Peter Jackson: France must be on their best behaviour when Irish come to town

Once they finish their forensic dissection of Ireland putting the champions out for the count, the French management will be tempted to call their friends at the Foreign Legion.

Mon, 07 Feb, 2022 - 06:00

Peter Jackson

Once they finish their forensic dissection of Ireland putting the champions out for the count, the French management will be tempted to call their friends at the Foreign Legion.

Since their pre-tournament visit to the Command Training and Hardening Centre on the Riviera in search of “in inspiring environment”, Les Bleus now realise they could do with some urgent advice on a subject close to the Legion’s heart, discipline.

As they begin work on the heavyweight collision of the Six Nations, Raphael Ibanez, Fabien Galthie, Shaun Edwards, and the rest will be concerned about one stark comparison between the teams out in front with five out of a maximum five.

Ireland went for the best part of an hour against Wales without conceding a single penalty. France gave away almost 10 in the same period against the perennial chopping blocks, finishing up with 14 in total compared to Ireland’s six.

“We need to step up in every department and discipline will be key,’’ Ibanez said after his team had duly done what all teams do against Italy and filled their boots. “We are going to have to address that.”

A veteran of successive Grand Slams in the late 90s, Ibanez hopes to weld one of the Legion’s cast-iron mantras into their rugby armour: “To integrate people with different cultural and social backgrounds requires a very strict discipline. The mission is sacred. You execute it to the end and, if necessary, by risking your life.”

Falling as foul of the referee again this coming Saturday (Angus Gardner of Australia) as often as they did on Sunday will risk losing sight of a first Grand Chelem for 12 years and surrendering control of the championship.

Ibanez will probably have second thoughts about referring the issue to the military at their ‘Hardening Centre’ lest the punishment leaves next year’s World Cup hosts in far from ideal shape for the duel between countries responsible for ambushing the All Blacks on successive weeks last autumn to the tune of 69 points.

At their current dazzling rate, Ireland will be hard pushed to keep persuading a surprisingly large number of pundits into believing France will win the title, an accolade which doesn’t amuse Ibanez, suspicious of what he calls “another hit from the Brits”. There can be no denying that for technical efficiency and artistic merit, Ireland reached a level way above the rest. The range of passing and kaleidoscopic angles of running, all done at high-speed precision, will have left the French in no doubt about soaring Irish ambition.

Wales, bewitched and bothered in equal measure, were lucky to get off as lightly as 29-7.

It still amounted to the first four-try Irish opening to a Six Nations since they routed the Welsh 54-10 in Dublin 20 years ago, a rout which forced head coach Graham ‘The Redeemer’ Henry to give it up the next day as a bad job.

Having scored six tries of their own, they proceeded to ship six in their next match, England at Twickenham.

But then there’s no comparison between Ireland in 2002 and Andy Farrell’s squad of today, ablaze with its own brand of Total Rugby.

Scotland’s secret weapon? Genealogy experts

Ireland may be catching them up but when it comes to converting outsiders to the cause, nobody does it more effectively than the Scots. That they managed to send England back home to think again owed much to those running their genealogy unit.

The Murrayfield triumph featured no fewer than six players who began their professional careers representing their native lands, not merely south of Hadrian’s Wall but south of the equator as well.

Pierre Schoeman, Wilhelm (WP) Nel, and Duhan van der Merwe all started off as Junior Springboks. Ben White and Sam Skinner played for England at the same U20 level, Sione Tuipulotu for Australia. He might have stayed there had word not go out that he had a granny from Greenock, a fact rapidly picked up by highly tuned antennae all over Scotland.

Both Anglos qualified through ancestry, the South African trio after three years’ residence.

In the end, England were undone not by one of their departed juniors but both.

Skinner stealing the line-out after England opted to aim their last penalty to the corner instead of between the posts proved every bit as crucial as White’s early try.

It would be wrong to give the impression that the Scots have a monopoly of former England U20 players. Ireland have two (Will Addison, Billy Burns), likewise Wales (Nick Tompkins, Ross Moriarty). A third, Callum Sheedy, appeared for an England XV in a non-cap match against the Barbarians.

It’s not been all one-way traffic. England’s 23 at Murrayfield included two bona fide Englishmen who played for Wales underage — Alex Dombrandt during his student days in Cardiff, Harry Randall as captain of Wales U16 after his family swopped Greater London for West Wales..

Remember Alf: Don’t jump to conclusions

Luke Cowan-Dickie signed off his mea culpa over conceding the costliest of own goals with an upbeat message to his followers on social media: “Looking forward to bouncing back next week.”

The jaunty assumption that the Exeter hooker will be invited to confront Italy with his double-barrelled presence in Rome would not have amused England’s original World Cup-winning manager, Alf Ramsey.

Never one to show any emotion, not even during the jubilant scenes in the immediate aftermath of England’s extra-time win over West Germany in the summer of 1966, Ramsey stayed detached when the team dispersed the following day.

They would reassemble for a European Championship tie against Switzerland the following September. Having just scored the only hat-trick in a World Cup final, Geoff Hurst felt confident enough in his parting shot: “Cheerio, Alf. See you for the Swiss game.’’

Ramsey was slightly less than impressed.

“If selected,’’ he said.

“If selected…’’

If the boot fits (but there are exceptions)

There was a time when international rugby players could wear any colour of boots provided they were black. Now they come in all colours of the rainbow, a dazzling array from orange to silver, duck-egg blue to fluorescent yellow.

Richard Webster, a bricklayer and old-school Lion from the amateur era who played for Wales as a teenager at the first World Cup, would not have been impressed. As coach of Maesteg, a famous old club hit by such hard times that they could barely raise a team, Webster once begged a former prop to come out of retirement.

The player told him he would help out but only if the club bought him a pair of boots because he didn’t have any. Webster checked the size and headed straight to the nearest store.

When they showed him the only pair left in stock, Webster left them in their box and walked out.

“I couldn’t bring myself to pick a prop in green boots,” he said. “So I kept driving around for miles until I found a pair of black ones.”

Jones author of his own misfortune

Eddie Jones’ obsession with making changes for changes’ sake means that, for the 20th season out of the last 22, England will not win a Grand Slam.

There seemed no logical reason for his removal of Marcus Smith at a time when the game was there to be won or lost.

The front row alterations also played into Scottish hands, literally so in the case of the one he left one — Luke Cowan-Dickie.

My team of the weekend

15 Stuart Hogg (Scotland)

14 Andrew Conway (Ireland)

13 Garry Ringrose (Ireland)

12 Jonathan Danty (France)

11 Mack Hansen (Ireland)