by The big wheel is still turning on Marseille’s Borély beach, day and night for all four seasons, €8 for two loops. It is 55m high and from the top you can see into the Stade Vélodrome a few hundred meters inland, where, on Thursday afternoon, France and Ireland were busy preparing to go around again themselves.
Three months and 19 days since the World Cup quarter-finals are here and many of the old posters advertising the matches are still up around town, but it’s already time for the cycle to start again and the opening game of the Six years this. Nations.
This time last year, France and Ireland were ranked first and second in the world and it was the game between them that decided the title. Twelve months on, they are behind South Africa in the rankings, and fourth-placed France, also trailing New Zealand. The positions are different at the moment. South Africa have the Webb Ellis Trophy and that’s all that matters, but that move shows the harsh truth that although neither of these teams played better than they did in the years leading up to the World Cup, they fell short when it counted in the knockout rounds.
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Friday night, therefore, offers the first glimpse of how they have dealt with that setback, the changes they have made to the way they want to play and, although neither side will admit it, they will also have a chance to expel part of the language. disappointment they must feel.
France spent eight years building towards the World Cup. “We will be scared for life, and that is part of our journey,” said their head coach Fabien Galthié, when he spoke last November. “We are all through a kind of introspection, first personally and then together.”
Ireland, too, is looking at what went wrong. Their head coach, Andy Farrell, says he started thinking about it the minute after the final whistle. “We are the last group of people to shy away from facing our performance and learning from it,” says Peter O’Mahony.
It came up in conversation over every cup of coffee he had for “the last few months”. No wonder he says he wants to put it all behind them, then. “We’re not trying to prove a point to ourselves about what happened. It’s not about getting things right, it’s about tomorrow night’s Test match.”
O’Mahony is captain, one of a handful of changes to the team. He is led by rookie winger Jack Crowley, 24, lock Joe McCarthy and winger Calvin Nash, but is otherwise very conventional and familiar. The most obvious difference is who they are missing. Ireland have won seven out of 11 games against France in the last ten years and Johnny Sexton has started all of the victories. He lost two games, both of which Ireland lost.
Never mind his leadership, nor his goalkeeper, Sexton was the whisper that made Ireland’s attack successful and no one will be sure if it will work as smoothly without him.
He is trusted by O’Mahony, who knows Crowley from way back. “I remember playing for Con and getting reports that it was the right thing, fast forward a few years and here we are,” he says.
“He’s learned a lot about Johnny, and the other boys, Joey Carberry and Ross Byrne. He’s an incredible guy for watching the game, learning the game, doing hours of analysis, hours of additions in the gym. He has a long way to go but he knows that better than anyone.”
France are missing their captain and talisman, Antoine Dupont, who has taken the rest of the Test season off to play rugby sevens ahead of the Olympics this summer, as well as their regular winger, Romain Ntamack, who is injured. But they have a pair of replacements ready in Matthieu Jalibert and Maxime Lucu, who play together for Bordeaux. Gregory Alldritt has become captain. Apart from that, the only surprise for their side is the selection of Yoram Moefana, who is usually a centre-forward, on the wing rather than the brilliant youngster Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
Related: The Breakdown | Depleted and Dupont-less, can France recover from World Cup heartache?
Bielle-Biarrey had a tough time handling the high ball in that game against the Springboks and is suspected to have been left on the bench, alongside slippery scrummer Nolann le Garrec and the big lock Posolo Tuilagi, who won a late call-up to replace Romain Taofifénua.
Tuilagi is the nephew of Manu Tuilagi. He joined the squad as a trainee two weeks ago after the federation cleared his eligibility and has a shot straight into the game at 23. He’s 19, but you wouldn’t be able to guess given that he’s 6ft 4in in height and weight. the best part of 24st.
France is, as Galthié said, a young side, and still on the decline. They will also be refreshed by the prospect of playing in Marseille, away from the ghosts of the Stade de France, which, like Dupont, is being appropriated for the Olympics.
The fans in Paris can be a bit fickle, but there is nothing ambiguous about the crowd here. It will be a hot night and you can be sure that it will be a hell of a game between two teams with a point to prove.
