27/10/2007: London French vs Sudbury & London Springboks: 40-12

LF 1st XV finished the first league's leg with an unbeaten track record: 6 Games, 6 Victories. Well done Boyz, for this greatly appreciated performance against the Boks : 40 -12.

The final score might not exactly reflect the fight's intensity on the pitch, but it was for sure the most complete game we had for weeks. An improved defensive line managed to reduce to silence most of the assaults of the Boks (especially their surprising 13). At the exception of these 2 sally mistakes in the dying seconds of each half which allows them to score some points, a clean sheet was clearly in our range! Otherwise massive improvement on all the other compartments of the game: 6 balls won on their line-out, 4 balls won on their scrum and a really nice flawing rugby appreciated as much by the supporters as by the players.

We are now first of the league with 4 points ahead of the Quintin. That's better than expected at the beginning of the season, but mind the second leg of the season!!! The next 6 coming Games are the one which will make us King or Nothing. Starting next WE with a home game against GWR.

27/10/2007: London French 2nd vs Bank of England 3: 22 - 0

Voici la match card et le résumé du match :

Saturday welcomed both teams to Barnes. The weather was good and so was our line up. We were looking solid across, on paper anyway…But, things aren't always as they seem, and just as during our warm up, we were very very scrappy from the off.

Alternating between the good and the ugly, the good lining up of phases and then a 50/50 pass dropped or intercepted, a good scrum with a poor lineout, a good break with no support…

But with great confidence in our game, the heads never went down, and we continued trying things. This paid off with 2 tries in the first half one from a pushover following a lineout the other from a break inside our 40 and followed with great support.

The second half was a bit more of the same. Then came the moment of the match when for a penalty following another hands in the ruck and a bonus extra 10 metres for the opposition due to our huge Gallic gobs, Stanislas put in a Swarzewsky like tackle, with an enormous amount of courage on their second row who was well over 110 kilos, he dismantled man and ball. From that moment on, things changed, we started playing much better game, support, balls to hand, no more hands in rucks no more 50/50 passes. This was rewarded by a try for the forwards following a maul where a few of the backs joined. Followed a few minutes later by another thanks to a great defensive pressure.

The support from the 1st team (thanks again guys), freshly arrived on the sidelines was giving us wings and we were trying to play continuous rugby alternating well between the backs and the forwards. And it ended there on another one of our attacks and a score of 22-0. A clean sheet, which is always good to have and reward the courage of the team, but 22 was also little to show for our forward domination.

Team: Quentin Blassi, Arnaud Boué (Kyomori Nguyen), Olivier Delpon De Vaux (Sylvain Deslandes), Haroun Appia (Adam Hrapner), Mark James (Mamoud), Cyrus Tchahardehi, Bertrand Blais, James Vivian, Pascal Ducray (Olivier Mussat), Emmanuel Delafon, Aymeric Duchesne (Stanislas Peromat), Damien Valtier, Greg Andrews, Maxime Ozot (Benoit Froger), Nick Ginsberg, Clément Vialle

Tries from: Maxime Ozot, Arnaud Boué, Adam, James Vivan, Adam Harpner

Conversion: Cyrus

Man of the Match: Arnaud "Clerc" Boué

Special performances: James Vivian, Emmanuel Delafon, Greg Andrews, Nick Ginsberg and of course Clément Vialle who had a great game for the opposition and good compliments from the opposition hooker.

To be worked on for next match: Lineout, defensive line in backs, stupid penalties (hands in rucks and our mouths), not giving 50/50 passes.

20/10/2007: British Airways vs London French 1st: 20-21

London French 1st XV played against British Airways its most demanding game of the season. The game ended on the smallest possible margin with a well fought victory for London French: 20-21. Despite all the commitment, volonty, fighting spirit displayed during the afternoon, this game is a clear revelation of our areas of improvement: DEFENSE, LINE OUT, DISCIPLINE.
- Tackles were nowhere to be seen for the first half (Until Tsz lead by exemple)
- Too many line out lost, or uncontested due to lack of organisation, preparation and effective routine (4 Line out lost, no winning Twin Towers)
- Discipline..... What can be said!!!... one yellow card (harsh i agree but still), 12 penalties around the ruck (Non-ending list of infractions: coming from the side, not releasing the ball, jumping, not staying on the feet, etc...).
Nonetheless this game reveal a couple of new faces, which will be welcome as regular 1st XV if they maintain this level of quality.

