Showing posts with label sport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sport. Show all posts
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Zinedine Zidane scores wonder try for France legends against Toulon
Zinedine's wonder try.
By Jack Gaughan for MailOnline
FRANCE 98 victors have taken on European rugby union champions Toulon in a charity match - with World Cup star Zinedine Zidane scoring a stunning try from his own half.
The two sides played 45 minutes of football and then rugby at the Toulon stadium headquarters on Tuesday.
Christian Karembeu popped a three-metre pass off to Zinedine Zidane on halfway and the mercurial Frenchman looked up and saw a miniscule gap in which to drive towards.
He dropped a shoulder, weaved in between two defenders and from there, just inside the opposition half, space opened up.
Two more trailed in his wake as 43-year-old Zidane moved through the gears, accelerating beyond them before nonchalantly checking back to see if they were giving chase.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Samoa's 'Rochelais monster' adds beef to the French Roosters
Profile (in French) on La Rochelle captain Uino Atonio. Source: Pierre Ammiche
FORMER Samoan and New Zealand prop Uini Atonio - the man they call the "Rochelais monster" - looks set for his Six Nations debut, making the 23-man French squad for this Saturday's assignment in Paris which his coach predicts will be an emotional moment in the wake of the country's recent terrorism attacks.
The 24-year-old, born in Timaru and a former Samoan under-20 international, gained his residency eligibility last year after joining French club La Rochelle in 2011 and made his debut against Fiji in November.
He made three appearances for France in that international window and has held his favour with coach Philippe Saint-André.
He's unofficially the biggest man to pull on a French jersey. So big in fact, that they had to get a special jersey made to accommodate his 1.97-metre and 146-kilogram frame.
For comparison's sake that makes Atonio shorter than the Wallabies' Will Skelton (2.03m tall, weighing 135kg), lighter than former Wellington and Fiji prop Bill Cavubati (1.89m tall, weighing 165kg), but all-around bigger than All Blacks loosie Jerome Kaino (1.96m tall, weighing 113kg).
FORMER Samoan and New Zealand prop Uini Atonio - the man they call the "Rochelais monster" - looks set for his Six Nations debut, making the 23-man French squad for this Saturday's assignment in Paris which his coach predicts will be an emotional moment in the wake of the country's recent terrorism attacks.
The 24-year-old, born in Timaru and a former Samoan under-20 international, gained his residency eligibility last year after joining French club La Rochelle in 2011 and made his debut against Fiji in November.
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Unio Atonio |
He's unofficially the biggest man to pull on a French jersey. So big in fact, that they had to get a special jersey made to accommodate his 1.97-metre and 146-kilogram frame.
For comparison's sake that makes Atonio shorter than the Wallabies' Will Skelton (2.03m tall, weighing 135kg), lighter than former Wellington and Fiji prop Bill Cavubati (1.89m tall, weighing 165kg), but all-around bigger than All Blacks loosie Jerome Kaino (1.96m tall, weighing 113kg).
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Bula ... Fiji flyer Matanavou shows off his Toulouse rugby brand
Timoci Matanavou scores his fourth try in a Top 14 match against Lyon Olympique. Video: Stade Toulousain
By Shayal Devi in Toulouse, France
Many people often believe that when it comes to rugby, no one can hold a candle to the zealousness of Fijian fans.
And while this is evidently true in the way that Fijians follow the game, people in other parts of the world are equally captivated by the game.
Take the people of the south-western French city Toulouse, for example.
Fortunate enough to be part of a media group that travelled to France courtesy of Fiji Airways and the French Embassy in Fiji, I was able to see a different side of this beautiful European nation.
Slightly warmer than Paris, the fourth largest city of France felt just like home the moment we landed.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Haka politics as part of global rugby’s overdrive
The French “arrow” challenge to the All Blacks’ haka in the 2011 World Cup final – France lost narrowly 8-7.
By Brendan Bradford on Sportal
OPINION: The chief sportswriter for Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Oliver Brown, claims the haka is “scarcely more than a circus display” and that is “hidebound by political correctness”.
In a column for the Telegraph online, Brown implores his readers to grasp the “anomalousness” (yep, that’s a word we’re using now apparently) of the haka by recalling the “utter befuddlement” with which it was received by the American men’s basketball team at the recent World Cup.
