Chabal: There will be less play from Ireland
France back-row forward Sebastien Chabal has thrown the first jibe at their opponents Ireland in the run-up to Sunday’s RBS 6 Nations trip to the Aviva Stadium.
Declan Kidney’s side kicked off their 2011 Six Nations campaign with a less-than-convincing 13-11 victory at the Stadio Flaminio five days ago, with champions France defeating Scotland 34-21 in Paris the same day.
Chabal said: "The match will be rough. There will be less play from our opponents. We knew that the Scottish produced a lot; the Irish are a bit less in this style."
However, he insists Les Bleus have taken no comfort from Ireland’s below-par display in Italy last weekend.
Chabal, named on the bench for this weekend’s clash by coach Marc Lievremont, is not reading too much into Ireland’s display in Rome and does not believe the French will be catching the Irish at a good time.
“It’s true that Ireland had a poor start to this tournament but I don’t think it’s the right time to be facing them,” he said.
“I would have preferred if they had been good in Italy.
“Knowing their temperament and their fighting spirit, I know that they will want to bounce back.
“We shouldn’t rest on what they did in Italy. They will want to show another side.
“But in any case we have to stop looking at our opponents too much.
“We have to obviously know what they offer to try to counter them but what’s most important is what we are capable of producing. We have to first work on our game.”
He continued: “We have to improve our movement, individual positioning in certain game sequences. We know what we have to do but we are not yet all in the right places.
“They have more of a direct game and hit into touch a lot. It’s up to us to produce the play because we want to. We’re going to stay on the same road as what we did against Scotland; that’s to say, impose our game and unsettle our opponents. We have the skill to do so.
“We have worked a lot on the line-out. Last year they took a third of our throws, without losing one of their balls. They are strong in this area. We have to be good there because that will enable us to release our attack.”
Chabal feels last weekend’s performance against the Scots has given France something to build on as they bounced back from their humiliating 59-16 defeat to Australia in November.
The 33-year-old Racing Metro player said: “It was encouraging. We were on the right track in the match even if we were nervous coming out of the dressing room at the Stade de France.
“We did what we needed to to reassure ourselves a little bit and to find our bearings again on the pitch. Everything wasn’t perfect but it was encouraging.
“Everyone is pointing their finger at the three tries we conceded but it’s normal to concede when you attack a lot and against a Scotland team who play rugby very well.
“What’s important is to score more than your opponents, which we managed to do.”
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