Good man.

Monsieur Bobbie's named a 20-man squad for the Ireland game. Only four with no Super League experience and one of those is Jason Baitieri:
Elima, Casty, Fakir, Kane Bentley, Baile, Baitieri, Touxagas, Maria, Duport, Tisseyre, Vaccari, Stacul, Sadaoui, Andrew Bentley, Simon, Munoz, Griffi, Martins, Grésèque, Gigot.
Preview tomorrow. Maybe.

Hi guys, back from 3 weeks downunder.
Starting lineup is:

Stacul
Vaccari
Baille
Sadaoui
Duport
Gigot
Greseque
Baitieri
Elima
Touxagas
Fakir
K.Bentley
Casty

Bench not confirmed as yet

Direct 8 showing all French home games.

I think France could do ok, its about time they stepped up. Its a more than experinced enough pack to worry Ireland.

As for England, who knows, i always feel a large amount of blind faith around this time so im on a wave of that at the mo.

Yeah, about that.....


Elima gets four in a big win, 58-24.

Attendance : 14'125 spectators

What a good news !!

It was a very young looking Ireland team but that result is a good one to start with, and a superb crowd.

Pretty young looking French side for that matter.
Missed it on Direct 8, anyone know if it's getting a second showing?

Yeah, it was a young looking backline, probably more experince that their irish counterparts. More than enough experience upfront. Bench had to have made a difference too. A good blend by Le Bobbie, hopefully more to come.

Bloody Elima coming back to form now he has left.

He didn't look like a four try player for us this season.

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