England playing for pride

England's elder statesman demanding a reaction from his team


Morley: Looking for a good performance

Adrian Morley believes a youthful England side can restore some pride against Bobbie Goulding's France in Paris on Saturday.

England coach Tony Smith has rung the changes for the mid-season international following an abject showing at the World Cup last year.

France, too, are looking to atone for an equally dismal showing in Australia and are pinning their hopes on Englishman Goulding, who will take charge of the national team for the first time since replacing Australian John Monie.

Passion

Warrington star Morley is one of only seven England World Cup survivors included and the veteran expects to see a passionate display from both sides.

"I know Bobbie very well, I played with him, and I know what passion he used to bring to the team," said Morley. "I'm sure he will bring a lot of passion as a coach.

"They're going to be fired up. They had a disappointing World Cup so they will want to put in a big performance. I'm sure it's going to be tough, especially early on.

"We want to put the World Cup behind us as well. It was hugely disappointing to say the least.

"It's a fresh year and all the boys are desperate to get out there and restore a bit of pride. We're looking for a good performance."

Blood

Goulding is without seven key players, meanwhile - Sebastien Raguin, Jamal Fakir (both knee), Dimitri Pelo, David Ferriol (both ankle), Cyril Stacul (broken thumb) and Olivier Elima (eye) because of injury - while Christophe Moly is absent because of personal reasons.

Despite the lengthy list of missing men, former St Helens, Wigan, Leeds, Widnes, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Salford, Leigh and Rochdale number seven Goulding is demanding his players put their bodies on the line at the Stade Jean-Bouin.

"If all the players come off the pitch bleeding and sweating and they can look me in the eye and say they've given everything they've got, I can accept that," he said.

"You can build on that. The result takes care of itself. If we give our all that is all anybody can ask for.

"Your luck will change off the back of trying. I'm looking for a big performance from my lads.

"We are 10th in the world now and I want to get them to fourth."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 84,00.html

Seven out for France

Goulding without seven top men as France host England in Paris


Ferriol: Out injured

France have been forced to name a team without seven injured regulars for Saturday's international against England in Paris.

Sebastien Raguin, Jamal Fakir (both knee) and Dimitri Pelo (ankle) had already been ruled but three other Catalans Dragons - winger Cyril Stacul (broken thumb), prop David Ferriol (sprained ankle) and second-rower Olivier Elima (eye) - will be missing too.

Carcassone's Christophe Moly is also absent because of personal reasons.

New Les Tricolores coach Bobbie Goulding has therefore been forced to name a patched-up starting XIII.

Uncapped 21-year-old Frederick Vaccari, who has yet to play for Catalans in Super League, will start on the wing, while versatile Toulouse player Constant Villegas will be at full-back.

Nine of the team play for Catalans, with three coming from Co-operative Championship club Toulouse and the other - scrum-half Mikael Murcia - at Limoux.

The names of Goulding's four replacements should be announced later on Thursday.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 33,00.html

All set for England, Bobbie Goulding plans his French resurrection

Bobbie Goulding pulled back the curtains of his hotel room in Paris overlooking Parc des Princes this week, and reflected that the latest twist in his turbulent career has with all likelihood been the most ­surprising yet.

Less than six months ago, the former Great Britain scrum-half, whose long list of clubs included Wigan, Leeds and St ­Helens, was unsure when or even whether his next break in the game would come, having parted company acrimoniously with Rochdale Hornets last May after a brief second stint as coach.

Now, ahead of France's international against England, he appears a contented man. "I've got one of the best jobs in world rugby league – coaching France, who should be the fourth best ­international team in the world, and will be if they give me long enough," he says. "We've had a few days training in ­Toulouse, where it was cracking the flags, and now I'm ­looking out of my hotel window across Paris. And my first game is against England. I'm ­absolutely made up."

The overwhelming reaction when rumours of Goulding's appointment first surfaced back in February before a Friday night Super League game at Wakefield was that you really couldn't make it up.

A famously tempestuous character whose playing career is remembered as much for a variety of on- and off-field scrapes as for his undoubted ability, with no top-level coaching experience, and ­presumably very limited French (an assumption Goulding is happy to confirm was correct), had been given one of the most strategically significant jobs in the world game.

Like England, France went into last autumn's World Cup with great ­optimism, in their case based on the third place finish by Catalans ­Dragons behind Leeds and St Helens in their third Super League season. But after a promising 36–18 win against Scotland they flopped as ­miserably as the English, with a 42–6 thrashing by Fiji followed by a 42–10 defeat by Samoa. The results left one of the four ever-presents in rugby league's 13 World Cups since 1954 ranked an embarrassing 10th out of the 10 nations who qualified for the latest tournament.

The vastly experienced John Monie, who had been Goulding's first coach as a teenage tearaway at Wigan, was sacked, and the French federation launched a ­global search for a man who could ­capitalise on the growing supply of more professionally trained players being produced by the Catalans and now also Toulouse Olympique, who have made an encouraging start to their first season in the Co-Operative Championship.

