pathetic attendance for a totally pointless match as usual - let the england team play an annual match against a SL ANZAC team instead and leave Les Bleus for the other home nations to mess about with.
On a more positive note,the France v England Academy at Villeneuve was well attended although the french lads were generally outplayed by their more 'cultured' opponents,they put up a good fight.MOM for me was the FB Matthew Russell from Wigan

5-6k is a decent turnout for a fixture that clashes with a SL round, in no way pathetic.
A SL ANZAC game would be even more pointless, wouldn't develop competition for England and why would any ANZAC player bother to show up or coach that match?

By all means expand it to a Wales/France/England triplet, France deffo needs to play the other home nations more - but then they will in this summer's European Cup.

Unless a credible national side emerges in the NH to play England we will continue to see them struggling to catch up with NZ/Oz. It is in England's best interest to help France develop.

Absolutely bang on the banana there

rlReportrl

That wasn't the figure quoted at the match. The figure was 7,900 and something (I can't remember the something), which would be more representative of the number of people I saw there. It was definitely well over half full. I was surprised, actually, at how many turned up given the timing of the match.

If Bobby Goulding had more Superleague level French players available to him and therefore could provide a team better able to challenge the England team, would French fans be supportive of this international?

Btw, whatever the hype, no England fan believes that England will beat PNG, Australia or NZ on the basis of the win against France, given that France were a depleted side. I had hoped there would be more SL representation in the side because in the Four Nations France gave a good account for most of their matches. That kind of a match would have been great to watch although I enjoyed watching both teams play anyway.

France faces a huge uphill battle to be competitive in this and other test matches. The gruelling schedule faced by Super League based players is a key factor, and the reasoning is rlin a post on League Unlimitedrl

So we need to reduce the number of games each year.
- A 16 team SL with teams playing each other once a season? Catalans vs Wigan in Perpinya one season then the fixture at Wigan the following year, much like the six nations rugby union format.
- Playoffs to be top 6 only.
- End the Magic weekend.
- Save any internationals for after the domestic season.

Reforms to reduce the playing workload would be on the right track, I like the spirit of your post, I'd suggest something like rlthis model in the thread Workload for England test players must be reducedrl

well done Catalancs,some sense at last on the forum - post-season internationals would be better imo tho' instead of the Magic Weekend hold an annual England v SL ANZAC select match or similar
The Tomkins brothers plus O'Loughlin played in the Wigan match yesterday 24 hours after the international so what's happening there ?
The official attendance for the international fiasco was indeed 5698 which is less than half the attendance who turned out at the Keepmoat last october for the same fixture so yes,for me it was pathetic or at least dissapointing
The France v NZ match attracted 12412 in Toulouse in the League heartland last november so the support IS there,if tapped correctly
The france v england matches are great for the develoment of french rugby league and good for the french supporters so why not confine all the matches to french soil,preferably somwhere in the south-west heartlands ?

This is only a problem for France, for the other clubs you just need to rotate your players and give your academy players a go, not just hold them for an injury crisis.
We just need this round's catalan match played before the start of the season, same weekend as the re-arranged fixture for Leeds' WCC. That frees the Catalan p0layers to not have to double up and case closed. Obviously it would be better if the season had a gap for this game but ...

rlPeacock backs all-star clashrl

[i"I'd like to see us play a Rest of the World team in mid-season. I think it would be exciting and get lot of people there.
"Why not give it a go? We're always trying new things in rugby league. It would be something different in the middle of the year.
"But let's make sure we still play France. We still want to play France but you've got to give them an opportunity to get their best team out there."[/i

you need to stick with this game against france hold it in france next year give france a warm up game against ireland/scotland or wales or a pacific island side. the french players need to be pumped up about the match and believing they can do it sports pschyology is an amazing thing.

look at the kiwi's under brian mclennan won the tri series after being the easy beats the year before. then mclennan leaves and some genius gets gary kemble to coach and theirs a large number of injuries and poor mamagement and kiwi's got thrashed by kangaroo's 56-0 in 2007 and lost series to england and only just scraped home against france. then 2008 kearney and bennet take over new management team and they bounce back to win the world cup final against the kangaroo's.

france needs depth(this will take time), sports psychology, probly a better coach no offence to goulding but at this stage the guys just learning his trade as a coach. play with a lot more pride an passion, luck when it comes to injuries, a warm up game to get combinations right and a home test! do those things and im positive they can bounce back in the next year or two

I think thats a damn fine idea.

Fair enough. A game for England against some select side would do nowt for me, but they can do what they like so long as proper internationals aren't dropped for it.

England need France to be strong and for that reason alone every attempt should be made to have stand alone tests every year for a genuine trophy, one that captures the true spirit of the game in England and France.

As soon as France are pushing England and beating them then maybe the English will have a chance against the Aussies.

I know this much, France will beat England before the English win a series against Australia again.