Ben Mercer
Source:- BBC

England has more players. New Zealand is more successful. South Africa has a more complex relationship with sports. But nowhere is there a rugby culture like French. In 2016, the first 14 finalists at Nou Camp in Barcelona, ​​competing at 92, won by a world record crowd of over 99,000.

Three years ago, 50,000 people, one in three people in the city, said that their team held the Champions Cup for the first time. And across the country, in small towns and villages, you will find a group of publications and a team ready to defend your honor.

In 1999, Ben Mercer, 12, beat and captivated his hometown, Team Bath, by the indigenous Toulouse.

Clearly you are not alone:-

His book details his four seasons playing with the Rouen of the Low League: Fringes: Life on the Edge of Professional Rugby, topping the game’s bestseller list before the autobiographies of Sam Warburton, Warren Gatland, and Eddie Jones.

These are some of the lessons that Mercer also played for Cornish Pirates, Plymouth Albion, Bristol, and Blaydon, which were learned across the channel. Mercer’s brother Guy played for Bath, whom Ben represented at the junior level.

What's French club rugby really like? Ben Mercer reveals all - BBC ...
Source:- BBC

The national team rugby Champagne may have lost a bit of fizz, but is French still a crazy trick in the game?

The statement issued by Ben Mercer:-

“René was at the fourth level of French rugby when I enter and the quality of the opposition was highly variable,” recalls Mercer. “But it doesn’t matter if they were good or bad, each team can have 10 minutes when they will fluctuate and everything will stay. “You can play a terrible team and suddenly they will be like barbarians.

“At home, you are defending your city. It is a big theme in the locker room before the game and you have the freedom to try to break the game. But far away, there is little hope that you can win Son. We will go into the loss limit mode. Some people who yell at the team will speak at home, just run quietly and go running.”

Ben Mercer published his memoirs in France after four years.

Sebastian Wahmahina’s elbow and Mohammed Haus’ fist may give France a shot at last year’s Rugby World Cup and all six countries this year respectively. The French club has a reputation for things known equally in the south on the disciplinary front of rugby.

“It’s definitely worse,” says Mercer when he compares the level of violence in sports in England. “The referee blew and was thinking that he would stop and that we would become a man, but instead ‘calm down, calm down, local ball.’ “All the matches were filmed, but the cameraman turned on the camera. If there was a hit, no one would be punished later.”

There was a special piece of dishonesty that still unfolds.

“However, in French, this happened quite regularly. While it is now culturally unacceptable in Britain, some old people will say something in particular about it.” Instead of the steamed proteins and vegetables used in England, Mercer found Rouen’s preferences to be nice about meat.