Top 14 semi-finals tedium!!!

Is it only me, but did anybody else find the two Top 14 semi-finals - Toulouse-Castres and Clermont-Toulon - totally tedious. 160 minutes and not a try in sight, total lack of invention, total defensive mind-sets, aimless kicking with teams preferring to go without the ball and hoping for opposition mistakes fro McAllister, Teulet, Wilkinson and Parra to punish.

I turned on to these two matches thinking I - naive little me - was going to see the best of French rugby and the flair and panache that we've loved to see from French for years. Seems the more money goes into French rugby, the more defensive it becomes. Shame that!

Although the T14 is talked up a lot of the time for me it is the worst most one dimensional and attritional league going.

I've tried to get in to it a few times but the whole outlook by the clubs and coaches is so negative.

Oh and the whole French flair thing is massively overdone too. Wales have far more flair, nowdays France play more like England.

Compare that to some of the tryfests served up in Super 15's at the weekend. I know which I prefer to watch.

yappysnap wrote:Oh and the whole French flair thing is massively overdone too. Wales have far more flair, nowdays France play more like England.

Totally agree. The French are obsessed with drop goals when in the past they would've been trying to score tries. They have some very clinical sides, but also some pretty boring sides. Having said that they have some monster packs in the T14 and rugby doesn't need to be fancy to be enjoyable - give me a rolling maul any day!!

yappysnap wrote:Oh and the whole French flair thing is massively overdone too. Wales have far more flair, nowdays France play more like England.

Mate, I think you just insulted the entire French nation......

yappysnap wrote:Oh and the whole French flair thing is massively overdone too. Wales have far more flair, nowdays France play more like England.

ouch.

yappysnap wrote:Oh and the whole French flair thing is massively overdone too. Wales have far more flair, nowdays France play more like England.

The Ultimate insult

The awful thing about the French league is that the more money they spend on expensive imports the worse the rugby is getting. It's so negative and their obsession with drop goals is unbelievable.

They do have some monster packs and it's very attritional stuff, but where's the invention and flair gone? The all French Amlin final was dire too. The AP and PRO12 finals were far better. As was the all Irish HC final, even though it was a bit one sided, it was nice to watch.

It really puts it into light how bad the French proposals would be do rugby.

More of this dross? No thanks! (Though I'll probably still watch the final)

Possibly my last comment was a little overboard

But the T14 is a dire league and I would hate it if English clubs decided to leave the Heiny to join with the French.

Toulouse sum it up pretty well for me in the HC. All the talent in the world but 90% of the time just look bored by being there and play a very lazy game, oh that is quite French actually...

Agreed of the 4 senior club competitions the French league is the least interesting to watch.

And the attritional nature will probably only get worse if they increase it to 16 teams. Heaping an even greater work load onto the players is hardly going to make them play better.

But the extra two games will mean extra money in the French game which threatens all our teams outside France as they try and poach all the best players. I really don't like the way the French are going.

making a judgement on a whole league based on 2 games, thats what I call poor or lazy analysis.

as Guy Noves said after the SF, if you want to watch tries you have to watch the whole season not only the play-offs. blame the playoffs system if you want but dont a blame a team that has been ahead all the season to go for some low risk game management against an in form Castres team that were better than them on this day (Max Evans almost scored a try if it wasnt for a last second save by clerc).
as for the other SF, well toulon is indeed a waste of talent with a one dimensional game plan set up by a one dimensional manager (laporte) so no surprise. Clermont did try to play wide but were too clumsy and the weather conditions did not help them.

whocares wrote:making a judgement on a whole league based on 2 games, thats what I call poor or lazy analysis.

My assessment is on the whole season not the SF's.

I didn't watch the SF's

Any top 14 game I've watched in the last few years has been boring. Big packs crashing into one another with plenty of kicking.