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French international Benjamin Fall exits Montpellier after 'complicated' final season
By Online Editors
Former French international Benjamin Fall is leaving Montpellier after six seasons with the Top 14 side. Having signed in 2014, Fall represented the light blues 99 times and scored 16 tries. The 31-year-old was also capped 14 times by France in a career that spanned 2010 to 2018.
He wished Montpellier the best in an emotional statement.
"I wanted to thank from the bottom of my heart the MHR club, the president, the players, the staff, the various coaches, assistants, the intendants, the physiotherapists, the doctors, the stewards, the people of the back office, the cook, the coaches of the young categories, the volunteers, the supporters, the physical trainers, the staff of the brewery ... Jen surely forgets but a thousand thanks for everything.
"I have forged links with a lot of people in this club, in this city and to end up like that is a real heartbreak. But it is the life of a professional sportsman.
"I will have a word for each of the people I have come into contact with in this club during these 6 years which have been exceptional, rich in learning, positive or negative emotions, questioning, sharing, of laugh res, crying, doubts, advice etc ... I have never cheated, always given everything for this club. I hope I have demonstrated it. I came to Montpellier to win titles and to make the French team, things have been achieved and others not."
"I had promised myself to become champion of France with this club but this failure will remain in my throat. I wish the best for the club in the future and take down the precious shield that we have been able to touch during the 2018-2019 season. I hope I have left a good image despite this complicated last season."
Fall's career to date has had its fair share of injuries. Earlier in the week the former president of one of Fall's former clubs, Bayonne's Alain Afflelou, told Mid Olympique he was happy to let Fall go to Racing for "€400,00", due to what he saw as the back's propensity to get injured.
"In 2010, we had this young winger, Benjamin Fall, who had qualities. Racing got on it. Francis Salagoïty came to me and said to me: "What are we doing? Do we increase it? I replied, "This guy makes you six games a year. When he is not injured, he is in the France team. We will take the 400,000 euros from Racing and let it go. For him, and I regret it, the bad series continued in the Hauts-de-Seine and then in Montpellier."
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I'm not sure about the Earl incident. I recall him missing an important tackle but he's certainly a quick flanker. SB has him cover centre when doing 6-2, fortunately we've never had to see how that would play out.
I'm not getting on board I'm afraid. The fact that England are scoring tries and being competitive despite being so amazingly disorganised and managing to lose every match is even more frustrating. The players front up and make a good account of themselves physically but the defence since Felix Jones is so much less organised. Players are flying out the line all over the place, there is no cohesion at all... And the attack... Literally it's just Marcus Smith.. and a bit of Feyi Waboso. Almost every player in the backline has done nothing offensively because the structure just isn't there for it, there's nothing creative or innovative to challenge the defense. The last 20 mins against the Boks it was just runners on crash ball off the 9, over and over getting smashed behind the gainline and turned over. These players are capable of doing much better.
We did score tries under Eddie but the backs didn't create anything. It worked well for a while but when we no longer had a big pack with the likes of Haskell and the Vunipolas playing well, it stopped working very rapidly. Once we started losing the gainline and couldn't exert so much pressure through bullying, they suddenly all looked clueless and we finished 5th in consecutive six nations.
I'd love to be on board, I've watched every game for the last 15 years and what I see is just super frustrating. It's groundhog day. The same mistakes over and over and no sign of progress. They've pushed some good sides close in this series but there is no acknowledgement of the issues, they keep saying how close they are and they're a growing team etc... he's been in charge for 2 years and has hundreds of caps in the side. This will end poorly, he's not the right guy, but thank you for trying.
Go to commentsGreat but players do play like Oz too BS!!
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