Rather than incite fear in the opposition, writes Brown, the haka has become a “theatrically-rendered cultural curiosity,” and an “exotic sideshow”.
When you’ve got American-run competitions to find the best haka in the country in the lead up to the All Blacks’ game against the United States, the “cultural curiosity” tag is fair enough – but that’s not Brown’s complaint.
His grievance seems to be that the opposing team doesn’t have a right of reply – even though his main point is that the haka has become a sideshow.
By Brendan Bradford on Sportal
OPINION: The chief sportswriter for Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Oliver Brown, claims the haka is “scarcely more than a circus display” and that is “hidebound by political correctness”.
In a column for the Telegraph online, Brown implores his readers to grasp the “anomalousness” (yep, that’s a word we’re using now apparently) of the haka by recalling the “utter befuddlement” with which it was received by the American men’s basketball team at the recent World Cup.
Rather than incite fear in the opposition, writes Brown, the haka has become a “theatrically-rendered cultural curiosity,” and an “exotic sideshow”.
When you’ve got American-run competitions to find the best haka in the country in the lead up to the All Blacks’ game against the United States, the “cultural curiosity” tag is fair enough – but that’s not Brown’s complaint.
His grievance seems to be that the opposing team doesn’t have a right of reply – even though his main point is that the haka has become a sideshow.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Caveman Chabal, 'monument to marketing', bows out
Last year's infamous Caveman 'ko' against Marc Giroud moment for his Lyon club as captured on YouTube.
Special correspondent in Paris
SELF-STYLED caveman Sebastien Chabal retired from rugby on Sunday, the French forward bowing out with critics split over his rugby-playing abilities but no-one in doubt over his role as a "monument to marketing".
The 36-year-old Chabal won 62 caps for France as a powerhouse lock and back row forward, winning two Grand Slams, and his last act of a 16-year career came when he turned out a final time for Lyon, his current club which he has helped seal promotion from the ProD2 to the Top 14.
Lyon beat La Rochelle 27-26 on Sunday, Chabal coming on as a substitute to rapturous applause.
Chabal was one of the best-known and best-paid rugby players in the world, his dark beard and locks catapulting him into the public eye, with a couple of notable performances on the pitch in 2007.
"I adore rugby but I'm very conscious of the efforts needed to perform at the highest level," Chabal had said when announcing he would retire earlier in the week.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Now the feared Caveman Chabal is a 'currency fairy'
FRENCHMAN Sebastien Chabal used to be one of the most feared players in world rugby. And the tough second division Lyon forward has just been handed a three-week suspension for a punch that knocked out Agen’s Marc Giroud.
But the long-haired beast hardly looks scary in his new moonlighting role off the rugby field - dressed as a fairy for an Irish peer-to-peer currency conversion company's TV advert.
The 36-year-old sneaks up on a couple looking to exchange their holiday money, before introducing himself as “a fairy... a currency fairy”.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
'Scary' Caveman delivers the rugby knockout - officials see red
THE "Caveman" rugby star Sebastien Chabal has been a real knockout this week. He hit the headlines in France over for this KO blow on number eight Marc Giraud during the second division ProD2 match between Lyons and Agen at the weekend.
Giraud was carried off on a stretcher. Now aged 35, the former French icon is still playing rugby, plying his sporting prowess with Lyons in France.
He built a reputation for not only looking like one of the scariest men in the sport, but playing like it too, famously breaking All Black Ali Williams' jaw and knocking out Chris Masoe.
Not too long ago he announced that this would be his final season of rugby due to his body starting to feel the aches and pains that come with playing professionally for so long.
He clearly hasn't lost any of the competitive spirit though, as was seen, and felt by Agen eighthman Giraud.
Monday, September 9, 2013
French rugby success gives hope to the marginalised
![]() |
Mourad
Boudjellal ... the 'rugby emperor' of Toulon, champion of European rugby and of the French marginalised. Photo: sarugbymag.com |
By COLIN RANDALL of The Nation
On the morning after the French rugby
club Toulon won Europe's Heineken cup final in May, the club's owner, Mourad
Boudjellal, depicted the victory as a source of pride for people, like him, of
immigrant
Aiming his remarks at Marine Le Pen, the
leader of the far right, anti-immigrant Front National, Boudjellal, the son
of an Algerian father and Armenian mother, said: "Let's hope Marine takes
note.