Tony Rea, who speaks decent French and earned widespread respect for his work at the London Broncos and more recently Harlequins before returning home to Australia to work in rugby union, was thought to be one of a number of high-quality applicants. But France opted to overlook him, and instead plumped for Goulding.

"I know everyone was surprised – I was myself," the 37-year-old admits. "I'd just had a new TV delivered and I was trying to get the remote control working when the phone call came. But they must have liked the way I talked. I'm passionate about the game, and desperate to show people what I can do. This is my big chance, and I won't let them down.

"I'm not under any illusions that it's going to be easy," adds Goulding, whose plans to surprise England at the Stade Jean Bouin have been seriously disrupted by the loss of six Catalans players who would have been automatic selections. "But the young lads who have come in this week have responded fantastically. I've had great support from my assistants, and we're laying the foundations for a long time to come."

Goulding has even tried to surprise his players with a little of the schoolboy French he has been learning with his three children including Bobby Jr, a ­talented 15-year-old stand-off who recently signed for Warrington. "I'm going to try to learn the language out of respect to the people employing me, and to the public and the players out here," he explained. "But it's going to take time to get over that barrier."

In the meantime he has been communicating through Eric Anselme, Olivier Elima and the captain Jérôme Guisset – three of France's senior players who are fluent in English – and denies the widespread assumption that the gist of his pre-match team-talk will need no translation.

"It's getting on my nerves to be honest, all everyone is saying is that with Bobbie in charge the French are going to be fired up. I've got more in my locker than that – I showed that when I was given a chance at Rochdale."

But for the moment, considering how things have worked out to date, even Goulding can't get worked up for long. "Now I'm back on the ladder, aren't I?" he adds. "Every time I look out of my window at Paris, I get a nice reminder of that."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/ju ... gby-league

England cruise past weakened France

Saturday 13th June 09

England kicked off the post-World Cup era with a 66-12 demolition of France in a one-sided mid-season international in Paris tonight.

Coach Tony Smith was looking for a pick-me-up after England’s disappointing World Cup campaign last October and he fielded a young side full of in-form players for a match with the under-strength French.

They did Smith proud, 19-year-old Salford scrum-half Richie Myler claiming a hat-trick of tries, with the others coming from Ryan Atkins, Danny McGuire, Peter Fox (two), Ryan Hall, Shaun Briscoe (two), James Roby and Sam Burgess.

Myler took his haul for the evening to 30 points with nine conversions, six of those coming before the interval which England went into 44-0 up.

France, led for the first time by former Great Britain scrum-half Bobbie Goulding, were embarrassed in the first half but improved after the break, with Jean-Philippe Baile and Cyrille Gossard getting their tries and Thomas Bosc booting two conversions.

The second half was less of a run in the park for the English, but Smith will be satisfied with his players’ performance. They now have the end-of-season Tri Nations to look forward to now.

England’s previous highest score against France was 73-6 back in 1996 in an international in Gateshead.

But given the scratch team France were putting out, many were confident that record would be under threat. It almost materialised, but not quite.

Goulding was missing seven key players - including Dimitri Pelo, vice-captain Olivier Elima and big forward Jamal Fakir - and Les Tricolores were coming off a World Cup campaign that saw them pick up the dreaded wooden spoon.

Their last win over England came in 1981, but it was clear from the off that Smith had nothing to worry about tonight.

It took eight minutes for England to claim their first try - and after that, it was a procession in front a sparse crowd at the Stade Jean-Bouin.

Atkins took a pass on the burst down the left channel to go over for the opener before McGuire started and finished a length-of-the-field move for number two.

It was embarrassingly easy even at this early stage and worse was to come for Goulding, who was holding his head in his hands from almost the first whistle.

A cricket score was in the offing as Myler grabbed a quick brace, his first coming when he was on the shoulder of a bulldozing Burgess before he took a sensational offload from captain Jamie Peacock to barge over for his second.

Myler, in great form for Salford this season and targeted by Goulding himself as a man to watch tonight, converted the first four and but missed the next two following scores by wing duo Hall and Fox.

Myler took a massive hit from France centre Baile but was still able to make a quick play-the-ball, while Baile was on the floor in agony, to enable Fox to go over in space on the right.

Debutant Hall, the in-form Leeds flyer, went over in the other corner in the 26th minute.

By that stage it was 32-0 to Smith’s men, with the beleaguered Les Tricolores bruised and battered.

Briscoe picked up a brace of tries, converted by Myler, before the half-time bell, which would have been music to the ears of Goulding.

France were first out for the second half, no doubt with their ears ringing after 10 minutes with Goulding, and they were far better after the break.

They managed to put points on the board in the 43rd minute when Baile ran onto a Bosc kick to catch and ground in one movement.

And England did not have things all their own way, although their tries kept coming.

Two replacements combined for their ninth, Eorl Crabtree popping up a pass for Roby to crash over.

And after a male streaker had held up England’s charge on the hour mark, Myler - completing his hat-trick - and Burgess went over for two more.

Fox and Gossard traded scores in the final 10 minutes but the night was comfortably England’s.

http://www.englandrl.co.uk/article.php?id=14386