I’ve been following the French Top 14 rugby this season because, let’s face it, its far more interesting than the Super 14. Hell – over there they’ve got Australian players who actually make line breaks and score tries! :o
Anyways, what has become apparent as the season has gone on is how well the NRL exports have taken to the game.
1) Luke Rooney has been a surprise package. He still has speed (he’s only 26) and power and he is proving a great finisher from full-back. He teamed up with Sonny Bill to score the only try for Toulon in there underdog victory over Toulouse on the weekend which looks like it has sealed Toulons future in the top division.
Check out the weekends try here – It starts with a great (and legal) hit by SBW:
He scored a similar try teaming up with SBW a couple of weeks ago also:
2) Sonny Bill Williams was obviously a superstar in the NRL but many doubted he had the smarts to make the transition. After a slow start to the season – mainly due to him breaking his leg – he has also become a real game breaker for Toulon. He still makes the odd mistake but has been a big factor in Toulon coming good.
3) Craig Gower is another leaguie who, to my knowledge, never played a game of rugby. He has been playing number 12 for Bayonne and on the weekend was slotted in a fly-half (obviously not a position for those who are still coming to grips with the game..) He set up 5 tries on the weekend in Bayonnes biggest ever victory as they thrashed Bourgoin-Jallieu 61-10. He was said to be one of Bayonne’s ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ by one of the French papers on Monday… And they weren’t referring to his off-field antics. Bayonne are now riding high as it seems they have all but made the Heinekin Cup.
4) Mark Gasnier (Now Marc Gasnier) was probably the one with the skills to make a go of rugby and he did have a few issues adjusting to the game, but is now hitting his straps for Stade able to play in the centres of on the wing, and making the break and setting up the try for Stade to beat Montpellier on Saturday.
IMHO, if any of the players had made the switch to Rugby and had had joined an Australian Super Franchise, I think it would have been a failure. Why? I think in SBW’s and Rooney’s case they have been mentored on and off the field by Tana Umaga. They make a point often of how much that has helped them. I think the other reason is that the Super 14 season is just too short for players to get settled.
On a side note – compare the atmosphere at the Toulon v Toulouse game! 60.000 (for a club game which is not a final !?) in the sold out crowd – with tickets being scalped on E-Bay for those desperate to get in… Players might go there for the money but I don’t think they are missing anything by being there. Stuff the Super 14 – I’m off to France.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2558 https://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/?p=2558">36 Comments
great post, very interesting
Check this out too.. Gasnier’s footwork around SBW and Umaga. Put this into youtube:
Mark Gasnier smokes Tana Umaga & SB Williams
Kinda beats the atmosphere Penrith Park …tres bon!!!
How good is the effort by the fullback in Rooneys first try? Some french backs are genuinely scared of tackling big guys.
But I totally agree with all the points in the post. Ill base myself in Aix and see you there.
Is there any way to actually watch the French top 14? Because if any network was carrying it I’d be watching.
Only one point. You say that the leaguies get settled in because they have a longer season in France. This is true, except almost everyone says the season is too long. I remember a couple of years ago a french scrum-half having to sit out a few tests to deal with his exhaustion. I think this is exactly why you need leagues like the NPC and Currie Cup, so the people who need more games can get them.
I think a long season is the only way to truly work out what a comp is all about – which team is the best. I don’t think the Super 14 is nearly long enough.
If a scrum-half is having to sit out a few tests because of exhaustion then his team doesn’t have enough depth and the players aren’t being rotated and managed properly I would have thought…
Don’t forget that the Magners League has great crowds too!
I’ve said many times that we should encourage our young players to spend a few years in the NH, and France is a good a place as any. And I agree with CanadianRugby – I still think sacking the ARC was a short-sighted and shite decision.
I also think DS’ point carries a bit of weight. I reckon smart-stepping hard-hitters like SBW get an easier ride in T14 compared to S14 where they would get the likes of Mortlock, Nonu, de Villiers, Ioane, Fourie, Smith, Smith, Staniforth, AAC, Cross, etc, all of whom can stop a train, and that’s without even counting the flankers and then the wingers who are even bigger. I am not saying that they don’t come up against them (some of them play against O’Driscoll and Umaga, for example, not to mention themselves, and some Tongan wingers), just not as regularly.
Loved this post.
Makes me happy to see them come good. Better for rugby. Just maybe not our rugby right now. Hopefully in the near future though.
I’m pretty excited to see the Barbars game come June. Should be a cracker, especially given SBW and more especially Goog :)
Sacré bleu! Les mungo’s est incroyable, n’est-ce pas? Les ‘offloads’ de SBW avec Luc Rooney été formidable. Il est un ‘dead-set’ légende. Et en plus Rooney’s grand vitesse! Qu’est-ce que c’est et ‘Young Ivan’ Hénjak? Il est encore demi pour les rouge et noir. Ils est en bon voie. Le managér, ca devait être a donné un ‘spray’. Peut-étre Nick ‘Chuck’ Berry et arriver? Bon chance. Pilou-Pilou!
Une biere sil vous plait
non – vin rouge
I thought you would have been off the RED after last weekend JC??
FU Gagger!!!!
Impressive and entertaining stuff.
still can’t see them cracking open super 14 defenses like that though.
speaking of aussies in the top14,
not a ex-leaguie, but how well’s brock james playing?
he’d look mighty good as a replacement for giteau at the force next season…..
Brock’s been there and done that
true, but i’d rather see brock back in Australia than the force bringing in peter grant….
touche Geoff…..
