French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

Buer

thomond2006 wrote: »

To add to that they have had two collapses at the end of the season in the last two years. So if they fall away again they are being consistent! Their run-in is nasty: Bayonne & Lyon away (two clubs in the relegation scrap) with Toulon, Clermont and Toulouse at home.

Yup. I'd expect them to win one or two of the home games though as they seem to raise their games for the marquee fixtures. They'll probably finish 8th or 9th as the teams below them all have awful run ins too.

iroced

iroced wrote: »

Yeah. But I'm afraid both will go down though Lyon has a real chance.

Had a look at the remaining fixtures for the 5 clubs involved in the relegation dogfight (I guess we can agree to consider any team from Montpellier upwards safe)

AB | CAB | ASR | LOU | CO
|| | |
RM92 home | USO away | UBB away | MHR away | FCG away
ST away | LOU home | SF home | CAB away | UBB home
FCG home | MHR home | RCT home | UBB home | ASM home
MHR away | ST away | LOU away | ASR home | RCT away
UBB away | CO away | RM92 home | USO away | CAB home
ASR home | SF home | AB away | FCG home | RM92 away

and considering the current rankings

Bayonne 41 pts
Brive 40 pts
La Rochelle 40 pts
Lyon OU 34 pts
Castres 34 pts

I can see Bayonne taking 13 pts
............ Brive ............. 13 ...
............ La Rochelle ..... 11 ...
............ Lyon .............. 14 ...
and ...... Castres .......... 9 .....

So. It's all over for Castres. Even if they beat Clermont (counted a LBP defeat in my calculations) it won't be enough. They'll need to get an away win (can't see one out of Grenoble, Toulon & Racing) and rely on a home failure from at least 2 teams above them.

But for the other spot, it'll be very tough. No team can afford a home defeat and any pt taken away will count! Actually, La Rochelle holds the keys since they'll play Lyon away in GW24 and Bayonne away in GW26!

Didn't anticipate Grenoble wasting 22 pts :eek:. This unexpected away win could be a massive turning point in the season. Brive & particularly Bayonne (after scoring 0 pt at home) are now under huge pressure to absolutely win their home games. Castres should get a huge confidence boost from their recent results and overall positive late dynamics. They still have a very tough run of fixtures but have the huge advantage to host Brive in GW25. Brive would be well inspired to be 6 pts clear by then.

So if I update my predictions game.

La Rochelle 44 pts
Bayonne 41 pts
Brive 40 pts
Castres 38 pts
Lyon OU 34 pts

I can see La Rochelle taking 11 pts
............ Brive ................. 12 ...
............ Bayonne ............ 10 ...
............ Castres .............. 10 ...
and ...... Lyon .................. 13 .....

So it'd still be Castres & Lyon down. Despite Castres good late run, they'd have to win away to RCT & Racing now and by the current look of things both teams could still be fighting for a top2 or top4 finish and considering they have good chances to make the ERC semis they'll do everything to avoid an extra game or to at least play it at home. And same for their home game vs Clermont. And even if they do beat Clermont it won't be enough (3 pts more than my predictions and I also counted a TBP win for them home to Brive). So basically it's down to Brive to bottle it now. Bayonne could actually be the "big" loser here if Castres create a second "upset" (if they're level on pts Castres will be ahead from their better H2H results).

vienne86 wrote: »

What's happened to Bordeaux all of a sudden? Very disappointing after a brilliant start. That was huge for La Rochelle.

And Toulouse got the win in Toulon - that'll be an important win for Noves.

