La Rochelle has a population of 75,000 or so. Some 20,000 were in Marseille yesterday for the
#HeinekenChampionsCup
final. Looks like most of the rest of them were here...
@realDonaldTrump
It was renamed "climate change" so idiots like you wouldn't mistake weather for climate and post stupid messages like this.
Didn't you get the memo?
Ça me fait de la peine de le voir comme ça, vulnérable, essayant désespérément d’atteindre son casque comme un collégien harcelé à qui on aurait piqué la trousse. 🙁
(Et puis je me souviens qu'il fait 2m, qu’il est anglais et qu’il nous a cassé les couilles tout le match).
Want to reduce the impact of red cards? Keep the contest 15-v-15?
There's a really simple trick that all players can use.
Tackle legally. Don't get sent off.
Rugby doesn't need hare-brained, dangerous nonsense like 20-minute red cards. Bin it
TRC LAW TRIAL
SANZAAR will apply the 20-min Red Card law trial for the 2022 Championship - a sent off player can be replaced after 20 min. This trial will be a continuation of trial conducted in Super Rugby 2022 and TRC in 2021.
#trc2022
Full details:
You've gone two points down in a crucial end-of-season
#PROD2
match; it's honking down; and you're 50m from the try line... What are you going to do?
Rouen's Peter Lydon:
Mont-de-Marsan backrow Leo Banos's try against Colomiers in France's
#PROD2
is worth watching several times
He and up-and-underer Willie Du Plessis both insist it's straight outa the training ground
The long sigh, the slight smile, the line "The United Kingdom is a friendly nation regardless of its leaders, sometimes in spite of its leaders"
A diplomatic response. With teeth.
🔴🗣 Liz Truss, successeure annoncée de B. Johnson au Royaume-Uni refuse de dire si E. Macron est un ami ou un ennemi ➡️ "Ce n’est jamais bon de ne trop perdre ces repères. Le Royaume-Uni est une nation amie, quel que soit ses dirigeants, parfois malgré ses dirigeants.”
Ronan O’Gara est descendu sur la pelouse à la fin du match, pour prendre l’ovation du public rochelais qui a plusieurs fois scandé son nom. Du « soutien » après sa suspension de dix semaines, pour des critiques envoyées au patron des arbitres.
We've waxed lyrical about Antoine Dupont's 50:22 against Lyon, but this - in the 79th minute of the match, from Colomiers, the side 6 points down at the time - was pretty special.
And what happened next was ... quite dramatic
There are retirements at the end of every season, but this is one worth noting.
Sergio Parisse will hang up his boots at the end of the
#TOP14
season - and he insists he means it this time.
Zach Mercer to Gloucester on a three/four-season contract a done-deal, regional newspaper Midi Libre reports. Unsurprisingly,
#TOP14
side Montpellier fought to keep him
PSA: "It's a shame the English realised how good he is when he's at Montpellier"
French
#rugby
's
#PROD2
season officially kicks off in 10 days, so I've gone and written this great big club-by-club campaign preview.
It's nearly 5,000 words, but most of them are names, so I hope you can find the time to read, like, share, etc
GOOD NEWS - Sergio Parisse's red card has been rescinded in light of an additional report from match referee Laurent Cardona, which stated that - in hindsight - a red was not warranted. Parisse free to play at weekend
And you've all, no doubt, seen Sergio Parisse's red card - for blatantly letting an opponent's face hit his shoulder. I'll watch out for the disciplinary committee's ruling this week, but they'll surely rescind the red. Won't they? They have to. Right?
It's highly likely Yoann Huget's rugby career is over a few matches early. A few minutes after he scored Toulouse's opening try against Racing 92, he was helped off the pitch with a leg injury
I know you're all obsessing about the Rugby World Cup (I am too) but France's
#TOP14
kicks off on Friday, and it's my duty to tell you about it.
This is quite long - it's got player moves n'everything - but please read, like and share, and all that
🚨Découvrez sans tarder le XV de départ désigné par le staff toulousain pour affronter l'équipe du
@CastresRugby
, samedi à 17h30 au stade Ernest-Wallon !
#STCO
#J7
#GoST
🔴⚫️
🎟
Luke Cowan-Dickie's Montpellier move is off after an 'inconclusive' medical on a neck injury, according to Midi Olympique.
Club now targeting Talu Latu
Thread on journalism and Ben Stokes' heroics...
What journalists wrote after the 67 all out was correct.
What journalists wrote after Ben Stokes' remarkable innings two days later was also correct.
The latter does not discount the accuracy of the former
Ok this is winding me up. Rant incoming. ...... getting a lot of tweets to say journalists should be eating humble pie after our pieces on Saturday following 67 all out.
#Top14
rugby kicks off on
@PremierSportsTV
in UK and Ireland this weekend. Opening weekend televised matches are:
Sat
Stade Francais v Racing 92 (PS1, 5.15pm)
Toulon v Montpellier (PS1, 8pm)
Sun
Lyon v Clermont (PS1, 4.45pm)
La Rochelle v Toulouse (PS1, 8pm)
The five best tries from the
#TOP14
this weekend. Racing's Antoine Gibert absolutely, positively, genuinely intended that kick-pass for Christian Wade's try
French rugby has introduced the blue card system to permanently remove players suspected of concussion, and an enhanced substitution system to allow for players with injuries to be treated. Cardona believes - after just 1wk - clubs have flouted the subs' rule
35-year-old Steffon Armitage - after playing two hours of rugby under a hot Biarritz sun, at the end of a season in which he has played 32 times, with 28 starts - kicks the penalty to take the
#ProD2
side into the
#Top14
As the cool folks say... Scenes
@KemiBadenoch
Why not just answer the question? It was a valid question and your answer - outlined in your thread - is equally valid. You'd have got a positive line in a positive story. As it is you're overshadowing an important message with an unnecessary row
#PROD2
side Montauban confirm Scotland international and former Worcester Warriors prop Murray McCallum is on a 10-day trial at the club, with a view to a contract to the end of the season
#TOP14
side Bordeaux interested in bringing Munster's Joey Carbery to France, as cover for Matthieu Jalibert, Rugbyrama reports... And they're not the only French club looking his way, it claims
Looks like Vannes are going to need a bigger stadium...