Maybe more left field might be Craig Gower?
How bout the other great schoolboy flyhalf – Scott Daruda?
as for how he’s going, he’s top points scorer…this season and last…272 so far and counting compared to second Andy Goode on 196!
nice, good to see an aussie can kick it as well as the rest of the NH flyhalves
=)
all that kicking practice, he might be perfect for the waratahs and their 10man rugby
i’d like to see Gower having a go in the super14, but tbh i don’t really see him getting close to wallabies selection (which is probably the only thing that will bring these guys back)
Gower’s already put his hand up for Italy (he has the passport) but Nick Mallet knocked it on the head.. so to speak… after reading about some of his priors. He’s probably got a few good years left so we might still see him in the Azzurri colours..
I remember when after a season over in NZ he was the talk of the town. Then he went to the Reds or Force?, and maybe got injured.
Kind of lost track. Who’s he play for in Europe?
He came back from NZ and played in the Bris club comp for GPS and was signed by the Force from there.
He was on the fringe of the Reds much like Scott Daruda who also went to the Force and has similarly sunk without trace
Clermont-Ferrand, who are also top of the try-scoring (thanks to Napolioni Vonovale who you will know all about at the next RWC) and overall points and have comfortably the biggest points difference (and a massive record of 14 bps out of 23 games) and have beaten the entire (IIRC) top half of the ladder.
Pity about the bottom half!!
I’m a fan of his, he would be perfect for NSW (he’s from there too!) – good decision-maker, obviously good kicker (and awesome range, I saw him kicking goals in his own half at the Schoolboys’ championships a decade ago) and actually a perfectly solid distributor as well. I reckon if Gits is our Carter he is our Carlos Spencer.
Brock James = Carlos Spencer?
Its not the same Brock James that I have seen play.
Maybe you didn’t watch Carlos Spencer with the same eyes ;)
Did you see the ref giving Matt Henjak a high tackle as one of the embedded clips within that last clip you attached?
Crunching tackle that. He should have red carded himself though I reckon.
Did anyone listen to the whole podcast on http://www.ruggamatrix.com with Mark Gasnier and Link with Les Kiss? Really interesting. I didn’t hear it until after I had posted this. Some of the interesting things to come out of it:
Rugby in europe has never been healthier – getting 60, 80 thousand to club games? The rise and rise of the Heineken Cup. It’s all good. As shit-house a state as rugby is in right now here, eventually it will come back.. Might take a few years that’s all.
Also – Gaz talks himself down a bit. He almost sounds like he’s not really interested in playing for the Wallabies and would rather be playing in Paris and taking holidays to Italy and the south of France on his weeks off. Link on the other hand can hardly contain his excitement at how Gasnier has developed. I think he’s lucky his plans to sign Gasnier to the Waratahs got scuppered as he’s had a lot more time for him to start coming good over in France.
I think at the end of the day, what it shows is that any top class league player, provided he’s not too old, can adapt to playing rugby. I’ve played both (not for my country mind..) and rugby union is not rocket science, but if you stick a convert in front of a chalk-board and try and explain the breakdown, isolation etc. you are pushing shit uphill.
The only way is through game time and plenty of it.
Fair point, but as I said on the forum, did you notice Rooney hanging around the breakdown and not knowing what to do? No one doubts they can run in space, its their defensive nous, sense for the game and ability at the breakdown that sets them apart. Tahu looks good in space but turns over the ball and can be exposed in defence. If SBW carried the ball one handed in the S14 he would lose it every time. I cant believe he can get away with it.
I hope they do come on though. It would be good for rugby. As for motivation, who wouldnt prefer playing in front of 80,000 fans in France as opposed to 8000 at Penrith?
I remember Radike Samo doing the same thing for the Brumbies and getting away with it… I think he might be at Stade as well – at least he was last season.
samo was just a freak of nature tho
i agree with Cutter re: defence.
most of the leaguies have no idea what to do at the breakdown. tuquiri’s been in rugby for what….7 years now? and he still looks so awkward cleaning out.
only one that looks comfortable in defence&breakdown is brad thorn
Brock James was a bit of a journeyman in Australia with QLD and the Force. Didn’t he also play NPC for Taranaki with James Hilgendorf? I think there’s a marked difference in playing styles in the northern hemisphere – it’s more structured and stolid which suits a certain type of player, especially if you have a decent kicking game. Its actually quite surprising how many Australian five eighths are playing in Europe. Here’s a few I could think of – Paul Warwick, Chris Malone, Manny Edmonds, Lachlan MacKay, Brock James, Lloyd Johansson, Shane Drahm (just moved to Japan), Luke McLean and Christian Warner. It will be interesting to see if Gowie and Gaz end up at five eighths as their rugby development progresses. I guess they both played in that position in the mungo game at times so they may have that organisational ability etc.
Lloyd Johansso is not seriously five-eighth is he? If he is then QED.
IIRC he was no8 in the same schoolboys year as Brock James, and then played 13 for QLD. Five-eighth sounds like a stretch!
Drahm was reasonably good, I thought, for QLD – I thought he was our best backup for Larkham at the time. Manny Edmonds was a bit like Brock James, always quite dependable without quite taking the next step.
Maybe they just develop them better there? Maybe French culture (and dress sense) is inherently better for the sensitive sorts who gravitate to five-eight?
Johannson is currently playing for Viadana as a five eighth and frequently played club rugby for the Gold Coast Breakers in the same position.