France v England - Rugby League Test

Some interesting illustrated points on Rugby League here in France

1) Rugby League is not called Rugby League here, its called 'Rugby XIII'. Normal Rugby, (with 15 players) is called simply Rugby like at home and not 'Rugby XV' as you might expect based on the logic in the name for Rugby League.

Here is the French 'Rugby XIII' team pre match

2) People don't give a shit about Rugby League here. I would guess that last Saturday night at the Penrith v Manly game at Penrith stadium, more people turned up to see that than turned up for a test match between France and England in Paris. The crowd at the test match we went to was a whopping 7,500. Infact I just checked and 15,806 people went to Penrith Stadium on Saturday night, so thats twice the crowd at the test match.

Look at the massive crowd below (the referee was Aussie Jarred Maxwell)


3) France suck arse at Rugby League, (just incase you didn't already know)

This was the score 18mins into the first half


The game was mildly entertaining, the Poms did score some very entertaining trys, however it was pretty much one way traffic for most of the first half, and the French defense really struggled.



There were not a lot of Poms in the crowd, so it was a pro french crowd. (and of course we were going for them as well) Sadly there was not much to cheer about in the first half, infact there was nothing to cheerabout at all. (As you can see below)


Here is the halftime score


We were entertained however throughout the entire match by a bunch of uni students in a band who were sitting very near to us and kept the crowd entertained with music and cheering throughout the game, and a few choice songs at half time.



The second half was a little better for the French (who actually managed two tries) and restricted the poms to 4 . However the most entertaining part of the second half, occured with about 10 mins to go. A gentleman jumped the fence, wearing nothing but his underwear (I am sure you know where this is going) and then ran onto the field. Once he was on the field (and still running) he decided now was the time to remove his underwear. He fumbled around with his jocks for about 15 seconds, finally tripping over them as he tried to pull them past his feet.
On the ground but not preterbed, he jumped back to his feet and begun more of his merry run around the field, this time being hotly pursued by a security guard. There was no gang tackling as you would expect at home, the security guard casually grabbed him, (as the man knew his game was up) and he was casually led from the field, to cheers and applause from the massive crowd.

Here is the streaker beind led away


10 mins later, and the misery was over for the French, the final score,
England 68 - France 12