French must be creative to win, says Malzieu

FRENCH ace Julien Malzieu says France must “be creative” against Ireland today in Croke Park.

The big Clermont-Auvergne attacker is delighted to have made the first XV, particularly as he felt his club form had let him down earlier in the season; he was delighted to make the squad, let alone nail down a starting place.

“Being selected for the squad was a huge pleasure but I wasn’t thinking about being picked to play against Ireland. As long as one is in the squad, one knows that anything is possible.

“To be selected is a source of huge pride to me and now my main objective is to have a good game.

“In my last club games, against Montpelier and against Montauban in the Heineken Cup, I didn’t find the going that good, I didn’t feel that great — I was going through a bit of a bad patch and then I was watching the great performances of Aurélien Rougerie and the Toulouse players.

“Because of that I didn’t think I had a chance of figuring in the national squad for the first match.”

Malzieu has a preference for the left wing but as the cliche goes, he’s just happy to get a jersey.

“I’ll be playing on the left wing — that’s the side I prefer, even though it wouldn’t cause me too much grief to play on the right. But on the left wing I have my habits and I feel good there.”

Malzieu acknowledges that much is expected of the French back three, the “trident”, in today’s game.

“Clément Poitrenaud is in very good form, you can see that from the big games he’s played with Toulouse this year. We’ll have to help him with returning kicks, but all three of us like to play deep and to have space in front of us — that corresponds with the philosophy of the French team.

“Now, having said that, it’ll be up to us to work out which balls we can exploit; I think Clément (Poitrenaud) has enough experience to make good decisions in that regard.”

With Ronan O’Gara at out-half for Ireland, the French backs are expecting an aerial bombardment.

“Ronan O’Gara makes good use of his kicking game and it’s up to us to organise receiving those kicks in good positions.

“We’ll be waiting at the start of the game for those kicks, and it’s up to us to create something, not to simply return those kicks; otherwise the Irish will feel they’re able to stop us.”

Malzieu is regarded as the strong man in the French back three, but he feels his colleagues at wing and full-back are up to any physical challenge.

“I’m the biggest and maybe the heaviest,” he says with a laugh.

“Our styles of play are different. Clément and Maxime probably favour evasion and technique, while I rely a little more on my physique to get past opponents.”