John Qovu try after great Sebastien Chabal run

SECOND!

^ hahaha

chabal is a male model, he needs to give gareth thomas a call i think, hmmm?

You were expecting him to knock some cants over but it wasnt that exciting in the end...

Nothing like the Namibia charge lol. He broke 1 poor tackle and offloaded. He does that on a weekly basis

I dunno, I don't see him do the offloading part on a weekly basis :P
Nice to see the big guy passing hehe

Chabal lacks technical abilities of a world class forward.

nice clip, but you sure thats not a fijian prop?

Chabal is magnificent! Amazing run, and perfect timing to get that last pass off.

Qovu is a big number 8 who play 7 cause Chabal play superbly at number 8, what a season by him, a new Chabal for me, more technique !

True he lacks some technical abilities (and he used to lack even more since it was really obvious before his stay in England - thanx for making him work the skills English lads!) but i think he still is a wold class forward anyway.
imo, he would be in the national squad of many major countries (i'm naturally speaking about the +/- 30 recurrent players of a national squad).
To me, he is a little like Spies. I mean, Spies looks like a Chabal with skills and youth. And a good shave.

Hope he can keep this playing level and make it to the World Cup. One day, perhaps, will he play 8 for France? But with Harinordoquy and Picamoles, it seems unlikeliy.

Poor defensive work by the white no.5, could have made a tackle at the start of the run but left it to others

gareth thomas and Sebastian Chabal. mmmm

^_^

N7 your joke could have been funny if chabal had been gay, but he's not so i don't understand, did you really think you would make people laugh?

I don't think Chabal have a chance to play number 8 for France, for me he is better than Picamoles ( who is awesome too ) and Harinordoquy can play at flanker so ...

6 Dusautoir 8 Chabal 7 Hari

19 Picamoles

Nice :p

Can you say LOOSE defence?

In my part of the world we don't have rugby on tv. All I see from Chabal is awesome line breaks. What are the criticisms of his game?

The criticisms were mainly about ball handling errors, resulting in unexpected losses of possession (a knock-on after a massive and devastating charge for example) and about a certain lack of class in gestures.

All this due to the fact that he started playing rugby rather old (about 16 i think) and that he missed all the basic skills and instinct that you develop while playing at an early age.

He was particularly criticized in France also because he doesn't come from the best renowned region for rugby (30 years ago, if you weren't from South-Western France your chances to play for the national team were reaaaaaaaal slim) and still today some people can't but see him as a marketing icon.

It's true that he was selected for his unbelievable physical abilities at the beginning (tough, fast and always with the best results when he passed the physical tests for the national team) instead of other perhaps more rugbystically 'complete' players. (i hope nobody cares if i coin new words or phrases, as long as you understand my point) And on top of this, he was often lost in Laporte's complicated vision of rugby, which added to his reputation of being a player who didn't really 'feel' rugby. (being a bit lost on the pitch and making big handling errors)

He has now become one of the the arch impact players in world rugby.

Great website! Hope to see more content from you.

Anonymous the criticisms are many. He is supposed to be this super-tough warrior, but he normally doesn't even get over the gainline when he has the ball. He makes the odd run and bashes a few people out of the way, but he can only do this at club level really. When it comes to top international level he's just out of his depth. He doesn't have a very good reading of the game, he doesn't really play as part of the team, i.e. helping out the other players, he just sort of turns up every twenty minutes to make a charge. I've read many articles where the writers say that they watch him during matches, and he does nothing. He doesn't make any tackles, doesn't get into rucks or anything, just makes a few runs and everyone thinks he's great because of them. Outside of France, he's regarded as a joke really, and teams always target him as a weak link.

Kearney for tests, I wouldn't be as sharp as that.

I agree with your description of his reading of the game and his irregularity. But he has improved a lot (he will never read a game or a situation as Dan Carter will but he's no longer as rubbish as you say).

Then, i've never read he was considered as a weak link regarding defence because if he lacks ball handling, he surely knows how to tackle efficiently.

He was voted best Premiership N8 while he played for Sale Sharks, it would be strange for specialists to vote for him best N8 if he only used to play 30 seconds every 20 minutes. So i find it hard (or just plain biased) to say he's praised in France and labelled as a joke outside since he truly became a player worth noticing for the French once they were told the English found he was impressive.

