France's Bobbie Goulding offers to step down from head coach position - Rugby League
On Sunday, October 16, Bobbie Goulding announced his decision to step down from the capacity of head coach of France, after his side lost 38-18 to the England Knights on Saturday.
The former St. Helens’ scrum-half still had a stint of six months on his three-year contract with the French Federation. According to the coach the Super League’s franchise, Catalan Dragons, did not provide four players to play the French side against the
English Knights because of their rift with the National Rugby Laegue(NRL). This definitely had led to their embarrassing defeat against the Knights at Leigh, on Saturday and compelled the head coach to consider resigning.
While talking to reporters about the current scenario the head said, “I’ve just been in and had a chat with Herve the secretary of the Federation and I've asked him to consider me finishing. It's up to the Federation now, I'll step down if they want me to.
There's too much (friction) between the Catalans and the French Federation and it's not fair on the boys. They are caught in the middle, with the Catalan Dragons saying don't do this, don't do that and the boys don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
They are in an awful position and that's all I care about. I'm a players' coach and I'll always be a players' coach.”
The coach was also asked if his inclusion on the upcoming Friday’s game against Senior English squad should be expected or not. The head coach answered back saying that the things are not within his control and there is a possibility that he will not be
in next Friday’s game.
This news has created waves within French Federation quarters, where sits the huge supporter of the head coach, the President Nicolas Larrat. However, it has been speculated that nothing more on this matter will surface.
The timing of this bomb shell decision of Goulding has disturbed the French side because they are just six days away from meeting the senior English side at Avignon. The later part of the month will see the squad battling against Scotland and Ireland.
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