International Autumn Internationals

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moto748

moto748

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No, I can't work up that much enthusiasm either. :p

Anyway, yesterday Wales played France in France, a game I'd forgotten about, and hence only saw the last half-hour or so. The final score was 20-6 to France. Not a bad effort, considering that much of the Welsh side are kids who are Wigan and other ESL clubs juniors. And also considering how many Superleague sides have gone to Catalans and won last season (I believe that, prior to Leeds winning there at the end of the season, they'd only lost once).

Strangely, though, the game wasn't played at the league strongholds of Carcassone or Perpignan, but at Lens, 500+ miles away. Presumably a 'spreading the game' move. And it has to be said, the crowd was pretty impressive, and they saw a good performance from the French side, with Thomas Bosc showing what a class act he looked a few years ago.
 
The crowd of 11,628 was amazing, just for those who don't know. That is comparable to crowds that International Football matches pull in French Rugby League Strongholds. Great result for Rugby League.
 
An excellent figure. Perhaps they also chose a Northern ground to make it closer for Welsh fans? Lens is nearer to Cardiff than it is to Perpignan.
 

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Wales 12 England 80.

Hence the reason for my lack of enthusiasm. Wales couldn't be faulted for effort, but most of their team aren't even regulars in the ESL, coming from junior clubs in England, and one or two from the Queensland Cup. Only 4000 saw this in Wrexham. Still, Wrexham is a God-awful dump in the middle of nowhere, to be fair.
 
England 44 France 6 in the dead rubber.

England hoped to nil the French, but they squeezed over for a try late on in the second half. A good defensive effort from England, although frankly France didn't offer much guile in attack.
 
England's attack was really good. French's defense stood up in the second half.

Scotland U18's lost to Wales U18's 48-28 after leading 28-6.
 
moto748 said:
Wales 12 England 80.

Hence the reason for my lack of enthusiasm. Wales couldn't be faulted for effort, but most of their team aren't even regulars in the ESL, coming from junior clubs in England, and one or two from the Queensland Cup. Only 4000 saw this in Wrexham. Still, Wrexham is a God-awful dump in the middle of nowhere, to be fair.
Click to expand...

A lot of people were moaning about this result, but thanks to you Moto for filling us in on the make up of the Welsh team...no wonder they got pumped.
 
Sam Tomkins is still young, and I daresay he'll end up in the NRL at some point. He's only 23.
 
England 48 France 4

France were actually a bit better than last week, but then, so were England. The question of who plays at 6 and 7 for Englanbd is the perennial issue that still doesn't seem to be resolved. McNamara went with Sinfield at 6 and Rangi Chase at 7, dropping Richie Myler who played at half-back last week. And frankly any pairing would be good enough to beat France. But when taking on the Kangaroos and the Kiwis, we can't afford mistakes. I do like Rangi Chase; he's a talented footballer. But.... he does make mistakes. And he's not a primary kicker. Considering he was out injured at therend of the season, and hadn't played much rugby later, he did pretty well, I thought. He was well positioned to collect a French grubber kick on his own goal-line and sprint away. He might not have the pace to go 100m, but he didn't panic, annd threw a good pass at pace to Sam Tomkins backing up on the inside around the half-way line. Tomkins shrewdly ran towards Ryan Hall, dropping him off a short pass to enable him to score under the posts, in the pick of England's 8 tries.

Ian Millward after the game was touting (in his 'dream team') Chase and Widdop at 7 and 6. I must admit I believe I was calling for the same last year. But now I'm not so sure. With Chase and Widdop, where is the kicking game coming from? Widdop doesn't kick much for the Storm. There's ther argument, which I tend to agree with, that Sinfield isn't a *true* 6, but he does have a good kicking game. And his goal-kicking is superb; in the style of Thurston, but better than JT kicked this season. Sinfield kicked eight from eight in the final, and all except one was from near the touchline. In fact, I'm not sure he missed a kick in the entire tournament. Whoever kicked if he didn't play (Charnley?) would surely miss some kicks that Sinfield would have put over.
 
Good for England heading into the World Cup.

Hopefully France do better in next years World Cup then the last one. Wales have grown the most of any nation since the last World Cup. All makes for a very exciting world cup.
 

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