Cold Weather, Rugby, Cancellation and Scouting

On Saturday night, I travelled across the city to attend a rugby game between our local heroes, the LOU Wolves, and a team from Colomiers. It was very entertaining to watch on a cold, windy night that saw a small snow flurry for about two minutes at halftime. The Wolves led at the intermission 12-0. The Colomiers squad scored the first six points of the second half to narrow their deficit to 12-6 but our red and black clad Wolves responded to the challenge to pull out a 24-6 victory in the end.

Sunday morning, it was still cold and the wind was now howling! Overnight about a foot of snow had fallen in the French Alps town of Grenoble where our "B" team was scheduled to play. We were informed at about 9:00 a.m. that the game had been cancelled. Upon returning to The Villa, I was excited to find out that the compound's gate would not open and that I would have to wait about ten minutes in the elements for help to arrive. Such is life in France.

Not wanting to sit at home for the day, I opted to travel to Chambery with Falcon players Geoff Moulton and Armand Richard to scout the Division III season opener between the host Aigles and the St.-Cergues Bulldogs. It was wicked cold and we did see snow on the way to the game. Fortunately it did not snow on us during the course of this game, but it was  a very raw day. I was glad to get a chance to get a feel for the teams in our league. It is going to be a very physical season if these two teams are an accurate barometer of the league.

This weekend marked the beginning of play for the 46 teams that play in the nine French Division III leagues.

Let's take a look at what happened this weekend in our Senior team's five club league, the D3 - Sud Poule C.

D3 - Sud Poule C
Week #1 Results
Lyon 7 - Clermont Ferrand 6
St.-Cergues 12 - Chambery 6
BYE: Bron-Villeurbanne

STANDINGS:
Lyon Les Gones 1-0
St.-Cergues Bulldogs 1-0
Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons 0-0
Chambery Aigles 0-1
Clermont Ferrand Servals 0-1

Week #2 Games
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Bron-Villeurbanne (0-0) at Lyon (1-0)
Clermont Ferrand (0-1) at St.-Cergues (1-0)
BYE: Chambery (0-1)

Less than two weeks until the Falcons play, can't wait!