Due to the WC final and the early leaving battalion of englishmen, we didn't have time to acknowledge the good performances of the day:
Tsz : Strong defense and best chasing runs of the season. Definitively on the up!
Louis Bonneau : One of the new joiner, best tackling rate of the team , one amazing hammering stamp on a defender!!!, one try, always supporting the line. Really good spirit - Well deserved shared mens of the match award.
Callum : Its best perfomance so far, great kicking from the 40m line, one try, and an other run which lead to the second try. Definitively In progress and Well deserved shared mens of the match award.
Damien Chabas : Last sub to enter the pitch, bring a lot of power in the scrum, really confident runs, a lot of hard work in the rucks. Deserve more playing time.

Well done Boyz and to all the rest of the team.

06/10/2007: London French 1st vs Quintin : 19 - 10

September 2007: The London French 1st XV is enjoying a great view of the Middlesex countryside from the top of the league table: 3 games, 3 wins, 6 points.
October 2007: well, the next game to come is to be played at home in Barns. The visitors is the dear Quintin, one of the most skilled and organised team around in this Middlesex league. There is no need for more explanation. This is the D-day where we need to show that LFRC deserves its top spot, and is working hard every week to achieve a top performance.
Well to be honest, the stress and expectations almost put far behind in our head the shock to come between France and NZD. From the early kick off, the French demonstrate a thorough combination of skills in the scrum and in the backs to keep the opponent away from the 22m. Remi plays its first game at scrum half and Michael fills the spot at inside centre after showing great strength as a flanker last month.

The French score the first points in this game when Michael put down the ball on the cosy piece of green behind the white line. This rewards the French for a great possession and good kicking display and comes from several sequences close to the opposition 22m and a penalty smartly-quickly played. We then fight hard and the 30 players on the pitch run left then right; then back then forward as Quintin maintains a great pressure while the French behave sensibly to avoid penalties except one that translates into 3 points for Q. Quintin plays its rugby without fear nor pressure and finds the gap when an unsecured pass is intercepted by their blond-hot-blood-but-quick winger leading to another 7 points for the opponent.

Well, at half time, LF 1st XV is behind the mark: LF=8 vs Q=10
Time to get some fresh blood in the scrum, while the fighting spirit remain unspoiled. We need the win, we want it...

Our scrum remains strong, our backs are sending a few scuds through the gaps, and we show some amazing display of run then passes, then passes then runs that make us win back several yards. This is paying off as Quintin gives away penalties and their centre is sent to the sin bin for a no-grace-no-point rucking. However the French got a yellow too penalising our temptation to not rolling away from the ball after the tackle.
But the French think hard and decide to give the key of the house to the pack. Hence, they manage to send our legendary Irish over the line to put the French back in the lead and to conclude at : LF=13 vs Q=10.
This is the beauty of it: as the under-rated French team touring Cardiff that night, no one will ever cross the try line owned by Les Bleus in the second half. What a great display of strength, runs, fitness and passes.

We can congratulate our 22 players that turned up on that day for showing an extraordinary sense of courage and dedication. A special thanks to Tsz as he did not get a run.
We see a lot of improvement around the scrum, the backs and our ability to run the ball forward. Well now is the time to work on cohesion, discipline and commitment around the rucks.

Allez les bleus ciels et allez les bleus fonces

22/09/2007: Hayes vs. London French 1st: 15 - 25

After realising 2 convincing wins vs Gwr and Northold, it was time to show that we could build on this positive trend and bring the maximum of points away from our base. We could name the start of the afternoon, the "jet-lag-eurostar-miles-away" as we struggled to get all our players on time for warm-up thanks to an early kick-off.
At 1.30pm, we started the game with 14 players, introducing our new prop, "James-Ibarzewski-Dalby". Hayes put on a decent pack with some experienced first and 2nd rows. We spent the first 10 minutes fighting hard to gain a few meters, and we demonstrated a great spirit as we retained ball possession for most of the 10 min. With Philippe back in the scrum, our full pack took ownership of rucks and line out. On the 40m line, the French won the ball from the scrum. Stephane alerted Tom on the close side. A great pass from our new scrum-half opened the gap for Stef who ran through the opposition defence to score the first try of the day between the posts. Over the next 20 minutes, Les Bleus conducted several great phases of play but several knock-on and penalties stopped most of our moves. However, we showed a great attitude when we played 3-4 phases from left to right, and then bounced the ball back to the left through our centres , leading Mathias to score our 2nd try in the left corner. Hayes : 0 ; LFRC: 12.

