GUBU in Paris: How things could get ugly for Saint-Andre
Nicolas Mas walked out of a press conference in Paris after a journalist suggested the French players were trying to lose games. I’d have walked too.
There’s a debate whether France would have been better losing to Scotland, facilitating a clean-house job. Certainly this cascade of criticism might have been easier to swallow had the French not nicked the points in Murrayfield. The players know they didn’t perform. They’re not the arrogant ones in this ferocious onslaught — it’s the journos and the ex-players who are on their high horses,. It’s all been rather ugly. Suddenly every hurler on the ditch is an expert, but I haven’t read any positive solutions proffered in Rugbyrama or L’Equipe this week.
And here’s the rub: the French are still hanging in there. And one bald stat jumps out at me — they have the same number of points (six) as Ireland with a home game to come. As badly as they’re playing, they are getting results. We always go back as players to the ‘winning is a habit’ maxim. The French are being typically hot and cold, but they’re getting results. And, as I know, sport changes very quickly. Saint-Andre is under pressure but nothing that a convincing win and performance tomorrow won’t brush under the carpet.
People here are throwing around punchlines like ‘tradition’ and ‘structure’. But what is traditional French rugby? If it was throwing the ball around, it would be inconsistent by nature, no? The last World Cup summed them up — hammered by the All Blacks in the pool stages, shocked by Tonga, but with a different referee, they would have won the World Cup final against New Zealand. How do you explain that?
At the moment, there is no swagger and the pillars of French rugby — the scrum and lineout — seem to be crumbling. There is plenty of structure in the French game, but they base their structure on winning the duels or avancer, i.e. getting over the gain line. However, there wouldn’t be the detail that exists in Camp Schdmit at the moment.
They bank on individual players identifying weak shoulders to enable a softer gain line. The big difference between Irish and French rugby is that French players do not want to fall to the ground, while Ireland work on dominating the ruck — it’s the one crucial difference.
“Restez debout” is what they say, “Stay up”. Every time you try and stick the hip or an arse into a fella and get the hands free and get the ball played out of contact. While, with Ireland, it’s about clearing out the ruck or clearing the ruck before there is a ruck. This has been going on for years. I can still remember Axel’s [Anthony Foley] words ringing in my ears, “make them ruck, make them ruck”.
But in the Stade de France with a possible championship to be presented to the visitors, believe me — you are going to see a ferocious reaction from the French players. Their whole philosophy and character as rugby players — and their manliness — is being questioned daily.
I can sense it from the players here at Racing — that fear (no bad thing, by the way) of ‘if we don’t get our act together here, Ireland could put 40 points on us’. This time they really respect Ireland.
Do they have the players through the spine of the team to provoke the necessary reaction to beat Ireland? Remember a lot of these players are from Toulouse, who know how to win better than any other set of club players in this country. But individually, man for man, Ireland are stronger in the key areas.
I qualify for understatement of the day by saying the first 10 minutes will be critical, but it’s fact. The French have gone as suggested — Machenaud, Tales, Bastareaud, Fickou. That’s a nice-looking combination and Medart, Huget and Dulin are an exceptional back three. Huget will vie for player of the tournament (if France win) with England’s Mike Brown.
But there is a different vibe about Ireland in 2014, more so with each passing game.
You can’t underestimate the bench producing 20 points against the Italians. What that does for the morale is huge — there wasn’t 15 fellas bouncing into training last week, there were 23. And that motivates the guys outside the match-day group too. They’d have been going hard on the Monday morning.
Rob Kearney has matured into a leader on the Irish team. Reading his comments this week, in 2009 he thought of himself as a passenger in the Millennium Stadium, but it’s great to see him now attacking the week. That’s the sound of a confident player.
His brother Dave has also done very well. The fact that Schmidt is so keen on the ruck, he’d have been thrilled with one Kearney moment in the second half against the Italians that was either going to be a penalty to Italy or a try for Ireland. The ferocity of Kearney’s clean-out was really impressive as he kept the whole move alive.
It’s continuing frustration for Simon Zebo, but Fergus McFadden looked really hungry in the Italy game when he came on. This is a guy who’s benching 160kg as a back, very few backs in the world can do that. He’s as powerful and nuggety as you could come across, and he fits nicely into the Schmidt ‘workrate, present-yourself-for-an-opportunity, work, work, work’ mould.
And as we’ve written here before, he’s a Test player, and possession is nine-10ths of the law. You’ve got to be doing 30% more than the incumbent to get in. Zebo, stay fresh for Toulouse, my good man!
Don’t take for granted either the advantage Jonny Sexton has with his knowledge of the players he’ll face.
Seeing is believing, he is training with and playing against these lads week in week out for eight months and he knows their ability.
But that’s a two-sided coin. The French players have seen a lot more of Sexton — and he’ll get the type of pressure England put on Rhys Priestland, not the type Jonny had against Italy. The extra second in Test rugby makes all the difference.
Give credit to England, at the moment, defensively they are the best in the world. Since the France game, Andy Farrell has really locked it down, but the Six Nations title is Ireland’s to pass up. England don’t have the attacking capacity to rack up a big score in Rome, even if Manu Tuilagi will be a big addition for them.
Italy made a record number of tackles in Dublin, over 220, and I expect Ireland to keep the ball in play as much as possible tomorrow evening because they feel they are fitter than France and they’ll make Les Bleus ruck.
If I have a concern it’s that on occasions we play too much rugby. Perhaps we can mix our game a little bit more — there is nothing more rewarding for a pack than seeing a ball dribble into the corner. France will hit harder than Italy and you don’t need to be playing too much ball in your own half.
There were instances in the Italy game, even in the opening skirmishes, where Ireland were in an unseemly rush to get the ball high and wide.
Remember, if Ireland go 10-0 up in Paris, the crowd will turn quickly on France.
Nothing then but turmoil.