"When access to culture and
knowledge is given to the children of immigrants and they are trusted, they get
to do a few things for their country and city," he told the French
television channel BFMTV.
"When you do not hold them back,
they can do good things."
As François Hollande launches his
initiative to alleviate unemployment, poverty, poor housing and crime in the
shabby suburbs where much of the immigrant community lives, he arguably needs
such role models to show success in life, from modest beginnings, is possible.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Rugby - sorry, football's - Le Choc match more than crunch charity winner
![]() |
Toulon's Pierrick Gunther tackles Olympique Marseille's Mathieu Valbuena in the hybrid football/rugby charity match. Photo: AFP |
And then as a side-piece of entertainment, co-referee Eric Cantona showed why he is "still the king" by lobbing over a trick rugby penalty goal that scraped the crossbar.
The other co-referee was former France coach Marx Lievremontwho almost steered Les Bleus to a shock World Rugby Cup win over the host New Zealand All Blacks in 2011.
This mad entertainment at Toulon's Stade Felix Mayol last Thursday was billed "Le Choc".
Thanks to Chris Wright of Who Ate All the Pies website for the report:
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
New Caledonian rugby star in French line-up against New Zealand
Benjamin Fall and other French rugby players speak out.
NEW CALEDONIAN lock Sébastien Vahaamahina, 21, will play his fourth rugby test for France in the start of the the three-match series against the New Zealand All Blacks at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday.
The Perpignan player toured Argentina last year but this is his first run-on test.
Bordeaux-Bègles fly-half Camille Lopez - who almost singlehandedly demolished European champions Toulouse 41-0 in February will also make his test debut.
Coach Philippe Saint-André has also handed Perpignan wing Adrien Planté his first international start while on the other wing Maxime Médard returns to win his 33rd cap, almost four years to the day since scoring the winning try in Dunedin - the last time France beat the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Les Bleus will have a fresh faced half-back pairing as Racing Metro scrum-half Maxime Machenaud joins Lopez in the starting XV. Both are just 24.
Luc Ducalcon is at tighthead prop in the absence of stalwart Nicolas Mas, who is still recovering from injury.
NEW CALEDONIAN lock Sébastien Vahaamahina, 21, will play his fourth rugby test for France in the start of the the three-match series against the New Zealand All Blacks at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday.
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Sébastien Vahaamahina ... test debut. |
Bordeaux-Bègles fly-half Camille Lopez - who almost singlehandedly demolished European champions Toulouse 41-0 in February will also make his test debut.
Coach Philippe Saint-André has also handed Perpignan wing Adrien Planté his first international start while on the other wing Maxime Médard returns to win his 33rd cap, almost four years to the day since scoring the winning try in Dunedin - the last time France beat the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Les Bleus will have a fresh faced half-back pairing as Racing Metro scrum-half Maxime Machenaud joins Lopez in the starting XV. Both are just 24.
Luc Ducalcon is at tighthead prop in the absence of stalwart Nicolas Mas, who is still recovering from injury.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Bravo France's Huget ... the try of the year!
THIS MUST go down as the rugby union try of the year, surely. France winger Yoann Huget, grabbed this remarkable score on March 28 in the French Top 14 championship playing for Bayonne away against Montpellier. After a brilliant intercept, he ducked and weaved his way almost the length of the field, kicked ahead, smothered the last defender - who had the ball - regathered and then scored. Magnifique! In spite of this, his team Bayonne lost against Montpellier 26-37. Huget is now playing for French champions Toulouse.