By half-time, both team shared possession and territory, but Hayes never really managed to broke through the advantage line. Back on the pitch after the break, Les Bleus were asked to come back to basics and keep themselves disciplined. Obviously, a few tricky decisions from the ref started to heat up the players from both sides, and the "so-called Latin" were the first to show sign of impatience. A bit of precipitation and too much confidence did not help Les Bleus to score when we got close to the line. A good kick from Hayes from mid field put the pressure on our backs . Callum made a good recovery and ran on the right side to bring the ball back to the 40m line. But an unsecured pass in direction of Ian landed in Hayes Fly-half hands, lifting up the opposition score board . Hayes 7 - LFRC 12.
But the French did not give up. We converted one penalty in front of the post, and score 2 tries. One by Cyril in the left corner after 3 phases in the opposition's 22m and one by Callum following a great run by Tom around the ruck, opening wide the try line for our full-back. Our luck was turn down again when a kick from the 22m by Stephane bounced into Hayes' fly-half hands, leading to Hayes second try and the highlight of the day: Hayes' 10 threw up 3 minutes later in his own 22m (great world cup celebration probably). We finished the 80 minutes leading 25 to 15.

While we could consider that 12 points were "almost given" to Hayes, we should not turn our back on this game. We have realised that at this level, the balance between discipline, organisation and confidence is very tight. We need to lift our game by getting more organised and less intimidated by ref's decisions. When we lead the scoreboard, we have to lead the game too, and play with our strengths (line out - backs - kicks). But we can be proud of the start of the season. Don't forget that all teams will come back stronger (end of world cup, more training). So make yourself available, come to training and play hard with and for your team mates. And keep the attitude.....

Stephane and Julien.

15/09/2007: London French 2nd vs. SNOB: 12 - 59

A bitter sweet afternoon.

Saturday's wonderful weather and everyone's (a few of the French players') idea that we were playing a bunch of veterans (St Nicholas Old Boys) had everyone looking forward to a great afternoon of jeu à la Française…

That dream was quickly shattered when I told them we didn't have a forward pack and when they walked past the opposition changing rooms. Indeed the opposition was solid, very solid we later found out what we were suspecting, they put out their first team as their fixture got cancelled, a strong Herts and Middlesex 2 team… After having spoken to the referee to ask for uncontested scrums and the rest of the team arriving, we got the game under way.

Quickly we realised we were faced with a very well oiled team who were playing serious rugby, fast cleaning of their balls, good support, going through the phases of forward play and then linking up with very limpid back moves. We did try and put up la resistance but due to poor team defence (not that many individual missed tackles but more defensive team errors and mistakes in the replacement), a poor discipline and the difficulty in keeping our possession, we were muscled to a 5 try deficit at half time.

In the beginning of the second half, there was a great improvement in our ball retention thanks to a very support and protection at the break downs, unfortunately a few more defensive errors let them through 4 more times, but the last 10 minutes were won by ourselves with 2 great tries both starting with moves inside our 40 metres . The final score was of 59-12, heavy maybe, but playing against a strong opposition and not having 3 full time forwards was always going to be impossible. The very positive point is that we never let our heads down, continued to play the rugby we decided to play before the beginning of the game and improved all throughout the 80 minutes.

This is a very good base to build on for the 20 players in blue and if we improve at the same tempo as we have for these 80 minutes, I think we will be playing some enjoyable total rugby very soon. To bring one person out of the group isn't fair as everyone put in a big effort, but a special mention to Patrice and Kyo has to be made as they both played at prop and gave it their all in combat, also James for his work as well as his reign in the airs, our very own Bonnaire; la tour de controle!

