In French rugby, all politics is local
If Racing Metro is a reliable weathervane, the Top 14 is, and will continue to be, the primary competition for all clubs in France. Yes, the Heineken Cup is a pot of gold in some respects but the Bouclier de Brennus is their passion. Like football’s Premier League, it is a marathon and only the best of the best survive to the spring. The French see the Heineken Cup as something of a lobsided mismash that is not catering for the elite when the likes of Zebre can be involved. From my point of view, I still think it is very important at least one Italian team remains in the Heineken Cup, whatever its format going forward.
They are still bullish here that the Anglo-French owners alliance will bring about the required alternations to the qualification and income criteria going forward. In ten years time, we may be looking back on a different set of records in a different competition. I just hope the young kids of today will not forget the 18 years of what has gone before if a new format emerges — the Leicester, Toulouse, Munster and Leinster sides that have given this great competition the rich heritage it enjoys.
Come Sunday night, most rugby eyes in France will be on Racing’s meeting with last season’s Heineken Cup runners-up, Clermont-Auvergne. That day, I was making my Sky Sports debut as an analyst and privately rooting for Clermont. But I left the Aviva with an empty feeling in my stomach. As a sportsman, you put yourself in that position, and conclude that it must be soul-destroying to keep falling at the final hurdle.
Clermont win the majority of their games, domestically and in Europe, but they perennially struggle in the games of the utmost importance. Their track record offers huge encouragement to others teams. There has to be some mental block at this stage and the only chance they get to rectify that problem is a final next May — that’s another 11 months of grunt and back-breaking toil that won’t prove anything because everyone already knows they can get to finals. Winning them is the problem.
Can they close the deal? To be dealing with that issue as a professional player must be causing some mental stress for the Clermont staff. If they go ten points clear of you quickly, they’re very dangerous and can destroy a team.
But a one score game with 20 minutes to go, then hopefully some doubts come into their heads.
Not that Racing go into the game on the crest of a wave either. A fortnight ago, we were building a nice bit of momentum but successive defeats in Castres — albeit performing well — and home to Grenoble, where we were brutal, has checked our progression.
We all acknowledge Racing have had a serious turnover in personnel ahead of this season. No matter how good the players are as individuals, it is going to take time to gel. Juan Hernandez, Juan Imhoff and Juande Krueger returned to the set-up on Wednesday after the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, and it’s like we’re starting all over again.
However, Hernandez is a serious footballer, who’ll be a massive addition to Jonny Sexton — with two footballers in the middle of the pitch, they can play off each other, switch it up.
We also need to seriously raise our aggression levels; it’s all a bit nicey-nicey at the minute. We need to start doing damage to teams up front. There are plusses: Maxime Machenaud at scrum-half has been very impressive; Dimitri Szarzewski is showing good leadership as captain and, everything considered, Francois van der Merwe in the second row has been our stand-out performer.
We’re now 5-4 in the Top 14, which has to be judged in the context of the new broom and the fact that we’re not exactly playing turkeys every week — the opposition is a lot more settled than we are.
You can get very frustrated on the drive home from a game like last Saturday night against Grenoble, wondering when will it click. But there is so much potential and so much to play with. Maybe it’s easier now for me to see how good the two coaches, Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit are, because I’m not on the pitch as the ten, but I’ve put myself into those match situations and I’ve been impressed by their decision-making, their knowledge and their humane side, which is important.
What is nice too is no splinter groups forming, something that has been known to happen in French rugby when things are all tickety-boo. The players here are close knit, have a good attitude and they are working to find a solution. Messrs Labit and Travers are very big on solidarity.
The coaches had an interesting discussion this week about the players looking tired against Grenoble. We had six pitch sessions last week but they pointed out to me that they were low intensity. What bothered us all was how they were working too much on weights and not skills. Not on ball receipt, on cleaning-out drills etc. We need to get better as rugby players and not as physical specimens. Going forward, more of our focus will be on rugby, but the time between matches is so short that it’s all rather hectic. With at least two matches a week, often going Saturday-Wednesday-Sunday, there’s a fair chunk of preparation involved.
Putting my own boots to bed has been the hardest part of the transition from inside to outside the white line. That’s not surprising. You miss playing so much, the buzz of training, even feeling great after training. Without knowing, you would be doing four or five kilometres, even in a light session. Now if you have to go and jog four or five kilometres, it’s a pain in the ass. One evening recently, I decided to jog home to the house from training, about a 45 minute spin.
A bad call.
From a satisfaction or achievement point of view, I don’t feel the need to get onto the pitch; I just miss it because you miss being there with friends. People will talk about the money these guys get paid, but they play because they love it. I know that’s hard for some to appreciate and understand — ‘it’s easy for him to say that when he’s earning a good salary’ — but we all took up the game because it was our game, because we loved it.
Jonny Sexton is a good example of that. You see that in our work together. He is very serious about what he does but when it comes to kicking, all my career I’ve worked on the basis of little and often, just ticking over.
So we’d do punting to each other, spirals to each other, one bounces, then he’d do set penalty kicks to touch, a few restarts, drop goals and then place-kicking. He’d nearly know himself when he’s done something well or poorly, but it’s just handy to have a second pair of eyes. Once in a while, we’d have own little bit of spice, going up against each other. Man, it’s amazing when you stop training how the distance goes from you.
Recently, I had to finger point and highlight an issue, in French, at a players meeting. Walking out of the room afterwards, there was a momentary thought ‘I might get clubbed from behind here’. This wasn’t Munster anymore. Here I had earned no credits. But if you want to come over here and try to win something, you have to stay true to what you believe in.
There’s a really strong dynamic between Messrs Travers, Labit and myself and that is crucial. I don’t agree with everything they say and they don’t share all my views. If you think you’ve a better or different way of doing things, there’s a time and a place for that discussion.
Dealing with players is slightly different; if you disagree strongly with something that has happened already, it needs to be pointed out. If a player, for instance, is ambling on the pitch, you’ve got to stop the VR, highlight that and stress that this is not acceptable.
The players need to realise that I’m here to be a coach and the best I can be every day.
