Michalak unfazed as Irish plan shutdown
Michalak only turned 21 on October 16 last and obviously is very much on the youthful side. Acknowledging this point, French coach Bernard Laporte said in Sydney on Tuesday that Michalak would be shielded from the media this week Munster supporters with half decent memories will have a good idea why!
It was Michalak who turned last May's Heineken European Cup semi-final in Toulouse's favour, when he moved from scrum-half to out-half in the second half and since then he has gone to displace the experienced and formidable Gerard Merceron as his country's top number 10.
There is no doubt that Michalak has the potential to become one of the game's great out-halves. Already, he is being compared to Jonny Wilkinson, Carlos Spencer and Stephen Larkham. He is the World Cup's highest points scorer with 78 from three matches, 18 more than his nearest rival, Chris Patterson of Scotland, after four. He doesn't appear to be fazed in the slightest by all the fuss.
"I'm good and relaxed ahead of Sunday", he said through an interpreter at his team's hotel in Bondi Beach near Sydney. "But I wish people wouldn't keep talking about me in the same breath as Wilkinson or any of the others. They've been around for ages, they've got many matches behind them and hopefully one day I will be mentioned when the great number tens are talked about. But just not yet."
That he speaks a lot of common sense is clear. But his more experienced teammates believe he is already up there with the best.
Winger Christophe Dominici eulogised: "Ireland will be tough but at the age of 21, Freddie is the best I've seen. He's got great ability to break the line, great passing, good hands, brave in defence and he's working on his kicking."
The Irish camp is fully aware of the threat posed by Michalak. At yesterday's press conference in Melbourne, Ireland's assistant coach Declan Kidney, understandably, seemed taken aback by a suggestion that he had played poorly in the Heineken Cup against Irish opposition.
"I've never seen a bad French out-half," Kidney commented. "He's had a very good World Cup. France are scoring an awful lot of points and that wouldn't be happening if their number 10. was anyway substandard. He's like all players, he matures and grows. I never saw him as a weakness. He has a very rounded game."
Nevertheless, he is a young man performing in the pivotal position so I asked Eddie O'Sullivan if Michalak might be targeted by the Irish.
"I think targeting is the wrong word because there's an element in it that you are going to do something to him, which is nonsense," the coach reasoned. "I prefer to say we would take account of the style of game he plays. He goes to the line a lot, he tests the defenders around him, and he has the capacity if he is shut down to put other people into gaps which is very dangerous for us.
"If you can create line breaks in those channels, it's a very good go forward. And Michalak is world-class at that so when you say targeting, I would say we will pay a lot of attention to defending those areas and trying to shut down his options," said O'Sullivan.
O'Sullivan, Kidney and the rest may protest as much as they like but they know full well that if they can reduce the effectiveness of the kid and the veteran at half-back whereas Michalak is 21, his partner Fabien Galthie is 34 and may be playing his last game of rugby they will have gone a long way towards winning that coveted place in the semi-finals.
Frederic has had his low as well as his high moments playing against Irish opposition and is ready for what he knows will be a fierce contest.
"Having seen Ireland play so well gives us an extra edge in training", he declared. "They are on top of their game and it will be a tough match. At the moment, I'm not feeling any more pressure at all because we're not playing until Sunday."
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