Best tries of the Top 14 - Round 7

montpellier's try = awesome.
that is all.

Ouedraogo is always there in support! Great player.

What were Brive doing with that dribble of a kick out of defence for try 6?

For some reason i cant get onto the request section so i'll give my request on here.
can you please put on the video of the red card that the counties manukau player got for his extremely high tackle against northland in the ITM cup

cheers

Errr...What the eff were the defensive side thinking on the 6th try....'We're pinned behind our try line.....so, you have the ball??!!'

Just a comment regarding the scores/results summary format. I don't mind this sort of summary (without the scores/results posted), but I wonder if it could be something to think about in the future to incorporate the results on some sort of RD forum (sort of like the Fixtures forum, I guess). I know there are other sites out there that do this, so it's not like it's needed or anything, it might just be a good addition to RD, though.

Anyways, like I said, just a thought.

I like this format.
French commentators are funny. Such passion for the game.

best round with many great tries!

The 6th one is scored at the 79th minute. So I guess it explains everything.

Beautiful rugby. The standard of the competitions this year seems to be up and up. That's only good for rugby!

Cheers

Though I am a proper biased Southern Hemisphere Rugby Fan myself, I have to admit there is something about watching French Rugby (Via the Top 14 Clips) that makes me giddy like a school girl.

The sheer Footballing ability and enterprising attitude about those Frogs that gets me to the edge of my seat.

Lord Almighty... a grubber from your own try zone? When was the last time you saw anything like that?

I am beginning to wonder whether the fact that Top 14 is attracting really good players from around the world and the allowance of natural flair may result in it surpassing Super 14 in being the ultimate in club rugby.

I also agree with John F that Ouedrago is a consummate flanker. He is all over the place.

EArugby it's not close to the S14 yet.
The south African fitness trainer compared the stats of all the south african players in the T14 (based on GPS stats) to South African players in S14.
He found that the French based players covered roughly half as much ground in a game.
He said the ball rarely travelled more than five or six metres from the ruck on any given play.
If you watch whole games of T14, instead of just the tries, you'll see that it's slower and scrappier than S14 with many penalties (pedantic refs).
It's a high level in terms of the players it attracts, but in terms of the play, it's not as fast or as skilled as S14 rugby. Tactically conservative also.

Tom,

Thanks for your post. Again, I will repeat that I do not have full match access to French Top 14 Games. (just the odd clips from RD and the like)

Please may you be kind enough to post a link to the analysis you mentioned?

Cheers.

Sure:
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-16-northern-hemisphere-rugby-slower-says-bok-trainer

Why do you muppets always insist on bigging up your own tournaments and putting down others??! It's pathetic.

Just enjoy the rugby or don't watch. You'll never win the debate so just give up and give it a rest. :)

It's the nature of competetive sport, to compare and rate which style, team or league has the better play or high quality.

Yeah but my point is that it's subjective and emotional, so you'll never out-debate someone on it, so why try? Do you think they'll suddenly say 'Ah yeah, you know, you're right - the competition I know and love is actually boring and useless compared to yours, I'll stop watching it.'

Not gonna happen, so why try ruin it for them?

Well you know, personally I find it interesting to compare different leagues and teams, different styles of play.
I always try to talk about it rationally, it's never meant as an insult.
I don't think it's that subjective when you talk factually, as in French based players run half as much. That's pretty definitive.
But again, no offence intended, and I can see why people love the T14.
Some great players and teams in there and you've gotta love the enthusiasm of the supporters.

Tom,
I think you are right regarding the pace at which the are is played. However, S14 players play 16 at best and then it's over. the T14 has at least 10 more days. S14 is a sprint, Top14 a marathon, hence the difference of pace is normal IMHO

Also, it's unfair to compare the T14 to the S14, simply because the real equivalent of S14 is the H-cup and not the T14. Play is usually much faster in the H-cup, and this edition promises to be great.

regards,

PA

Well actually the stats were from all european competitions that South African players were involved in, so that included Heineken Cup, T14, Magners League, Aviva Premiership.
The pace of the play in Europe doesn't vary wildly between competitions.
Truth is, the pace needs to increase to improve the standard of player these comps produce.
In terms of physical conditioning (gym work essentially) there really is not much difference between the European players and the SH ones.
The difference is the pace they play the game, and how much more defined their descision making and skills under pressure become.

I honestly believe the T14, or the HC could match the S14, and it wouldn't take a huge revolution.
More a change in mentality and philosophy than anything else. Once one or a few teams start lifting the pace of their play, other teams will have to follow.

