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2024 Guinness Six Nations
What is wrong with French Rugby?
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<blockquote data-quote="Reiser99" data-source="post: 933063" data-attributes="member: 72977"><p>I think that Ireland have got their National/Club balance pretty much spot on at the moment. Wales and Scotland are trying to get there and going in the right direction, but struggle with depth compared to Ireland, though this may just be due to less clubs and players. England are struggling to find the balance between club and country so that the success of the u20's etc...comes through clearly. However they have the depth and number of players to compensate for this. France however wanted to become the Premier League of rugby by making it the most exciting league in the world to attract the best talent. The problem is that while the English Premier League is exciting at the expense of the national team, the Top 14 is not exciting at the expense of the national team. On top in football star players can create those individual moments that stand out more easily than in rugby. Yes there are fantastic moments and I will never go back to watching football, but it's rare now that a player can make a complete break and finish entirely on their own. Majority of the time they need to offload, or recycle to complete the break. </p><p></p><p>Rugby is still a team game and it seems that France has valued individual talent over teamwork. England did it previously by selecting people out of position rather than players who specialise there and while individually may not be better, are a better player as part of a team. Any example is Itoje at 6 with Robshaw at 7. Yes Itoje's a fantastic players, but the current back row is far better balanced and more effective.</p><p></p><p>My only issue with Frenchfan's idea of bringing through the younger u20's players is that they may not be ready for the main squad and have ti endure a few years of losing that could drop their heads. I know you could argue that France will lose with the same players, but it might be better to wait a few years and then introduce them with some more experience and where they can compete and win some games to keep up the motivation. It is hard, because you're basically between a rock and a hard place, with French public expectations like another rock hanging overhead on a frayed rope. As Frenchfan said, maybe the issue is with the Union and unfortunately until that changes it doesn't matter how good the young players are, because they will lose that by the time they should be in the squad...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Reiser99, post: 933063, member: 72977"] I think that Ireland have got their National/Club balance pretty much spot on at the moment. Wales and Scotland are trying to get there and going in the right direction, but struggle with depth compared to Ireland, though this may just be due to less clubs and players. England are struggling to find the balance between club and country so that the success of the u20's etc...comes through clearly. However they have the depth and number of players to compensate for this. France however wanted to become the Premier League of rugby by making it the most exciting league in the world to attract the best talent. The problem is that while the English Premier League is exciting at the expense of the national team, the Top 14 is not exciting at the expense of the national team. On top in football star players can create those individual moments that stand out more easily than in rugby. Yes there are fantastic moments and I will never go back to watching football, but it's rare now that a player can make a complete break and finish entirely on their own. Majority of the time they need to offload, or recycle to complete the break. Rugby is still a team game and it seems that France has valued individual talent over teamwork. England did it previously by selecting people out of position rather than players who specialise there and while individually may not be better, are a better player as part of a team. Any example is Itoje at 6 with Robshaw at 7. Yes Itoje's a fantastic players, but the current back row is far better balanced and more effective. My only issue with Frenchfan's idea of bringing through the younger u20's players is that they may not be ready for the main squad and have ti endure a few years of losing that could drop their heads. I know you could argue that France will lose with the same players, but it might be better to wait a few years and then introduce them with some more experience and where they can compete and win some games to keep up the motivation. It is hard, because you're basically between a rock and a hard place, with French public expectations like another rock hanging overhead on a frayed rope. As Frenchfan said, maybe the issue is with the Union and unfortunately until that changes it doesn't matter how good the young players are, because they will lose that by the time they should be in the squad... [/QUOTE]
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2024 Guinness Six Nations
What is wrong with French Rugby?
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