France Elite Competition : 2014-19 (Clubs ranked)

St Estève - XIII Catalan vs Limoux

Over the past five years, which teams have been the most successful of the sides in the elite section? There are three areas that are shown to the right of the chart below in yellow. They are the league, the finals and the Lord Derby Cup. The blue middle area is for each year, while the green is the total. Orange shows which club was the highest scoring.

	Rnk	Team	TOT	'19	'18	'17	'16	'15		Lge	Fls	LD
	1	St Estève Cat	222	54	52	28	46	42		82	68	72
	1	Lézignan	222	40	40	52	42	48		86	64	72
	3	Carcassonne	216	56	24	46	42	48		86	66	64
	4	Limoux	214	38	50	50	52	24		78	74	62
	5	Avignon	112	9	40	18	17	28		56	38	18
	6	Albi	106	24	29	29	24			46	18	42
	7	Toulouse	74	7	7	7	9	44		48	20	6
	8	Villeneuve	71	17	8	15	14	17		47	6	18
	9	Palau	64	16	15	8	16	9		46	6	12
	10	St Gaudens	40	8	10	16		6		28		12
	11	Carpentras	12	6			6					12
	11	Villegailhenc	12	6	6							12
	13	Ferrals	6				6					6
	13	Villefranche	6			6						6
	13	Baho	6			6						6
		Total	1383	281	281	281	274	266		603	360	420

A top four emerge when points are applied (the points system is what I have put together). They are St Estève Catalan, Lézignan, Carcassonne and Limoux. At the bottom of the list there are teams that play in a lower division but had success in the cup.

Now for the awards for the 2014-19 period.

Top Overall Team: St Estève Catalan & Lézignan (equal).

Best League Team: Lézignan & Carcassonne (equal).

Best Finals Team: Limoux.

Best Cup Team: St Estève Catalan & Lézignan (equal).

The Future of Contact Sport

We live in a world where safety and care have become major issues. I have no problem with that as we only get one body and it's too precious to unnecessarily damage. Contact sport is on a collision course with safety concerns. What can it do about it?

Rugby league is a contact sport and the impacts have become more intense as years have passed. Awareness of concussion is growing but is still not that well understood. The more we learn, the more sobering it becomes. So what can a sport like RL do?

Rotational interchange: Four players rotated through a game, coaches usually fill the bench with big forwards. They run very hard and are substituted when they get tired so they can come back after resting full of hard running.

Sounds fine in theory but with ten metre defensive lines and huge forwards repeatedly hitting the defenders is putting bodies through prolonged heavy impacts. The jarring accompanying this is especially tough on the brain. 

Conclusion: When a player is taken from the field, that should end his participation in the match. Players would then have to pace themselves and not hurl themselves around to the same degree. This in conjunction with the next point would reduce impact and brain damage.  

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Defensive line: Bringing back the defence from ten to five metres would mean the velocity at a tackle would be much lower. That would reduce the risk of trauma to the brain. However, any impact has some risk so it wouldn't eliminate the problem but certainly reduce the amount of potential damage.

Conclusion: Surely this measure needs serious consideration. A five metre defense is how the game was played for most of its history anyway.

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Managing Tackling: Years ago, tackling around the legs was the main emphasis. As players became adept at offloading, wrapping up the ball in the tackle became the preferred way. That meant the tackle was aimed higher up the body and therefore more likely to end up around the head.

A defender getting his head in the wrong position in a tackle is another issue. Players will get tackles wrong occasionally. With a five metre defensive line, the impact from a misjudged tackle is reduced.

Conclusion: Tackling is an intrinsic part of the game that people enjoy. It has to involve impact and that has risk. Reducing the impact will reduce the damage that can be done.

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Shorter Seasons: Short breaks between seasons give the body little chance to recover. Long seasons have been driven by TV companies wanting more content and maximising financial gain for the sport. Players get more money but that is soon forgotten after their playing days and they are suffering for the toll the sport took on their bodies. 

Conclusion: When money rules, people ultimately suffer one way or another. Would players accept less pay if it gave their bodies a longer break each year? Probably not but sometimes people need protection from themselves.

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Keeping the game exciting: There is no doubt that a reduced distance between attackers and defenders would change the game. Going up the middle with big forwards would have less effect. Spreading the game wider across the field would become more likely, as attacks look for defensive weaknesses. Some suggestions.

1) Reducing the number of players by one even would open up the game more.

2) When a player is replaced he cannot come back later. With say just four replacements for a match including replacements for injuries, replacements would be used late in the game as seen in soccer. Again, creating fatigue which would open up the game.

3) When a team spreads the ball wide and the attacking player is forced into touch, it counts as one of the six tackles, the player forced out of play comes in ten metres and plays the ball unless it's tackle six when it becomes a turnover. This would encourage a wider, expansive approach.

Conclusion: People watch sport to be entertained but injuries have to minimised. Doing both is achievable but many angles need to be covered to maintain the excitement and improve safety as well.

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Summary: Contact sport needs to act swiftly to address safety issues. They need to be proactive, showing concerns around concussion and other serious injuries are being addressed. It would create the need for creative rule changes and tweaks to retain the excitement. I certainly don't have all the answers and maybe no one has, but doing nothing is not an option.

USA Season : 2019 (Finals Series)

The finals have arrived as has the bizarre happenings. The Northern Conference is in blue and Southern yellow. Four games were scheduled in the conference semi-finals.

Conference Semi-finals: Sadly, the seasonal trend continued with only three games completed. I guess the Northern Virginia Eagles had no chance against the Brooklyn Kings but they didn't help their chances with a no show. So the results were A 30-0 walkover for Brooklyn and an expected solid win for Boston.

The Southern matches were always going the way of the home sides and credit due they still went ahead. Not often a given in the USARL this season.

Conference Finals: The winners were expected but Tampa put up a brave effort in the Southern zone against the Axemen. Further north, it went the way of the very successful Kings team.

Grand Final: This was held on the 24th of August, 2019. I personally expected the Kings to take the final as they had home ground advantage. That despite the fact the Axemen convincingly won the final against the Kings last year. Mind you, it was hard to pick with much confidence, it could have gone either way.

As it turned out, the Brooklyn side took the final 12-6 in a tight, low scoring game. Brooklyn led 10-6 at the half time break.

	2019 Finals Series
	CSF	Brooklyn Kings	30	Nthn Virginia Eagles	0
		Boston 13s	44	Delaware Black Foxes	22
		Jacksonville Axemen	68	SW Florida Copperheads	0
		Tampa Mayhem	68	Lakeland Renegades	6
	CF	Brooklyn Kings	54	Boston 13s	0
		Jacksonville Axemen	26	Tampa Mayhem	6
	GF	Brooklyn Kings	12	Jacksonville Axemen	6