French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

Buer

Racing quite inaccurate. Machenaud is lively but his passing is very erratic. He's forcing people to reach or knock on due to the speed of his pass combined with it being a foot off target.

Flashdean

Sexton needs to take a foothold on the game.. Morne Steyn on the front foot like this is a joy to watch.. playing in france has really developed his game

Buer

Flashdean wrote: »

Sexton needs to take a foothold on the game.. Morne Steyn on the front foot like this is a joy to watch.. playing in france has really developed his game

He's got decent ball only about 5 times in the game so far. Made a balls of it on two of those and created line breaks with 2. He needs to be more accurate but his pack and scrum half are providing crap generally.

Flashdean

Buer wrote: »

He's got decent ball only about 5 times in the game so far. Made a balls of it on two of those and created line breaks with 2. He needs to be more accurate but his pack and scrum half are providing crap generally.

Agree! Ridic by metro on tat line out.. Early sub for Mujati is required!!!!!!

Buer

Christ, Racing's pack can't do anything right. Minced at a scrum and then make a balls of a line out on their own 5m, slapping it behind their try line and conceding a 5m scrum....Ducalon binned at the resulting scrum.

Buer

And there's the penalty try.

Get yourself off, Jonny, time to think about home. This season is done.

LuckyGent88

Looks like sextons time in France is coming to a disappointing end. Racing getting battered up front here

19543261

Please Racing don't let this second half be a dull affair.

Buer

Good finish to the half from Racing but they'll need to completely turn around their forward performance to win this. Sexton with nice touch line conversion to bring them in 17-7 down.

pickarooney

Excellent finish from Machenaud. How is he not in the WC squad again? I know he hasn't set the world alight in blue but he's far from the worst 9 in France.

Buer

pickarooney wrote: »

Excellent finish from Machenaud. How is he not in the WC squad again? I know he hasn't set the world alight in blue but he's far from the worst 9 in France.

He has been really poor tonight, for me. Buzzes around the field but his passing has been sloppy for the first 20 and made a terrible call going the wrong side after a big line break.

Dupuy is playing very tidily (although getting a handy ride from his pack) and dictating with a couple of lovely touch finders deep into Racing territory from the base of the ruck.

Buer

Early penalty for SF but Racing looking much better. Machenaud now matching his energy with direction and the pack and Sexton making good yards. Should have scored there when JS dropped a bomb on their try line with 3 chasers against one defender who couldn't take it.

Penalty slotted following the advantage.

pickarooney

Kickbot 3000 having the last laugh of the flop fly-halves

Some Yoke

A dodgy pass from sexton there but the crossfield kick was good. Racing backs not really operating smoothly as a unit. bizarre seeing a player of jamie roberts quality coming off the bench in an important match like this. something rotten is behind the scenes in this club you get the feeling and sexton will be glad to be home no doubt

19543261

Get in there roberts

Buer

In fairness, whenever I've seen Roberts for Racing he has been poor. Welsh players just don't seem to travel very well. Lydiate, Roberts, Brew, Phillips, Jenkins....all pretty poor performers in France. Davies and Byrne seem to be the exceptions...or maybe Clermont is.

pickarooney

Charteris and Hook have been more than decent in the Top 14

Buer

pickarooney wrote: »

Charteris and Hook have been more than decent in the Top 14

Very true but it's pretty clear that an oddly high percentage of Welsh top class players have hugely underperformed in France.

Some Yoke

On Rugbyrama the french rugby news website they had a damning article on the failure of racings imports, including sexton. The owner of the club seems to openly criticise players and hang them out to dry when they lose. Aside from the long lay off pre 6 nations has sexton really been that bad? any time i watched racing he seemed to be doing well enough with a few more errors in a disjointed backline but how much of that was his fault.. doesnt seem to be his fault imo aslthough im sure others are better informed on this than i am

Buer

Hasn't been great this season really at all but he was a one man team for them at times last year, dragging them through games. He was fantastic in the quarter final they won away to Toulouse, for example.

I think as a team they've really fallen apart in the past 3 months. A lot of their players look like they're waiting for the end of the season.

Larbre34

Doesn't matter whether he was good or bad, the sojourn was a big mistake, thankfully he ended up playing for very little of it, the main thing now is that he is finished uninjured and time to get him home, rested and readjusted. For that reason alone im delighted with Stade

pickarooney

Buer wrote: »

Very true but it's pretty clear that an oddly high percentage of Welsh top class players have hugely underperformed in France.

It's about the only country who has a decent number of current internationals in France. South Africa is another and there have been a lot of failed imports from there too.

Buer

Larbre34 wrote: »

Doesn't matter whether he was good or bad, the sojourn was a big mistake, thankfully he ended up playing for very little of it, the main thing now is that he is finished uninjured and time to get him home, rested and readjusted. For that reason alone im delighted with Stade

You've banged that drum from the moment he announced he was leaving, criticising the decision as much as possible claiming he'd be flogged and it was a terrible decision. He left, the world kept turning.

