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Andy Goode ridicules ref's use of French with Top 14 side dominated by English speakers

Andy Goode playing France

Andy Goode commended – and ridiculed – RFU referee JP Doyle’s use of French during Ulster and Clermont’s round two Champions Cup clash in Ravenhill on Friday night.

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A second-half try from John Cooney saw Ulster beat their French opponents 18-13 at the Kingspan Stadium to go top of Pool Three after two rounds of European games.

Cooney also kicked a conversion and two penalties for a 13-point haul as the Irish province backed up last week’s win at Bath in what was another arm-wrestle of a game at a weather-hit Kingspan.

Ulster’s other try was scored by Jordi Murphy early in the first half, while Clermont’s Greig Laidlaw slotted two penalties as the Top 14 side snatched a losing bonus point thanks to a late second-half penalty try. However, it was the attempt by JP Doyle to speak French that impressed Goode, even if it was tinged with irony.

“Great work by JP Doyle speaking in French to the Clermont team, only 5 of the starting 15 are French though and one of those is Raka who’s Fijian!”

https://twitter.com/AndyGoode10/status/1197967181683789832

Doyle’s use of French is nothing new and it’s something that has been largely lauded on Twitter down through the years.

https://twitter.com/McArdle_Owen/status/1197969868097835008
https://twitter.com/RuaidhriOC/status/533992943074295808
https://twitter.com/Tom4Jones/status/938877264296415232

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Cooney’s 62nd-minute score, when he kicked through near the Clermont line and then controlled the ball to touch down, ensured that Ulster have two wins from two to lead Pool Three of the Heineken Champions Cup.

“John has got lots of tricks in his bag and he is an incredibly skilful player and it was a great bit of play from him,” said McFarland.

“John told me that he has been practising that move for years when he breaks blind and chips, but that he has never actually done it in a game. So he pulls it out of the bag in a Champions Cup game!

“When I was watching him from the box there was a big shout of ‘No’ followed by a big shout of ‘Yes!’.”

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The Rugby Pod gave their reaction to the news that Saracens will not appeal the 35 point deduction that they were given in light of breaching salary cap regulations.

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J
JW 47 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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