In a way the S14 can thank teams like the Brumbies and the Crusaders for lifting standards down south.

Anyway good discussion, I love how it never got narky. Gotta go, works over, gotta stop pretending to be sending emails and go home.

Actually the intensity (cos that's what matters) is way mor eimportant in H-cup than in T14. The H-cup games reprensent a small part of the season and a few player you quoted didn't even played it (Van niekerk or Steyn) so the statistic you came out with definetely occurs only for national leagues.
We all can see that S14 is played at a mucher higher pace and represent the most entertaining rugby.
However, as said PA, it is because of the shift in the organisation of the competitions between South and North.
In T14, teams (and players) have to compete at the same time in T14, H-Cup and 6N. Two weeks ago T14 teams played 3 games over a single week!

"He found that the French based players covered roughly half as much ground in a game."

Actually it's the pace and not the ground covered.

#6 dumbfounded.
#5 forward pass much?
#1 superb support play

The scientific analysis make me laugh. The Super 14 and the Top 14 are completely different competitions. It is impossible to compare :
- The first one is played over 10 months, another 2 months.
- One is a national competition the other is an international competition.
- The T14 is a true championship, the S14 is just a tournament.
- S14 is designed to prepare international players, the T14 in the objective is simply wins.
We can say that the winner in the 100 meters faster than the winner of a marathon : But it will prove nothing!
In addition, the rand and the NZ $ z can do nothing against the euro. It is a fact.

I totally agree with Misterrugby.

The S14 is not designed to prepare international players, that doesn't make any sense.
Most of the players who play S14 don't play international rugby, and never will.
The teams are all desperate to win the competition. It's nutty to think they only exist to prepare international players, that would basically mean none of the teams cared about themselves or their own success, and didn't want to be financially and proffesionally succesful in their own right, which is obviously wrong.
What does the length of the tournament (the Super 14 is a league, it's just an international one - so is Major League Baseball but that doesn't make it a tournament), and has a league format.
It is not structured like the Heinken Cup, and is not a tournament or cup competition.
It is over a shorter period, and that helps in terms of being able to use a smaller pool of players, and conserve the energies of those players.
Perhaps European players do play too much rugby, I would agree with that. Maybe they should stop playing so much slow rugby and focus on playing less but faster rugby.

And intensity is a vauge word, it could mean a number of things.

I'm talking specifically about speed and ground covered. The Crusaders play at an incredible speed, everything they do,m their rucking, passing, support play the rush of their defence, it's all done extremely quickly with a minimum of errors. This is what makes them such a great team. It's what makes SH teams so good.

And the stats came not just from T14, they also came from teams like Leinster and other teams involved in HC competition, so it was included in the stats.

Misterrugby, you didn't actually dispute the stats produced by the South african fitness trianer, you simply provided justifications for their reality.
In other words, you made escuse as to why the rugby in France is not of the same standard as the S14.
If you're comfortable with a lower standard than that's fine, but it simply means the S14 will continue to produce the better players and teams.
Perhaps those things you describe is exactly what needs to change to take the T14 to the next level so it can compete with the higher standard on offer in the S14.

i agree with misterrugby

Actually it's not a question of standard or players.
When Matfield and Collins played in Toulon they weren't so god, Smit wasn't even in the starting team for Clermont, and Montgomery wasn't brillant either! (There are obviously counter examples but that made my point)
So European leagues are rougher and dirtier than Southerns hence slower and less spectacular for most of the people.
But I wouldn't bet on a S14 franchise playing in T14!

When Jean De Villiers came up north to try his hand at H-Cup rugby he was made to look ordinary. Why do we have to have this debate anyway? Is your life really so empty that the only thing you have left to have pride in is saying how much better your domestic comp is? Get a girlfriend and move jobs!

I am not satisfied but I am defending our championship. Who would not do the same ?
In France, we are always appreciative of the game from the south, particularly New Zealand. But also Australians and South Africans.
I'm just saying that we must compare what is comparable.
If you go to my blog, you'll see that I defend the S14 against a journalist who criticized the S14.
Finally, I think the level of T14 will increase year after year : For now there are many clubs from small cities;Big clubs are being formed in Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice in the lower divisions.

What's your blog then mate?

Aha, i clicked on your name, and it looks very proffesional, my compliments, but unfortunatley I don't speak French.

I did some reasarch into this South African Trainer to my surprise it was very interesting - watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYco4bZNBp0&feature=related

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