French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

If they don't arrest their slide immediately, Grenoble and Jackman will be in ProD2 next season.

Following Castres' win this evening, they're only one point above the drop.

Buer wrote: »

If they don't arrest their slide immediately, Grenoble and Jackman will be in ProD2 next season.

Following Castres' win this evening, they're only one point above the drop.

Grenoble have Clermont and Toulouse at home and finish at Lyon. No banker win there in current form.

Stheno wrote: »

Neil Francis reporting that Leporte is leaving Toulon next season

He is leaving in summer 2016. It's all confirmed. Diego Dominguez is taking over.

It's the third season in a row that Grenoble's season has collapsed after the New Year. It's not a good sign regarding the management/coaching and must be a headwreck for the supporters. For Farrell and Jackman's sake I hope they stay up. Farrell has had a great year there with 14 starts in the Top 14.

How have Biarritz looked this season? How would Eddie's impact be judged?

USAP losing at home to Albi is a serious kick in their nuts. Could seriously compromise their hope to go straight back up in Top14...

sydneybound wrote: »

They lost at by only 1 point too. They are away next week to Agen who are two point ahead of them, tough match. If USAP win they are guaranteed to get through lose and their out as Biarritz have a home game against lowly Dax.

Shame if USAP don't go up given their fan base. I see the rugby league team has picked up some fans there in the past year, do you reckon that's because USAP are now playing in the Pro2?

Terrible terrible stuff from USAP. Looks like last year trauma is going to repeat itself.

Last year they had never been in the relegation zone all season. Just for GW26...
They also failed to save themselves from 2 tricky last games by missing out on getting a TBP win home to Oyonnax in the third last game. And yet they were comfortably ahead and at the peak of their domination Marty decided to be clever and got a YC which changed the dynamics of the game. They needed 2 tries and honestly with the atmosphere heating up in Aimé-Giral and Oyonnax tiring up, we could really see them coming. That YC was a real anticlimax. And from there (the hour mark) the intensity declined and they "just" secured a 22-12 win. They had lost 22-9 in Oyonnax in the first game. And in the end, USAP went down with the same amount of points than Oyonnax... just on their head-to-head results.

I remember of being astonished by the lack of reactions from the club beforehand. Like they couldn't go down. They were not prepared for worst case scenario and got severely burnt from their lack of anticipation.

It would be absolutely crazy and terrible for the fans if this season was going to end the same way. USAP have been in the TOP5 all season if memory serves me right. And they could be kicked out of it on the very last GW. And as you said it's very much looking like it. Agen have only lost 1 game at home all season and it was during GW2 !!!

There's something so much wrong at the head of the club. Such anti-professionalism. Terrible, terrible stuff for the region and the fans. They really deserve better!


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This week-end was also marked by the relegation of Dax into Federale 1 (third league). They were playing an 8 pts game away to Narbonne and woe betide the loser! Such a historical rugby place "disappearing"... They'll need to take example on Béziers which experienced the Fédérale 1 "hell" a couple of years ago but eventually managed to climb back up in Pro D2!


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Oh and about rugby league popualrity in Perpignan, maybe some fans followed more les Dragons Catalans with USAP decline now, but the Pyrénées-Orientales county is a historical rugby league "bastion" in France (like the Aude county with e.g. Carcassonne & Lézignan and the Haute-Garonne county with e.g. Toulouse & Saint-Gaudens). Just as an example, very close from where my missus' from, there's actually a 3k inhabitants village (Palau-del-Vidre) playing in the Elite 1 championship (1st league in France). Such an achievement !

sydneybound wrote: »

There's talk in the midi that Bayonne and Biarritz will merge next year. It could happen as early as August.

Two massive clubs very close to each other merging can't be great for their fans who probably don't get on the best.

Wasn't this mooted before? That combination could be a force to be reckoned with.

sydneybound wrote: »

There's talk in the midi that Bayonne and Biarritz will merge next year. It could happen as early as August.

Two massive clubs very close to each other merging can't be great for their fans who probably don't get on the best.

Classic "serpent de mer" (ever-recurring issue) resurfaces when the end of the season approaches.

Hard to distinguish reality from fantasy in all these talkings. Bayonne president publicly said no to the merging. But apparently the issue has been discussed at the federation between Blanco and his friends. Afflelou belied news about his return to business. Fans don't want to hear about it. But Basques people from other places than Bayonne or Biarritz would not spit in this merge's face in the sense that they'd like the idea of having a strong Basque team representing their region/culture/tradition/etc...

I think the top six will stay as is.

Bordeaux and Montpellier are six behind Oyonnax and here are the remaining matches for the three:

Bordeaux: Oyonnax (H), Bayonne (H), Toulouse (A)
Montpellier: Bayonne (H), Stade F (A), Clermont (H)
Oyonnax: Bordeaux (A), Lyon (H), Toulon (A)

Oyonnax will beat Lyon at home and I don't think UBB or Montpellier will make up a 10/11 point gap.

There's so little between the teams in the league though (Oyonnax are in the playoffs but 10 points from the relegation places!) that anything could happen. The big teams aren't as strong at home this season either, Clermont have lost twice at SMM for example. There's too many teams in contention for relegation to make any kind of prediction there.

Grenoble have Clermont (H), Toulouse (H) and Lyon (A) left. Both home games will be tricky and Lyon will be relegated by then so won't be under pressure. Lyon can go either way as suppose, either the Lyon players will have a chip on the shoulder and want to finish on a high or they will be eyeing the summer holday.

There has to be questions about Landreau, Jackman et al as Grenoble have collapsed in the last half/third of the season for the third year in a row, going from playoff contention to relegation trouble. From an Irish perspective hopefully they stay up, particularly with Chris Farrell starting regularly for them with James Hart and Denis Coulson also in the squad.

I see Sky are showing Racing v Stade - SS5 red button.

Swiwi. wrote: »

Brumbies Jesse Mogg off to Montpellier. Ultimately he's turned out to be a bit disappointing but with the right coaching (hmmm Jake White, not sure) he could be a very good signing.

Given he coached Mogg when Mogg played for Australia I think that's a very unfair comment to make.

Swiwi. wrote: »

From memory you have connections to the Sharks area and by extension Jake White, but when Mogg first burst onto the scene he was a flair player who liked to run. He subsequently became mostly a kicking robot under White at the Brumbies. That's my impression. However, I freely admit I really only watch the Aussie teams these days when their opposition is from across the ditch, and maybe you are more up on the play. For me, Mogg became a Wallaby in spite of White not because of him, helped from memory (but might be wrong there) by Folau not yet being around and Beale being on the outer etc.

I think Mogg could be a really good player, however based on what I have seen of Jake White coached teams over the years, I'm not confident we will see flair Mogg instead of punting Mogg.

Sorry if that seems unfair.

I don't have any JW or Sharks connections, but I'm willing to recognise that he is a coach with a consistent track record of significantly improving teams. He was absolutely not a kicking robot under White (most people had their minds made up about the Brumbies style of play without even watching them purely because they were Jake White coached), he was a well rounded player who took the right decisions. He made plenty of good 'flair' plays from 15 under Jake White, but also controlled the game very well.