Olivier Elima, the France captain, says his side will be striving to avoid a repeat of their 12-try hammering in Paris when they take on England today. The former Wakefield and Castleford second row forward, who is one of 13 Catalans Dragons players in Bobbie Goulding's 17-man squad, missed last year's 66-12 rout by England through injury but admits it left its mark on the team. "Last year in Paris was pretty bad and we're definitely not looking at letting the score get anything close to that," said Elima.
The French are once more badly hit by injury, however, with Thomas Bose, the Catalans' captain, one of seven Dragons players forced to withdraw, and Elima admits it adds to the enormity of their task. "We're definitely looking to compete with England," he said. "We'll be trying to get on top but it's going to be hard. We come with adversity. "In Paris it was pretty much the same story, with a lot of Dragons players and other leaders in the French team missing out, including me.
"This year we thought it was going to be better until we played Hull KR and we lost Thomas Bosc and Dimitri Pelo." Tony Smith, the former England coach, has issued a stark warning to France ahead of the annual mid-season international. Smith, who stood down from his post after November's Four Nations final, believes the fixture will be scrapped if the French suffer another humiliating defeat. It is 29 years since France last beat England.
"I am worried about this game," Smith said. "I know it's good for England to get together and play a match, I'm not sure it's the right opponents. Only time will tell but, if it happened to be like last year's result - and it very well could be - I think it's the end of it." Meanwhile, John Cartwright, the Gold Coast coach, was full of praise for Ryan James who starred on his debut as they ended their three-game NRL losing run with a 28-14 win over Manly at Skilled Park yesterday.
Weighing 111kg and standing at 192cm tall the 18-year-old stood up to Manly's "international pack" in the win that was sealed by a 73rd-minute try from Luke Bailey. "He did exactly what he was supposed to do," Cartwright said. "He's only 18, and up against an international front row, and they were looking for him in the first half when he went out." * Agencies