It hasn't been a dream move in terms of success with Racing but I suspect he won't regret a moment of it. Fantastic money in a fantastic city with his new wife. Wasn't a mistake at all; he ended up nominated for IRB World Player white there. Worked pretty perfectly from an Irish perspective given he played the best rugby of his career in green since going there.

The only stakeholder that lost out was Leinster.

vienne86

Very disappointing performance from Racing in Paris tonight - nothing went right for them.

Buer

vienne86 wrote: »

Very disappointing performance from Racing in Paris tonight - nothing went right for them.

They were pretty brutal from the off aside from one or two flashes. I would wager they genuinely lost more of their line outs than they won and conceded at least 5 penalties off scrums if not more.

I think the penalty try summed it all up. Their own 5m line out, make a complete mess of it, fall back over their own line after failing to win it and concede the 5m scrum. Concede a yellow card at the scrum and then the penalty try at the next scrum.

One of the most hilariously bad passages I recall from a pack.

Larbre34

Buer wrote: »

You've banged that drum from the moment he announced he was leaving, criticising the decision as much as possible claiming he'd be flogged and it was a terrible decision. He left, the world kept turning.

It hasn't been a dream move in terms of success with Racing but I suspect he won't regret a moment of it. Fantastic money in a fantastic city with his new wife. Wasn't a mistake at all; he ended up nominated for IRB World Player white there. Worked pretty perfectly from an Irish perspective given he played the best rugby of his career in green since going there.

The only stakeholder that lost out was Leinster.

Yes i did. And i still think it was.

The world didnt keep turning for Leinster though did it? He was needed for that transition period and he was let go. I dont blame him for it, but im glad its over. Any plaudits he got in the period were for playing for Ireland under Schmidt's guidance, the Racing approach and utilisation of him was bewildering at times.

Very interested in his reflections on it when he gets back.

Buer

Larbre34 wrote: »

Yes i did. And i still think it was.

The world didnt keep turning for Leinster though did it? He was needed for that transition period and he was let go. I dont blame him for it, but im glad its over. Any plaudits he got in the period were for playing for Ireland under Schmidt's guidance, the Racing approach and utilisation of him was bewildering at times.

Very interested in his reflections on it when he gets back.

Given your unwavering dislike of French club rugby, I'm dubious as to how much you watched Racing over the past two seasons to see how he has been used, to be honest. He was excellent for them in his first season, dragging them to the semi finals.

It didn't work out for Leinster and it was never going to. We were all sick about him leaving and all shouting from the rooftops that the only party that were set to lose out were Leinster.

You claimed when he was leaving that he was going to be flogged and, oddly, that he was in danger of losing his Irish spot, that he'd lose out on endorsements and financially in the long run. None of those came to pass...in fact the exact opposite. Best ever showings in green, becoming our best player by a margin, wasn't flogged apart from a bizarre period when Racing had 3 outhalves out injured and he wound up retaining his sponsorship deals as well as adding new ones.

The Leinster element aside (and we can now see that the trophies were at an end anyway), the move has been a pretty good experience for him. I'm sure he's delighted to be coming back but also pleased with having done it.

pickarooney

The general appraisal of sexton's two years in France by French and and journalists have been Luke warm at best. Not much has gone right for him even when not injured.

iroced

total former wrote: »

Tulou has signed with Castres, Pelissie with Toulon.

Knew about Pélissié. Didn't about Tulou.

Some Yoke wrote: »

On Rugbyrama the french rugby news website they had a damning article on the failure of racings imports, including sexton. The owner of the club seems to openly criticise players and hang them out to dry when they lose. Aside from the long lay off pre 6 nations has sexton really been that bad? any time i watched racing he seemed to be doing well enough with a few more errors in a disjointed backline but how much of that was his fault.. doesnt seem to be his fault imo aslthough im sure others are better informed on this than i am

As I keep repeating it's not all about money. Racing are failing to achieve what Toulon are doing. Is it just a matter of time (Toulon also had their disappointing years at the start of the Boudjelal era) or are they doing things wrong? Time will tell. But I certainly don't think they're doing things the best way. And to start with, I'm not sure getting the Castres duet as coaches was a good idea. Sexton was a pointless experience from a Racing point of view in the end. The club didn't really progress.


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By the way, don't know if it's been said but Guy Novès is the new France head manager => http://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Actualites/Noves-prochain-manager-du-xv-de-france/562600

Hopefully he makes Les Bleus look like and as successful as the 1994-2012 Toulouse :P.

PTH2009

iroced wrote: »

Knew about Pélissié. Didn't about Tulou.


As I keep repeating it's not all about money. Racing are failing to achieve what Toulon are doing. Is it just a matter of time (Toulon also had their disappointing years at the start of the Boudjelal era) or are they doing things wrong? Time will tell. But I certainly don't think they're doing things the best way. And to start with, I'm not sure getting the Castres duet as coaches was a good idea. Sexton was a pointless experience from a Racing point of view in the end. The club didn't really progress.


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By the way, don't know if it's been said but Guy Novès is the new France head manager => http://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/Actualites/Noves-prochain-manager-du-xv-de-france/562600

Hopefully he makes Les Bleus look like and as successful as the 1994-2012 Toulouse :P.

Don't know French what does the article say about guy noves ?