La Parisienne of Cafébabel.com - Culture - Comments

Rugby world cup : Haughty Frenchy ? - Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre

Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:06:36 +02:00

Hum,

First, excuse me but this article was not written by JSeb but by me, Sophie ...

Second, if you had read again the article, you would have seen that I had corrected East into West (of course I know where le Stade toulousain is, I had just not paid attention when translating my paper, sorry 'bout that and me and culpa...).

Third, le Stade français might be the best team, but its players are mostly coming from southern clubs ...

Last but not least, I don't think the media are fair in their coverage. And it's not because France won 6 times the Six Nation Championship that they play entertaining rugby ...

I don't blame you for being so sharp, on the contrary I like to create discussions and interrogations. But I will not let you say that I do French bashing because it is not our players that I despise but the people who abuse them and who gamble with their image.

See you

Rugby world cup : Haughty Frenchy ? - caseras

caseras — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:50:42 +02:00

????

Maybe another european's POV could be useful ?

I think the author made a lof of mistakes. First "ovalie" is the term which is used to name the region where rugby has taken its roots in France, in the south WEST and not east.

Second point, previously to the start of this World cup the french medias have made a lot of articles and reports about the rugby. They clearly showed and explained the north of France didn't feel concerned by this sport, I wonder how does the author made to miss them ???

Third point, how could be possible for a country such as France who have as much as TV programms, newspaper, radios, than any other country in the world to do not cover this event ! This event is a worldwide one!

Fourth point, France , currently, is by far the best team in Europe. They recently beat Ireland, Wales and England (twice). Which team in europe could be considered as better than the french one ? Seriously? England's team was very good before, but it's not the case anymore. And english players show us that against a real opponent (South Africa) they didn't have the possibility to win....

Final point. There is a european event, I'm not sure but I believe french teams are often great in this rugby event. As for the Six Nations Championship : for the last ten years France has won 6 times (4 GC ). So it is not as if the french team came from nowhere. And "le stade francais"(one of the best french team) is in Paris and not in the south as the author thinks all the teams are in the south I think it's useful to point it out.

PS : Everybody knows France is arrogant, England needs dentists, America is fat, etc.... As for Webb Ellis, I've never heard any french guy tells me they invented rugby ! ?

Jean sébastien, it's not because you don't like rugby or your team you have to bash them like this

Rugby world cup : Haughty Frenchy ? - jon

jon — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:39:08 +02:00

I think that's crazy. The haka might be more popular in France than the All Blacks but that's got more to do with people knowing very little about the game. If that's what it takes for people to be interested in the game, than fine.
For true rugby fans, the haka is an interesting tradition, and little more. It's the game on the pitch that matters.
Maybe it's France's obsession with body building that has made them so poor at playing the game. Try focusing on passing, running lines, offloading in the tackle and an attacking kicking game rather than just the physical size of players.