Cyrus

15/09/2007: London French 1st vs. Northolt: 58 - 5 (pictures)

London French 1st XV played its first home game last Saturday.
With a sigthly different team from last week, our bleus left the home ground with a very convincing win against Northold. While the score seems similar to last week, the path to victory has been somewhat different.

In the first half, our pace around the rucks and in the back line allowed us to secure a few tries. And a few good kicks in to touch kept the opposition away from our 22m for most of the time. Unfortunately, Pierre 2 StVincent twisted his knee just on the try line, and was replaced by Guillermo who did well to drive the pack. We now call Pierre the scrum-half-miracle-dislocated-knee-back-to-the-pub-after-hospital as according to the Xray his ligaments survived as well as his appetite for after-game drinks.

In the second half, however, the big fellows from Northold managed to run a few pick and go, forcing the French to give away a few penalties. We lost the focus on a couple of occasion, illustrated when their Tana Umaga - Nb 12 - broke the advantage line and when their King Kong prop played quickly a penalty to score the opposition single try. But our enthousiasm to play the ball remained firm throughout as we scored more tries from both the backs and the forwards. Tries for Corentin, Gilles , Michael x2, Tsz, Mathias, Stephane x2, Callum . Gilles and Michael got under the spotlight when they both swashed the dirty-pint drinking record (probably below the 5s for gilles and 7s for Mike).

We still will have some work to do to improve our superiority around the rucks, we need to clean and protect our balls better. We will work to improve our defense in the backs too. Overall, we thank all the players for the effort, and turning up on time, showing again a great attitude and cohesion behind our leaders.


15/09/2007: Old Actonian 2nd vs London French 2nd : 29 - 12

"La 2" opened its season in a boiling afternoon against a very strong side from Old Actonians (mixture of team 2&3 with few players from their 1 st team!). The challenge was as enormous as the hardness of the pitch…

The battle begins with classic example of British rugby as its best: play with the forwards a lot and sometimes open to the backs. Given the lack of experienced forwards (only 4 out of 8 including one prop granted from the opposition), needless to say that this strategy was successful for them with 3 tries in the first half using the same technique. Defensively, les Bleus were sometimes naïve during this first half and missed few important tackles.

However, LFRC showed some French flair throughout the first halt, especially the backs line and managed to score a superb try "en premiere main". Line out won by James (very solid performance the whole afternoon), Nick Schuhl transmitted quickly to Nicolas who benefited from the backs position to score a solo try. Brilliant!

17-5 at half time. Break was well received given the rising temperature and the tough battle in the midfield.

The second half began in the same manner. Opposition enjoyed some replacements and used the pick & go strategy successfully. Good drives from the pack meant another try for them along with a solo try for their French 15… Enervant!

However, it was time for les Bleus to show true spirit and commitment. With 10 mins to play, everyone gave their best to secure balls despite some basic handling errors. This was converted by a nice try initiated by Nick Schuhl around the scrum and followed and finished by your interim Captain. A real pleasure to be the last team to score on the board!

We proved to have a good fitness overall (thanks John!) as we were so closed to score a 3rd try at the last minute.

Overall I would like to thank you everyone for his commitment on the pitch. It was really easy to be captain and thought this was a very solid performance throughout. With a bit more fitness and structure we could do great things this year!

Manou

06/09/2007: GWR vs. London French 1st: 0 - 41 (pictures)

We could not dream of a better kick off of the season as our 1st XV secured healthy win vs. GWR. We all know that les bleus collapsed on Friday night and France is the only major nation to have not score more than 30 points last week end. Well, as a matter of fact, it was time to London French to show passion and organisation to move its own counter above the 40 level. GWR presented a side with heavy forwards that the French managed to shake on a few occasions. A great balance of strength and speed allowed both our forwards and our backs to score (James D, Michael M: 1st try for the club; Mathias: 1st try in the club, Callum: a great 40m try, Stephane x2: missed a hat trick thanks to a crappy pass 2m from the try line). 6 tries: who will be the London French Habana ? GWR was not as strong as expected and we still have some work to do. But we can be proud to have left the opposition score down to 0. We thank all the players as everyone got there on time, motivated and focused (Jose: West Ruislip is not Ealing).
Special thanks to Nick L. as he did not get a run. And to conclude Many thanks and congratulations to all the new players .