Loss of Jauzion significant blow to French, says O’Driscoll

IRISH captain Brian O’Driscoll isn’t weeping any tears at the absence of France’s Yannick Jauzion for Saturday’s Six Nations clash at the Stade de France.

O’Driscoll has been rated one of the best if not the best centre in the world almost from the day six years ago when he scored a hat-trick of tries against the French at the same venue. However, Jauzion has been creeping ever closer in the rankings and all of France is disappointed that a head-to-head between the talented pair on Saturday will not now be possible as the French star is out with a broken toe. It wouldn’t normally be a blow to the French to lose one midfield back but that most certainly was the case at Murrayfield on Sunday when their midfield crumbled badly and Jauzion’s replacement Ludovic Valbon had a pretty miserable afternoon.

Said O’Driscoll: “When France lose a world-class player like Yannick, it’s always a positive for the opposition.

“He’s been the man to pull the strings for them over the past few years and has shown this season that he is possibly the best back in the world. He will be a huge loss. However, they have huge strength in depth and have brought Damien Traille back in. I know he hasn’t played much rugby this year but we know his capabilities and if he has a good day, you know how good it can be.

“They did make a huge amount of errors against Scotland and never played themselves into the game. I know French sides have often been accused of travelling badly but they’re always a different side when you meet them in Paris. There’s pressure on their team this week, there’s pressure on Bernard Laporte and you have a tendency to improve when that’s the case. I’ve been in that situation myself.”

It is all too easy to recall the many awful hidings Ireland have suffered against the French through the late 1980s and most of the ’90s, so O’Driscoll’s record of three wins from five games against them is quite remarkable. Furthermore, he followed up the famous hat-trick of tries in Paris in 2000 with another in ’01, two in ’04 and a seventh at Lansdowne Road last season. Hopefully, that will again be the case on Saturday although the failure of the midfield to make a single line break against Italy’s blitz defence doesn’t augur well for Paris.

O’Driscoll insists he is still finding it difficult to find the reasons for last week’s poor display although he hardly seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the public’s deep disappointment when he snapped: “I’d hate to see the reaction had we lost that game. I suppose you take it as a compliment that Irish rugby is at such a point now that it’s not good enough winning against the likes of the Italians, to under-perform and hope to get away with it in the public perception. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I don’t know. People lose sight of the fact that we still won a tough game and I sincerely hope that the Italians show other sides in the competition the strength they showed against us.

“If they play like that for the rest of the tournament, they’ll push some teams very, very close.”

He claims “the mood in the camp was very good, everybody was upbeat about it but I guess the performance could be put down to the tournament starter, a little bit of nervousness and the fact that the Italians played well and didn’t allow us to play.”