{"id":821428,"date":"2026-11-02T05:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T05:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821428\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T05:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T05:28:13","slug":"france-coach-fumes-at-rules-calls-for-change-after-lebanon-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821428\/","title":{"rendered":"France coach fumes at rules, calls for change after Lebanon defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

France<\/a> coach Laurent Frayssinous admitted he was almost reduced to tears after their dramatic defeat to Lebanon \u2013 which included a hugely controversial moment that left him at a loss with the rules in play.<\/p>\n

After Arthur Mourgue kicked a stunning long-range drop goal to send the game to golden point extra-time, Catalans star Cesar Rouge thought he had won it for Les Bleus with a nerveless drop goal from in front of the posts.<\/p>\n

However, replays ultimately showed that Thomas Lacans was in front of the play and was deemed to be acting as a \u2018blocker\u2019. It is a move that is allowed to pass in Super League without penalisation: but not in the NRL.<\/p>\n

From there, Lebanon headed up the field and won the match with Abbas Miski\u2019s dramatic try \u2013 and Frayssinous admitted he was crushed after the game.<\/p>\n

France coach questions rules<\/p>\n

Frayssinous admitted that with the entire French team having to adjust to a new set of rules different to what they play in across Super League and the domestic game in France, it was impossible for his players to be aware of the blocker rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of highs and lows in there emotionally. What can I say? What do you want me to say? You want me to say if we play that game with the Super League rules, we win the game?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you want me to say? Or if you played the NRL game and our boys don\u2019t get to use that rule? I don\u2019t want to take away what my boys have done tonight. They made French Rugby League very proud and I\u2019m proud of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed how embarrassed we were for the first two games and tonight they responded against NRL players, so I\u2019m pretty proud (and) really disappointed not to win the game, especially with (it being) Ben Garcia\u2019s last game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty chaotic, and I was smiling 20 minutes ago and now I\u2019m nearly crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different rule in the Super League. You\u2019re allowed to do that in Super League. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to train with our rules to understand a bit more and even if we had during the tournament some referees coming in and we shared with them the ruck speed and everything was perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one way you talk about it and one way you practice it. But practice it for four or two weeks and a half is not enough. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frayssinous calls for rule unity<\/p>\n

The France coach then closed his press conference by insisting the only common sense outcome was for both major competitions to now be aligned on the rules they play with, to avoid a repeat of the situation in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like NRL rules and the way the game is played,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I like. What I don\u2019t like is my boys playing in Super League and when you play an international game it\u2019s also different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two rules that aren\u2019t the same. I\u2019m not going to say it because we lost but we didn\u2019t play the game to be qualified for the semi-final as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy with the attitude and the way my boys responded in the last two games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France coach Laurent Frayssinous admitted he was almost reduced to tears after their dramatic defeat to Lebanon \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-821428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}