Don't forget UBB are new to that level. Montpellier had some seasons like that before Galthié came in. Grenoble too since they went up. Getting a good start and building a positive dynamics from it is not that tough. Particularly for teams playing attacking rugby (which is the case of the 3 I cited). With the confidence boost you can develop your game and make things turn your way. You also play without any real kind of pressure. No one really expects you to perform. So the pressure is on your opponent. But when the run-in approaches and you do realise you're on to something big, then it's a complete different game. You lose the relieving "insouciance" you had and start to feel the pressure. And you quickly start to get frustrated in your play. Getting over that final step is a huge task. Montpellier are trying for almost 10 years now. And to realise how dependent we are upon our outhalf is worrying :eek:. TD injury triggered some kind of an internal revolution at the club and we almost ended up fighting for not being relegated. His first game (starting) back and he shows the way by scoring a try after 4 min. And we get our first convincing win since his injury. What a symbol :eek:!

Also, what's not helping UBB are all the talks around Ibañez taking over the French job after the WC. There are intense debates around that question, e.g. shall we announce PSA's replacement before the WC and make the same mistake we did 4 years ago and our football federation did before the cataclysmic 2010 WC? Is Ibañez up to it? blah blah blah... I don' believe it's a coincidence they're on 3 defeats in a row (including 2 at home, though both by a single point) since all this mess started :rolleyes:...

thomond2006

Will Genia to SF confirmed. 3 year deal.

sydneybound

Boards.ie favourite French team LaRochelle are playing Stade tonight on SS3. Parisse knocks on straight from the kick off and LaRochelle score a well worked try. Currently 7-0.

I'm flicking between this match and Newcastle V Bath however the atmosphere in France is 10 times that of Kingston Park.

vienne86

sydneybound wrote: »

Boards.ie favourite French team LaRochelle are playing Stade tonight on SS3. Parisse knocks on straight from the kick off and LaRochelle score a well worked try. Currently 7-0.

I'm flicking between this match and Newcastle V Bath however the atmosphere in France is 10 times that of Kingston Park.

La Rochelle pick up two points for a draw with Stade. 19-19. Those could be two very useful points in keeping them in the Top 14.

sydneybound

vienne86 wrote: »

La Rochelle pick up two points for a draw with Stade. 19-19. Those could be two very useful points in keeping them in the Top 14.

They should have won though, their kicker missed a load of chanes and had a kick, abeit a very difficult one, to win it at the end. Really was two points dropped.

The atmosphere seemed immense, they most be one of the best supported French clubs in the league. The camara often pans towards the owner who seems so into the games. Hope to god they stay up.

total former

Racing v Montpellier is on TV5 today, kickoff 130pm

vienne86

sydneybound wrote: »

They should have won though, their kicker missed a load of chanes and had a kick, abeit a very difficult one, to win it at the end. Really was two points dropped.

The atmosphere seemed immense, they most be one of the best supported French clubs in the league. The camara often pans towards the owner who seems so into the games. Hope to god they stay up.

Anytime I have seen a game in La Rochelle, I have always thought the crowd seem brilliant. I woldn't associate that as a rugby town, but they seem to love it and always get big enthusiastic crowds.

sydneybound

vienne86 wrote: »

Anytime I have seen a game in La Rochelle, I have always thought the crowd seem brilliant. I woldn't associate that as a rugby town, but they seem to love it and always get big enthusiastic crowds.

They mustn't have much of a football team that brings so many supporter out. However that said they got great crowds last year in the ProD2 over getting over 10,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013%E2%80%9314_Rugby_Pro_D2_season I've seen Lyon play this year but I'd love to make the trip to LaRochelle next.

To be fair all teams (bar Racing, but I think that will change when the new stadium is built as it'll be in a much better location and have a roof!) have very good support. All consistently get over 10,000 (maybe apart from Castres and Oyonnax) and team like Bordeaux get mega crowds of over 30,000 for some home games. Toulon get major crowds when they move the odd game to Marseille.

vienne86

sydneybound wrote: »

They mustn't have much of a football team that brings so many supporter out. However that said they got great crowds last year in the ProD2 over getting over 10,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013%E2%80%9314_Rugby_Pro_D2_season I've seen Lyon play this year but I'd love to make the trip to LaRochelle next.