Video link
Video link
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Stade Français surprise Pumas in rugby upset
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Stade Français scrumhalf Julian Dupuy fires off a pass during the win over the Pumas. Image: Rugby365 |
What a victory! To prepare for the forthcoming Four Nations championship, Argentina chose Stade Français as its sparring partner. And favourites Argentina have been trumped! In front of about 25,000 people in a magnificent atmosphere at the Vélèz Sarsfield Stadium, the Parisian club won 25-21. The result reflected a strong comeback by Stade Français in the last quarter of the game. “It’s an incredible victory,” Stade Français captain Sergio Parisse told ESPN. “We knew that these two matches against the Pumas were going to be difficult, but we have seen a great rugby match in this first game.”The Pumas led 16-12 at halftime and scored two tries to one. The game marked the return of Juan Martin Hernandez as the Pumas flyhalf, who kicked three penalties and converted a try by Horacio Agulla in the first half. Stade scrumhalf Julian Dupuy, who played in a French victory over the All Blacks in Dunedin in 2009, replied with four penalties. Juan Imhoff added another try for the Pumas in the second half. But a converted Stade try by Laurent Sempere signalled a brilliant fightback 10 minutes from the end of the game. Two penalties by Jérémy Sinzelle sealed the win. Veteran Pumas pivot Felipe Contepomi played at flyhalf for Stade Francais.
The Pumas play Stade Français again next weekend before playing South Africa at Newlands in Capetown on August 18. Stade finished seventh in the French Top 14 last season. In June, France beat the Pumas 49-10 in the second test in Les Bleus' first victory in Argentina for more than a decade.
POSTSCRIPT: The Pumas followed up with a 31-17 (14-7) victory over Stade Français the following weekend and now face the Springboks in their first championship match at Newlands next Saturday.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Fiji rugby scandal and a stake in French Euro club dominance
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20180310041455im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FW-NEhC11CI/TTEzPTLHBtI/AAAAAAAABTU/QA_IdtIzrzQ/s320/fiji_france_rugby.gif)
The regime had threatened to withhold F$3 million in pledged grants for World Cup unless the board quit following an official probe by the consumer watchdog Commerce Commission had found the union had mismanaged a fundraising lottery.
Sport Minister Filip Bole said the RFU would elect new officials at a special general meeting before the end of February.
Meanwhile, a host of Fiji rugby players plying their trade in France have made a key contribution to the French clubs’ domination of the European competitions. At the start of this weekend, French clubs topped three of the six pools in the top-tier Heineken Cup while French clubs also headed all five pools in the second-tier Challenge Cup pools.
The article below from the Wall Street Journal sums up how “big money, star players and English tactics” have given French rugby unprecedented domination of global club rugby.
Pictured is Toulon's Gabriele Lovobalavu playing against Stade de France (taking on the opponent in pink). He was voted seventh on Rankopedia out of the top 11 Fiji players in France in the 2009 Top 14 competition. (Clermont Auvergne's Napolioni Nalaga was voted top Fiji player.)
FRENCH RUGBY RULES EUROPE
By Jonathan Clegg
Not so long ago, European rugby union was dominated by English teams whose gameplans involved kicking for field position and tackling anything that moved. But not anymore.
In today's club game, the best teams have three things in common: star-studded rosters, a swarming defense, and they all play in France.
Between them, French clubs provided four of the eight quarterfinalists in the Heineken Cup last season—a record—as Toulouse won its fourth title. Nobody else has more than two.
This week, as club rugby's biggest tournament resumes, French teams top three of the six pools in the Heineken Cup and five out of five in the Challenge Cup. In European competition this season, clubs from the country's Top 14, the top division, have a combined winning percentage of .707 and a record of 41 wins, one draw and just 16 defeats.
It's a period of unprecedented dominance, but will it last? The French say the commercial clout of their clubs and the passion for the game will sustain it. But spiralling salaries and a new homegrown player quota instituted by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, which governs the professional game, could pull the country's soaring teams back down to earth.
Nevertheless, for the moment, France has stolen the game of club rugby from the rest of Europe and it doesn't look likely to give it back anytime soon.
"I don't know if it will right itself," said Jim Mallinder, the Northampton Saints director of rugby. "The gap is certainly there and it's quite evident. It has become increasingly difficult [to compete]."
It wasn't always like this. Though France supplied the Heineken Cup's first two winners—Toulouse and Brive—it couldn't maintain that dominance. Toulouse has won a further three titles, but no other French club has triumphed since 1997—a period in which four English clubs and all three participating Irish provinces lifted the trophy. In the 2008-09 season, France has just one representative in the Heineken Cup quarterfinals.
The chief reason for the turnaround is that French teams once famed for their flair have developed a reputation for discipline and punishing defense.