The newly promoted
#TOP14
club has stopped selling season tickets after passing 9,000 so that there are nearly 3,000 tickets still available for matchdays
More than 50,000 users broke newly-promoted Vannes' servers last night as they opened their site for season tickets
They have already sold 9,000 of them in a stadium of 11,865, in a town of 54,000
Incredible support in
#Breizh
#Top14
#Gwened
The closing seconds of Vannes-Biarritz in the
#ProD2
semi-final. The Basque side are down six. Vannes' fans are starting to celebrate. Then, Biarritz get the ball to
#IronBiarrot
Gavin Stark, who, a week after running in a second-half hat-trick, does this
Good News! You're increasingly less likely see my tweets about French rugby from April 15 ... unless you follow me, in which case you still might. You fools
James is not only great, but you can read his stuff and instantly be a French rugby expert. Which, in terms of time taken to knowledge acquired, is probably the best education you can have!
It was ... inevitable.
Just 2 rounds of French
#rugby
's
#TOP14
to go. Every spot in the top 6 and the relegation play-off place still at stake.
So, yes, I've gone and done a preview of the weekend's matches. Please do read, like, share, comment etc...
It was inevitable, but I wondered when it would happen, and who would do it...
In its Monday edition, Midol raises the ghost of Clermont past in a piece on Leinster's ongoing final woes
In which ROG explains why he's up for a disciplinary hearing with the LNR beaks next week
His
@ExaminerSport
column is one of my weekly must-reads. It's never less-than fascinating
Point of order. Yes, he faced a three-games-per-player limit, but Galthie wasn't 'forced' to field an inexperienced squad in the final. He chose to front load his squad selections this autumn. Nobody made him
French players are to be loaned to teams in USA's MLR,
#Midol
says, as part of a deal between the LNR and MLR. As many as 30
#Top14
pros could cross Atlantic on 2yr loan deals
Oh no...
Virimi Vakatawa's playing career in France is on hold following a decision by the LNR's medical commission not to allow him to play,
#TOP14
side Racing 92 has just announced
There's a press conference tomorrow at 12noon
2022 has been an intriguing and, despite some battles with myself, decent year on the whole.
And I have a plan for 2023. In short, it involves me writing a lot about French rugby, covering more matches, interviewing players and coaches. You know, doing more of something I enjoy
Les droits audiovisuels du TOP 14 sont attribués à Canal+ pour les saisons 2023-2024 à 2026-2027, pour un montant total record de 454,4 millions d’euros sur 4 ans, soit 113,6 millions d’euros par saison, en progression de 17%.
Toutes les infos ➡️
[1/3]
💁♂️ ABONNEMENT ETUDIANT/-25 ans = - 40% !
🆗 C'est 7.5€ le match en tribune, on fait des économies, il y a de l'ambiance, on se retrouve à
@agen_rugby
entre amis...N'attends plus !
🎟 + d'infos >
🧵For one last time this season, there's a complete 7-match programme of
#TOP14
#rugby
this weekend - and every match matters... and, you've probably noticed already, they all kick off at the same time /1
Such a simple yet effective initiative - and a powerful reminder that elderly people can be lonely and vulnerable.
Similar awareness events at every Top 14 game this weekend
Record crowds totalling 748,914 reported at 56 matches in the
#Top14
so far this season, at an average of 13,373 per game - rising above 14k for rounds 1, 5 and 8
Canal Plus also reports its coverage attracts over 2 million viewers a weekend (up 12% on last season)
Le TOP 14 est plus attractif que jamais. Après 8 journées, le championnat affiche des affluences records en hausse de 10% par rapport à une saison dernière déjà en progrès, tandis que les audiences de CANAL + progressent également. (+12% vs 2021/2022) 📄➡️
L'Equipe gets creative with its Saturday splash ahead of the
#GuinnessSixNations
clash between England and France
"Galthie's Blues and the Temple of Doom"
Part of me hopes he digs out a fedora for the mid- or post-match interview on France 2
So... Turns out La Rochelle were just giving everyone else in the
#ChampionsCup
a head start, which I think we can all agree was jolly sporting of them
With five regular season rounds to go in French rugby's
#TOP14
, I take a look at every side's great - and not so great - expectations.
Please do read, like, share, etc...
6 clubs in France's Top 14 and ProD2 - Toulon, Montpellier, Biarritz, Massy, Colomiers & Bourg-en-Bresse - have been summoned by the Disciplinary and Regulatory Commission over possible breaches of concussion monitoring protocols
The 2022/23
#TOP14
season kicks off in 25 days (the
#PROD2
in 16, for those interested)
If anyone's interested [looking at you, sports eds], I'll be here from day-one kick-off to the final's final whistle, reporting, discussing, round-upping, feature-writing, interviewing
It's here, ready or not. I've only gone and published it...
It's the non-awaited
#TOP14
season preview - along the lines of last week's ProD2 one...
Thousands of words. Long lists of many, many, names.
Please feel free to read, like, share, etc