Chabal: Irish indiscipline let France off the hook

SEBASTIEN CHABAL believes Irish indiscipline was key to their defeat at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

The Racing Metro back and second row admitted the French made a lot of mistakes in Dublin, but were let off the hook by Ireland’s concession of needless penalties: “Ireland know each other well, they play good rugby and move the ball all around the pitch. But their discipline was quite bad in the ruck area. That is why they lost. They put us back in the game by giving us a lot of penalties in the tackle area and they must improve on this.”

Chabal warmed to his coach, Marc Lievremont’s theme by highlighting the frailty of the champions, who have also accounted for Scotland.

“We made too many mistakes against Ireland, we are not full of confidence and sometimes it’s quite difficult for us on the pitch,” he said. “We have three days’ rest now and we’ll join up on Thursday, giving us 10 days to prepare for England. We need a good game plan to beat them.”

With the scene now set for what promises to be the clash of the championship, between England and France in a fortnight, Chabal said: “When we started the competition, it was to win it. Now I believe the winner of the next round will win the Six Nations. So we will try to do our best and get a result in England.

“We watched England’s game against Italy. They played great rugby, they moved the ball and were strong. But Italy didn’t play well. For us the first thing is to be stronger with our forwards, because when they go backwards it will be more difficult for them to move the ball around the pitch.”

France coach Marc Lievremont fired the opening salvo in the phoney war as soon as Ireland has been disposed of at Lansdowne Road, adopting an unconvincing line in self-depreciation in the process.

“I’m already feeling something of a headache looking towards the England match because they are looking very sure of themselves,” said Lievremont.

“We need to appreciate our win against Ireland and realise that England are very much ahead of everyone else at the moment. They have a very physical team, they’re intense and accelerate a lot. It appears that the other five nations are developing at a much lower level. We know that it will be complicated and that we must resolve some issues, but we will progress in this aspect.”