hi John_D - don't know if his qualifies as a match report but here goes :

France v Ireland at Avignon started with temperatures in the high 20s but cooled down in the second period when rainclouds threatened.Speaking to a confident Bobby Goulding just before kick-off he was quickly silenced by a Sean Hesketh try fed through by the excellent Liam Finn on seven minutes,the two points were added by Mcnally - France then cranked up a gear and dominated the next twenty minutes with tries from Casty,Sadaoui,Stacul & Elima all tries superbly converted by Maxime Greseque - then two Irish tries by Gillam & O'Callaghan late on in the half both unconverted by Mcnally left the french 24 - 14 up at the interval.Mr Goulding left the pitch looking most unhappy probably due to the sloppy defence which allowed the Irish to pull closer to a seemingly cruising french side.
Tony Gigot scored an opportunist try immediately after the break when a Scott Grix pass was dropped by his brother Simon and picked up and finshed off,the two points added by Nicolas Munoz.Ireland fought hard but too many errors let in Les Bleus in the ensuing twenty minutes with three tries from Andrew Bentley,Elimas' second plus a debut try for Baitieri.Three more conversions by Munoz made the score 48 - 14.Ireland never gave up but the errors continued to give chances to the french.The Irish however scored two tries in quick succession against the run of play,the first by Gillam which was unconverted then the move of the match involving a neat inside pass from my MOM Scott Grix to Beswick who then passed to Mcnally in acres of space to score under the posts,the two points were added by Finn.Elima crashed over twice in the dying minutes with one of the tries converted by Munoz to make the final score 58 - 24 with a much happier looking french coach no doubt already trying to work out how the opposition managed to score 5 tries.
Remi Casty was nominated the official MOM,probably deservedly though it's difficult to find a bad french player.A special note for Brett Mcdermott who was 'outstanding throughout the eighty minutes despite his advancing years ! ' (his words,not mine !)
Bobby Goulding speaking after the game was relieved and more encouraged by the second-half performance though obviously not convinced with the overall display.All the Irish players I asked after the match agreed they were outmuscled by the generally heavier attacking qualities of the french outfit.
The french did look good going forward but lacked organisation on the defensive flanks,especially the right.Looks like a busy week for Warren Jowitt in the defensive department..
The match was superbly refereed by Phil Bentham as usual who has to be the ref of the season ?
The crowd was magnificent with 14OOO plus turning out and adding to the atmosphere - let's hope the Albi public will be as generous against the Scots.
Maybe this will help convince M.Larrat and his cronies that french rugby league is a game unique to the southern half of france with real,passionate rugby league fans and not to be frittered away in some empty concrete jungle somewhere in the Parisien suburbs...

Job well done Sanj

well done San J

Excellent mon pote. Glad you had a good time.

Shame to hear about the injuries to Vincent Duport (whose girlfriend was apparently in tears for most of the second half), and to Greseque.

My visit to St Esteve v Limoux was rained off. No respite still from the rain after two solid days of the stuff...

just posted the Lezignan report - the weather was pretty bad but the matches went ahead anyway
the bad weather lasted until Montauban when the rain eased and conditions were fairly normal.The Limousin remained dry believe it or not ! tho' we had a light shower this afternoon.
Yes,bad news about Vincent though Greseque should be ok for the big one against the welsh.
Munoz kicked superbly so we shouldn't worry too much.
Did anyone notice the crowd for the Scots v Wales match - 747 spectators !!!!!!!!!! can't be right ! can it ?

Sadly it was right sanjunien, a few people are bemoaning the Scottish and Irish teams selection policy, seeminly very little work being done by the governing bodies, only a few clubs and their officials/volunteers in each country who obviously love the sport but cant do everything on the recources they have availible.

The way I see it, France and Wales ARE doing development work, 14k in France and an encouraging 3k for a midweek almost B team game in wales, every player bar 2 had spent time at Catalans and Wales had 8 bona fide welshmen in their squad.

If Scotland and Ireland continue as they are then they will be left behind as it seems at current Lebanon and Italy are doing more to integrate home grown players into their "heritage" first teams.

Well done SJ.

Harsh on Ireland. They are making steady progress and had quite a few genuine Irishmen against France, in fact far more than what Wales would have had if it wasn't for Crusaders being formed. With a Championship team I think they'd probably be able to attain a similar level of development to Wales. Agree about Scotland, they don't seem too interested in development.

Yeah, I suppose thats fair enough comment HH.

Reckon Scots and Irish would take off with regular home grown games against France and Wales. they just haven't had something to build up for.

Ireland were woeful at times. Apart from Grix they didn't seem to have any ideas and this combined with the power and size of the French was too much for them.
Apart from a few missed high tackles, Phil Bentham was excellent as Sanjunien said. Best two tries of the game were scored by the Irish at the end of the game.
A crowd of over 14,000 is impressive BUT how many paid? We arrived 15 minutes late and were told the ticket office was closed and that we could go in for free.

The crowd was highly impressive irrespective of any other factor.

It shows that rugby league simply needs more exposure in France. The handshake agreement over not prosecuting the claims of 1941 will never help.

20 for Scotland game. Pellisier, Bemba and Barthau added with Duport, Greseque and Fakir out Olivier Elima (Catalans Dragons), Remi Casty (Catalans Dragons), Kane Bentley (Catalans Dragons), Jean-Philippe Baile (Catalans Dragons), Jason Baitieri (Catalans Dragons), Julien Touxagas (Catalans Dragons), Anthony Maria (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Eloi Pelissier (St Esteve - XIII Catalan), Yohan Tisseyre (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Frederic Vaccari (Catalans Dragons), Cyril Stacul (Catalans Dragons), Teddy Sadaoui (AS Carcassonne), Andrew Bentley (CF Lezignan), Mickaël Simon (Catalans Dragons), Nicolas Munoz (FC Lezignan), Mathieu Griffi (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Sebastien Martins (Catalans Dragons), William Barthau (Catalans Dragons), Tony Gigot (Catalans Dragons), Romaric Bemba (AS Carcassonne). www.ffr13.com/actualites.php?a=536

20 for Scotland game. Pellisier, Bemba and Barthau added with Duport, Greseque and Fakir out Olivier Elima (Catalans Dragons), Remi Casty (Catalans Dragons), Kane Bentley (Catalans Dragons), Jean-Philippe Baile (Catalans Dragons), Jason Baitieri (Catalans Dragons), Julien Touxagas (Catalans Dragons), Anthony Maria (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Eloi Pelissier (St Esteve - XIII Catalan), Yohan Tisseyre (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Frederic Vaccari (Catalans Dragons), Cyril Stacul (Catalans Dragons), Teddy Sadaoui (AS Carcassonne), Andrew Bentley (CF Lezignan), Mickaël Simon (Catalans Dragons), Nicolas Munoz (FC Lezignan), Mathieu Griffi (Toulouse Olympique XIII), Sebastien Martins (Catalans Dragons), William Barthau (Catalans Dragons), Tony Gigot (Catalans Dragons), Romaric Bemba (AS Carcassonne). www.ffr13.com/actualites.php?a=536

can't make the scotland game due to the lack of diesel in our area - it's a long walk to Albi plus the trains are dodgy at the moment
not a happy bunny but hopefully will have some juice for the Wales game

any ideas how I can watch it live online ?