NPR

Watching this now and the stadium is half empty

Spectacularly poor planning from the organisers to have it coinciding with the mens world cup. The womens game is still substantially less popular, it really doesn't need to be competing for attention.

Quite obvious.

The French media was also very quiet

laurent wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:51 am Watching this now and the stadium is half empty

Congrats to France btw, from what I can see they downed the Black Ferns.

If we had to be brutally honest rugby fans are focused like bloodhounds on the SA v Eng Semi, women don't as a rule follow sport on mass, which doesn't leave a lot in the audience stakes. Was actually completely unaware of this game, great marketing right there.

Jethro wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 6:41 pm

laurent wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:51 am Watching this now and the stadium is half empty

Congrats to France btw, from what I can see they downed the Black Ferns.

If we had to be brutally honest rugby fans are focused like bloodhounds on the SA v Eng Semi, women don't as a rule follow sport on mass, which doesn't leave a lot in the audience stakes. Was actually completely unaware of this game, great marketing right there.

There was 2 more games earlier

It's a dreadful setup

Why are there only 3 rounds but 6 teams in the group?

Rigoni is having a mare

sturginho wrote: ↑Sat Oct 28, 2023 3:00 pm Why are there only 3 rounds but 6 teams in the group?

I didn't even realize that until this week.

I feel like they could squeeze more games into the time frame ... pretty sure the Eng, Can, NZ, USA tournaments they've had in (North American) summers past were just over a couple of weeks. Better yet, just keep it 4 per group, Loser/Winner swaps the next year (especially as they are having it be an annual tournament and because that's pretty much the gap between each).

France squandered last week's won by losing against the Aussies.

Really need to get some consistency.

laurent wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 8:06 am France squandered last week's won by losing against the Aussies.

Really need to get some consistency.

They're certainly consistent v the Red Roses!

Les bleues certainly play every game to win, so the defeat certainly was a huge shock. Congratulations to Australia for their win - the even bigger shock was how deserved it was. Congrats Ozesses. From a Fre perspective, I felt there was no excuse for the set pieces, especially the lineout mess. What do they do in training?

However, this "tour" is essentially about a changing of the guard. Average age of the squad has been reported as 23. A high proportion of debutants and players with no more than a handful of caps have been thrown in. Even more yesterday. We also beat a similarly changed (if not quite as young) NZ last week. No predictions for the future but for now, neither the highs nor the lows are quite as meaningful as they might appear.