are good young prospects for that 15 jersey for us, and hopefully Tales and Camille Lopez develop enough in time for the big event in two years, paired with Para, that's a solid 9/10 punch. I like Tales especially..

P.S.: I seriously wonder if Saint-André will play Michalak against the Blacks again during this coming EOYT !... XD

 

[BasqueBete]

Tales is good, Lopez too..

Haven't got anytime for talk of national squad suffering...

French rugby is rich with talent...

Semi finals at World Cup will be a minimum..

 

[Big Ewis]

Tales is good, Lopez too..

Haven't got anytime for talk of national squad suffering...

French rugby is rich with talent...

Semi finals at World Cup will be a minimum..

agreed. I just made a thread about the 2013 End-Of-Year-Tour for France, go there and let me know what you think.

 

[Jaguares]

I saw: "Toulouse vs Racing Metro". Toulouse improved performance, showed a game similar to previous years, because of its great history, they are required to not only win but to play nice too.

Cheers

 

[Tony Manx]

Results for Day 4

Stade Toulousain 30 – 6 Racing
UBB 29 -36 MHR
ASM 55 – 0 AB
Oyonnax 24 -22 BO
USAP 36 -13 Grenoble
Toulon 62 - 12 Brive
Castres 38 - 10 Stade

League Placement

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Pts[/TD]
[TD]J[/TD]
[TD]G[/TD]
[TD]N[/TD]
[TD]P[/TD]
[TD]p[/TD]
[TD]c[/TD]
[TD]+ / -[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]ASM Clermont[/TD]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]134[/TD]
[TD]67[/TD]
[TD]67[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]Toulon Rugby Club[/TD]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]151[/TD]
[TD]76[/TD]
[TD]75[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]Castres Olympique[/TD]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]115[/TD]
[TD]63[/TD]
[TD]52[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]Stade Toulousain[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]114[/TD]
[TD]78[/TD]
[TD]36[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]Montpellier Hérault Rugby[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]103[/TD]
[TD]94[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]French stage[/TD]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]92[/TD]
[TD]87[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7[/TD]
[TD]Perpignan[/TD]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]109[/TD]
[TD]95[/TD]
[TD]14[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]Union Bordeaux-Begles[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]93[/TD]
[TD]106[/TD]
[TD]-13[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]Bayonne[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]73[/TD]
[TD]126[/TD]
[TD]-53[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]10[/TD]
[TD]Racing Metro 92[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]61[/TD]
[TD]94[/TD]
[TD]-33[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]Grenoble[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]66[/TD]
[TD]112[/TD]
[TD]-46[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]12[/TD]
[TD]Oyonnax[/TD]
[TD]8[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[TD]74[/TD]
[TD]102[/TD]
[TD]-28[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]13[/TD]
[TD]Biarritz Olympique[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]62[/TD]
[TD]96[/TD]
[TD]-34[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]14[/TD]
[TD]CA Brive-Corrèze[/TD]
[TD]5[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[TD]1[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]75[/TD]
[TD]126[/TD]
[TD]-51[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[gaston le gaff]

Well should Gaston try getting 3, 100% preditions in a row, but that could be pushing his luck!!!he's still celebrating the great win last night at Bordeaux, not for long as Toulouse will be a very busy day for me as the press stand is choca, another massive game for Montpellier, just had a look at the Calender and there are no easy games at all this season, maybe BO at home between Xmas and the New Year, but the rest will all be difficult, still not sure which 6 will qualify.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Tolofua and Fickou are looking like great prospects.

And is Nyanga the most undderated player in French rugby?
Or has his form been bad up until now?
I love watching that guy play!

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Tolofua and Fickou are looking like great prospects.

And is Nyanga the most undderated player in French rugby?
Or has his form been bad up until now?
I love watching that guy play!

Nyanga's problem is that Picamoles and Dusautoir are both undisputed for France. That causes two problems for Nyanga: it's "complicated" politically to lay a whole backrow of the same team, and that neither of the three are lineout specialists (Nyanga is ok, but not international level).
He's been very good for a few years now, but coaches have consistently preferred Ouedraogo, plus we can't forget that for the best part of 2007-2011 the backrow of Dusautoir-Bonnaire-Harinordoquy was untouchable.