On the other hand, i would be interested in reading the honest opinions (and not just usual and useless 'i look down on this player because he's not my nationality' false fan opinions) of kiwis, saffas and oz about this: is he considered as a joke down there?
And i'm talking about a real joke: a player you're not worried about when he touches the ball and someone you target when you attack (as Kearney for tests has just described him)

There's no personal attack in that Kearney but i'm really interested to know this outside opinion thing.

Point taken Maximus but when I say he's a weak link I don't mean in tackling. I mean that he's a bit like Andy Powell. He's not a bad tackler, he's just overall bad at doing his job. He's supposed to be this really strong, big, impact player, but he just fails at that completely most of the time. At scrums for example, I remember Munster vs Sale, and David Wallace at No. 8 got the ball 10 metres over the gain line every time off the back of the scrum, whereas Chabal just got forced backwards every time. Now I'm seeing this from an Irish perspective, and maybe it's different elsewhere, but every journalist, ananlyst, and commentator here really just thinks that he's pretty useless.

And I'm not saying this as an anti-French thing. I think France have some wonderful players. He's just not one of them.

And I'd like to know as well what our SANZAR friends think of him.

Its hreat to see forwards score such a good try. im a back myself but i think it shows the work they put in aswell. good try

no worry. i never took it as an anti-French thing but i just wanted to add nuance to (what i found was a) harsh statement and the narrow-minded fan request wasn't against you but against any future half-brained poster.

our opinions don't seem that different because we are clearly both aware of his weaknesses. i only think your glass is half empty and mine half full.
i find chabal terrific in the open game, not really in static phases even though i know it's a shame because he's a forward (a little as if i said i like french prop barcella because he runs fast regardless of his performance in scrums). what's more, every team is ready to tackle him immediatly and he often has more than one opponent on him so it's harder to break the line.

a french journalist once asked him if he was ready to lead this new generation of french players and he answered he could help them and be efficient in what he did best (run, bash, push, tackle) but let everybody understand he could not lead them as a tactical leader, proving he himself was well aware of his lacks in game reading. Wallace can do that easily and could captain his team. imo chabal couldn't.

to finish i agree with fugimus. with professional rugby, the forward positions changed incredibly, more than the back ones. today they must be able to do everything: work hard and also with finesse. (see the third rows' kicks lately)

just had to say, nice to see some constructive comments.

pleasant change to the bullshit i've been reading in some of the other posts...

Don't absolutely agree with you.
I think he can tackle pretty well most of the time, but he isn't very good while it comes to tackle quick player, he doesn't like the sidestep opf the opponent before tackling (i.e, england last tournament)!
Most of the time during a game if his team is struggling in defense he can break the attack and more important get the ball from the ruck (quarter final vs NZ or the tackle on the 8 of the pacific islanders!!
And you are right, he was choosen as the best N8 twice in England and he is doing an impressive season with Racing Metro and not only because of his rushes!

Don't absolutely agree with you.
I think he can tackle pretty well most of the time, but he isn't very good while it comes to tackle quick player, he doesn't like the sidestep opf the opponent before tackling (i.e, england last tournament)!
Most of the time during a game if his team is struggling in defense he can break the attack and more important get the ball from the ruck (quarter final vs NZ or the tackle on the 8 of the pacific islanders!!
And you are right, he was choosen as the best N8 twice in England and he is doing an impressive season with Racing Metro and not only because of his rushes!

@ Kearney for tests and Maximus:
Am not Kiwi but leave in NZ. As far as I can tell, Chabal is far from being taken as a joke, quite the contrary actually. I certainly never heard about him being targeted as a weak link by a team, especially at 8 (I could see tat happening playing second row).

I fully agree with the lack of consistency and I reckon that it is in fact this unpredictability that makes dangerous for many teams. Kearney, I'd be quite interested to read the articles you are talking about since all this seems pretty dubious to me.

That being said, not the greatest and France has by far much better players in 6,7 and 8. Still a threat when he comes onto the the pitch though (ask the AB...).