To be fair all teams (bar Racing, but I think that will change when the new stadium is built as it'll be in a much better location and have a roof!) have very good support. All consistently get over 10,000 (maybe apart from Castres and Oyonnax) and team like Bordeaux get mega crowds of over 30,000 for some home games. Toulon get major crowds when they move the odd game to Marseille.

The French fans are just great all right - from a Leinster point of view, Clermont and Toulouse in particular come to mind.

thomond2006

Castres play Bordeaux tonight and the results aren't going their way so far. At HT Bayonne lead at Toulouse and Lyon lead at Brive.

matthew8

Clermont losing home to Oyonnax nearly over.

molloyjh

matthew8 wrote: »

Clermont losing home to Oyonnax nearly over.

Over now. 10-11. Massive win for Oyonnax.

thomond2006

Oyonnax just beat the Clermont seconds at SMM: 10-11! Oyonnax look set to be in the playoffs. Clermont punished for making 15 changes.

Toulouse and Brive snuck late home wins against Bayonne and Lyon.

vienne86

thomond2006 wrote: »

Oyonnax just beat the Clermont seconds at SMM: 10-11! Oyonnax look set to be in the playoffs. Clermont punished for making 15 changes.

Toulouse and Brive snuck late home wins against Bayonne and Lyon.

That's incredible. Massive for Oyonnax.

Castres have a big one tonight v UBB. Really disappointend in the way things have gone in Bordeaux - chance to put things right tonight.

vienne86

Castres 22 UBB 20. What has gone wrong for Bordeaux? Terrible slide in form.

sydneybound

Bayonne now in big trouble. Really hope we don't we don't lose another Basque club in the Top14. Lyon had a chance yesterday but are more or less gone down now.

Strange with Bordeaux, I reckon Raphael Ibanez's mind is on other jobs as he's heavily tipped to take the French job.

pickarooney

So the FFR are taking CVs for the big job. Anyone going to apply?

vienne86

pickarooney wrote: »

So the FFR are taking CVs for the big job. Anyone going to apply?

Thomonod should go for it. :pac:

aimee1

pickarooney wrote: »

So the FFR are taking CVs for the big job. Anyone going to apply?

i submitted an application from MOC.

CatFromHue

EOS's Biarritz back into the playoff positions in Pro D2.

Only 3 games left too.

thomond2006

Colin Slade has signed a 3 year deal with Pau. Great signing along with Conrad Smith!

vienne86

thomond2006 wrote: »

Colin Slade has signed a 3 year deal with Pau. Great signing along with Conrad Smith!

Could be an exciting side to watch in Top 14 next season.

Newtown90

thomond2006 wrote: »

Colin Slade has signed a 3 year deal with Pau. Great signing along with Conrad Smith!

The videos of their game Saturday looked class, crazy atmosphere!

Group trip from cork being organized for the new season for a home game so the more big names that are signed the better

aimee1

French clubs in top 2 divisions record losses of 34m last year. Report on the42 website.

pickarooney

Didn't realise they'd signed Sean Dougall. Seems a bit random!

CatFromHue

aimee1 wrote: »

French clubs in top 2 divisions record losses of 34m last year. Report on the42 website.

The report said that 2 clubs (Toulon and Brive) finished in the black and that 3 clubs (Racing, Stade Francais, and Castres) made up half of that loss so that means there's a loss of 17m between 25 clubs which isn't that bad really

AbusesToilets

CatFromHue wrote: »

EOS's Biarritz back into the playoff positions in Pro D2.

Only 3 games left too.

How have they been playing this season, what sort of game plan is Eddie pursuing nowaday? EOS to Leinster?

CatFromHue

I dunno, I just check their results every now and again.

I can't see EOS leaving Biarritz for an Irish provincial job, he'd be mad to.

Far better for him to stay in France and work the manager merry go'round if needed.

Buer

Can't really see him trading Biarritz.....



For the likes of Galway......