19-man squad for the Wales game:

Baitieri, Barthau, Bentley K, Bosc, Casty, Duport, Elima, Ferriol, Gigot, Griffi, Larroyer, Maria, Mounis, Pala, EEELLLOOIIII, Raguin, Simon, Soubeyras, Stacul.

anyone got the Wales squad?
looking at that, we should win this quite comfortably, but I said the same the other year before we lost to them in Albi.

Nothing yet, but the game is over a week away. Cologni was a bit quick off the mark naming his 19

Wales: Elliott Kear, Ben Evans, Mike Channing, Christiaan Roets, Rob Massam, Neil Budworth, Danny Jones, Craig Moss, Matt Seamark, David James, Steve Parry, Joe Burke, Jordan James, Gil Dudson, Ben Flower, Rhodri Lloyd, Rhys Pugsley, Dan Fleming, Craig Kopczak.

Pugsley....

Incidentally, the old Toulouse forum has been rlre-tooled into a Les Chanticleers onerl. Sub-forum off the international board on the index, fyi

rlNew name in the squadrl

So to Hull, where not losing by 80 will see France into the final. It's a squad of 20 for this one:

Stacul, Pala, Duport, Larroyer, Soubeyras, Bosc, Barthau, Elima, Gigot, Casty, Raguin, Mounis, Bemba, Baitieri, Pélissier, Griffi, Fakir, Simon, Kane B, Cardace.

England: Ablett, Briscoe, Burrow, Charnley, Cudjoe, Ellis, Hall, Hardaker, Harrison, Hill, Hock, Jones-Buchanan, McIlorum, Morley, Mossop, Myler, Sinfield, Stomkins, Watkins.

We'll get within 80 of that, yeah?

Andrew Bentley and Julien Bousquet added to the squad for the final. Mounis, Simon and the StacAttack all out.
I think we might be runners-up.

Wasn't the best performance was it?

Maybe saving something for next weekend to make it a bit more of a match?

Ellis cleared for the final

Bentley A picked up a suspension following last week's LER games so is not now available. Silly, Andrew. Teddy Sadaoui called up instead.

What a farce

So what have we learned then?

France hace some distance to go.

Precious little, methinks. It's reaffirmed the nation's standing in the world game - ahead of the likes of Wales but nowhere near the big three (or the big two, then England) who are able to field teams composed entirely of full-time professional athletes.
We are not going to compete with a pool of approximately 20 full-time pros to select from. We knew that before - the challenge is doing something about it.

The preditability of this particular series was such that the night before the final, I called it at 54-6. That ain't so very far off.