France coach Laurent Frayssinous has conceded the gap between themselves and the world’s top nations will never close until they have regular participation from their top players in the NRL.
Les Bleus are heading home from the Rugby League World Cup with a whimper as things stand. They have been hammered by both Samoa and England in their first two group games, conceding 160 points in the process.
They play for pride against Lebanon next weekend, but talk has already turned towards what the French game can do to return to the heights of yesteryear, when they were a leading light in the international game.
France coach’s brutal concession on gap
Frayssinous, perhaps understandably, cut a dejected and downbeat figure post-match on Saturday in Perth, after they were beaten 82-0 by England.
He was asked about what can happen for French rugby league to start to close the deficit on the world’s leading nations, and admitted the short-term answer is to have more players from France competing in the NRL on a regular basis.
He smiled: “We need 400 players to play at the top level week in, week out. Like Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and England.. we need some players playing in the best competition in the world.
“In the NRL, week in and week out. We need them to perform in that competition which is not the case and we need to be able to make a choice between the best 10 props in the competition, which is not the case right now. And the same for every position, too. That’s where we’re at. Hopefully in the future we’ll have a better players playing every week in the best competition.”
Frayssinous dissects England humilation
The French coach admitted he was thrilled with how his side started in Perth, with the game scoreless after the opening 20 minutes. However, France ultimately fell apart in dramatic fashion once the floodgates opened courtesy of Dom Young’s try.
He admitted: “Obviously, we’re pretty disappointed losing by that much in both games, it’s hurting.
“It’s not a lack of willing, it’s a lack of just doing the basics right defensively. I thought we did that for 20 minutes at the start of the game but after that, there was so much disconnect shown in our defence. Too many missed tackles, too much of the line being disorganised and we paid the price each time. We’ve got to be better next week.
“I was really pleased with the first 20 minutes, we were in the arm-wrestle and in the contest of the game. We had our chances to score tries and defensively we were pretty connected. But once there’s one disruption defensively, it was one after another, after another. We couldn’t come back to what we’d done earlier in the game. We need to improve and we need to be better next week.
“It’s hard. I can tell you it’s hard and we’ve got shattered players in our dressing room. We’re also very proud people as Frenchies and we’ll keep on working hard and we’ll keep on fighting, that’s our goal.”
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