Bludgeon first, flair later for new French supremo Noves
The 62-year-old architect of four Heineken Cups for Toulouse has been charged with designing a French revival after a World Cup quarter-final hammering by New Zealand last October and a miserable Six Nations record under his predecessor as national head coach Philippe Saint-Andre presided over three fourth places and the previously unthinkable, a wooden spoon in 2013.
In Noves's first game, against Italy, after just two weeks of training together with his squad, it appeared that winning was all that mattered and that proved more demanding they anyone anticipated as France huffed and puffed to a 23-21 victory, down as much to Italy captain Sergio Parisse's last minute drop goal miss as it was to a monster Jules Plisson penalty just before it.
An extra week on the training field, though, had France going back to basics, concentrating on set-piece and building a watertight defence rather than addressing some obvious issues of how Les Bleus actually go about scoring points.
Defensively, France were outstanding, missing only five tackles and snuffing out any hint of Irish danger in attack as they absorbed wave after wave of first-half pressure.
“We couldn't play our game and were trying to endure through Ireland's phases,” Noves said. “I told the boys, half jokingly, that in a way they had put themselves in a perfect situation by abandoning possession for 30 minutes, since we wanted to work on our defence. They probably put too much pressure on themselves, whereas it was just a rugby game. You can win or lose, no one is going to die. If you want to compete, you need to let loose. This team will win games, lose others, but you can't give possession back to your opponent.”
There was little evidence on display Saturday afternoon that France can do anything with that possession other than bludgeon teams at the scrum but there are clearly some very talented and athletic backs who can do damage with ball in hand. Noves did not see too much of that, instead watching his inexperienced half-backs Sebastien Bezy and Plisson fail to seize the initiative against Ireland.
Instead it was the French scrum that did all the damage, at least once second-string props Jonathan Poirot and Uini Atonio had made way for frontline brawlers Eddy Ben Arous and Rabah Slimani. Their borderline legal scrummaging caused Ireland no end of problems and papered over the cracks of a team that lacked creativity in attack.
Indeed it needed a series of scrums to grind Ireland down and pave the way for another replacement, more seasoned and canny than the player that started in front of him, to finally unlock the visiting defence. He was Maxime Machenaud, on for the ineffective rookie Bezy and a scrum-half capable of executing the openings his pack had delivered for him on a plate. It was Machenaud who peeled away from the fourth in a series of scrums under the Irish posts to lure Conor Murray away from his station and draw a shooter out of defence in Robbie Henshaw. Henshaw, excellent for all but this game-changing action, missed his man and Medard was in like a flash to the delight of the French supporters.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt may have begrudged them their victory and the means by which it was achieved but he can see the potential for Noves's collection of players if they get it together as a team.
“I think they’ve got some really good individuals, Schmidt said. “They really won the game on the back of their scrum. The risk for them is that if that’s more closely looked at (by referees), that might not deliver the result the next time.
“At the same time I remember at one stage we turned the ball over in their 22 when they were attacking and they linked up very, very quickly and Vakatawa almost got away and shot down the other end. They just have the potential to score at almost every moment, and that’s always a danger, particularly when they have that across the park, it's not just one player.”
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