Harry Potter: Table points count for 'bugger all'

Also, it’s fun to say. Like Francisco.

Bollocks.

The best proof for that is that Beauden kicked that penalty a few minutes before, because there was just a 1 point difference and that any penalty in the ABs side of the field would’ve been an occasion for France to take it.

- Montpellier, 9th

- Racing 92, 10th

- Stade Français, 12th

All three barely saved themselves from relegation in the last couple of championship rounds.

How is it working for millionaire/billionaire to turn up their club into giant “cash cow”? (your words) if they are underachievers? or maybe Altrad, Lorenzetti & Wild are the ones being milked at the end, won’t you agree with that?

In fact, I did mention those three clubs and pointing that the real club power over FFR was achieved by their performance thru the number of their players available for selection, but not by sinking any large amount of money by contracting random big names from other countries.

All the rest, Vichy shutting down League, false amateurism, whatever it was about, seems utterly irrelevant to me about this summer tour selection. And yes, there would be some money and sponsors involved and lots of contract signed too, like if Top 14 was actually some kind of real professionnal sport League.

Toulouse will never pay a player above €600K, that’s what they say; Dupont’s €480K was back in 2022 when he gets elected player of the year; at 25, he still had a very well paid “Espoir” contract dating back from recruitment. What Toulouse did with Jaminet was actually common practice. Some people (Fiducial?) will always find some loophole, except that, this time, someone in between seems to have kept the money for himself.

PS: being able to upvote all your own posts seems legitimate but it’s really looking a bit insecure to me.

In Japan in 2022, because Toulouse, UBB, Toulon and La Rochelle didn’t get to the Top14 final, there were more first team players, with some of them being players returning from serious injuries like Ollivon.

And yet, they played quite poorly.

I’d like to see the introduction of a measure of Aura. Get a sense of where the ABs Aura is at this stage.

Discuss.

However, being second to NZ before the RC could provide some inspiration for the Boks. It might not be the worst thing.

Maybe leave the numbers to the numbers people?

I’m fully aware that French International players participation into Top 14, European Cups & 6 Nations will hinder their preparation for a WC. Its nothing new. Galthié & Co also noted that everything didn’t go the way it was planned in 2020 when he took over the national team. They had made detailed projections for players experience, number of caps, etc. that weren’t realistic in the long run to 2023 WC.

As for player welfare, since 2020, they have asked their players’ clubs to record and give them full data access to some set of metrics they had defined together concerning more than 120 targeted players (form U20 to senior players). Meanwhile, they were also frequently interviewing them in order to control their psychological state and motivation.

So I’m not particularly worried about Galthié’s ability to precisely know the real condition, mental & physical, of anyone he’s going to select to play for the team. From my humble level of observation, what I would guess about his current strategy, taking into account all those realistic limitations (game time, wellness, etc.) he is facing, is that he is trying to replicate for the national team what the clubs are doing in Top 14, in particular Toulouse (and now Bordeaux as well) since many seasons:

- drill as many quality players, as young as possible, to the core game plan and don’t build your team around individualities; then rotate players depending on who’s available for the day and keep the system flowing.

I think the best time to note the rankings is after the RC is done. And both the NH and SH competitions are done.

NZ having two home games against the Boks means they have more in their favour in terms of winning the RC this year.

One things for certain, if the Boks do beat the ABs at home, at Eden Park and win the RC, this bok team will certainly make a name for themselves.

However. I do think that Aus and Arg are going to potentially throw a spanner in the works.