France has always produced players with the capacity to dazzle on a rugby field, but that style was rarely accompanied by steel. These days, that's changing. When London Saracens played Clermont Auvergne in a Heineken Cup game last October, for example, Clermont recorded 121 tackles to Saracens' 50 as the French team prevailed.
Indeed, there have been more tries on offer in the Aviva Premiership and the Magners League, with an average of 3.61 and 3.72 per game respectively, compared with 3.46 scored in the Top 14 so far this season. "The French teams have become more English in their approach," said Serge Blanco, the former France national team player and now president of Biarritz. "The Top 14 clubs now play a game that combines running rugby with disciplined defense. They've learned to be streetwise."
But for all their physical strength, French clubs owe much of their success to financial muscle. Armed with a rich domestic television deal and booming attendances, the Top 14 teams operate on an entirely different economic level to their cross-channel counterparts.
France introduced a salary cap of €8 million ($10.4 million) per club this year, a figure which dwarfs the wage ceiling of £4.2 million ($6.6 million) in the Premiership. In addition, salaries in French rugby have risen tenfold in the past 15 years. The average wage in the Top 14 is now €132,000—almost 60% higher than the Premiership average of roughly £75,000.
Combined with the strength of the euro against the pound, that purchasing power has made French clubs hugely competitive in the international transfer market. In the past two years, superstars like Francois Steyn, Carl Hayman and Jonny Wilkinson have all been recruited from overseas clubs.
The influx of big-name players has produced other advantages: In France, the average crowd for Top 14 matches this season is 13,493, an increase of 2.5% on last season. By contrast, figures released by Premier Rugby this week show that Magners League and Aviva Premiership attendances are down 7% and 4% respectively compared with the same stage last season.
"There are more people watching and more interest in the newspapers," said Philipe Saint-André, the Toulon coach. "It looks a little bit like the English Premier League."
French teams have also developed deeper reserves of talent. While Leicester Tigers, the English title-holder, named a squad of 33 players this season, clubs in the Top 14 can have as many as 45 players at their disposal. Clermont, the reigning Top 14 champion, included 30 international players in its nominated squad list of 38 for the current campaign.
All of which helps to explain how the French championship came to replace England's Premiership at the pinnacle of club rugby: Since Premiership clubs first participated in the Heineken Cup in 1997, England had always been represented in at least one European final. Last year, that sequence was broken during a dismal campaign as England provided just one quarterfinalist—its worst record in 13 years of continental competition.
Yet some people are starting to wonder whether French rugby's reign is built to last. Salaries in France have risen by roughly a third since 2007 and Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of England's Premier Rugby, warns that the level of spending is unsustainable.
"I don't think it's sustainable position, but it will take three, four more years to work its way through," McCafferty said.
The spiralling cost of competing has already claimed some casualties: Montauban was thrown out of the Top 14 last year and relegated to the amateur leagues after failing to provide evidence that it could clear a €1.7 million financial shortfall in its season budget.
If heavy spending doesn't tackle French dominance in Europe, new player quotas might. Starting this year, Top 14 clubs will have to increase the number of homegrown players in their squads to 50%, rising to 70% next season in an effort to safeguard the future of the national team. In addition, many clubs French clubs see the domestic championship—which dates back to 1892—as more important than the quest for European glory.
"For me, the Heineken Cup is not the priority," said Mourad Boudjellal, the Toulon president, ahead of his club's game against Munster on Sunday. "I am first a child of the [Top 14] championship."
But whatever the future holds for the rugby teams in France, the era of French superiority in Europe shows no sign of coming to an end just yet.
"The French teams are still the ones to beat," said Will Greenwood, a former England player and now a rugby analyst. "It's almost impossible to pick anyone else."
- French rugby rules Europe - Wall Street Journal
Monday, January 4, 2010
Shame on NZ's global rugby media coverage
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20180310041455im_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FW-NEhC11CI/S0KYCwYBNHI/AAAAAAAAA-o/yVfpzZuxWrE/s320/100482_masoe_rugby.jpg)
Picture: French league leader Castre's NZ loose forward Chris Masoe (second from left) tries to break free in a match against Montauban. Photo: AFP.
Beauxis makes Biarritz pay the penalty
Tuqiri contemplates moving to France
Peter Bills analyses French rugby - The Independent
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