by Who are you and what have you done with the boys in Bleu? A renewed France that put an end to the traditional Gallic clichés; to dazzle France; the France that gave fans the chance to dream the ear and the bold with a ball in hand.
After losing at home at Camp More while chasing Ireland, France were given the benefit of the doubt. It was their first game without talisman Antoine Dupont; the first of them with the new coaches of the attack and the line out, Patrick Arlettaz and Laurent Sempéré respectively; and France had to deal with the fallout from a red card in the first half, for Paul Willemse, for two clumsy clatterings.
Teething problems were expected in round one and the French rugby community agreed with the stipulation that Murrayfield had a back alley in round two. As for the result, yes. But in terms of France’s overall performance, there was little to write home about, apart from the odd moment of individual excellence and a vague goal-line position at the death – and even that could have had very different consequences. Whisper it quietly, but France was even starting to look like the wreck that got Fabien Galthié at the end of 2019.
Missing Dupont and Romain Ntamack at half-back, France look listless, listless and lifeless. The blame can easily be laid at the door of the two replacement half-backs, Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert, too. Both have been at the heart of Bordeaux-Begles this season – the same side currently third in the Top 14 who dispatched Saracens 55-15 in January – and the progression and continuity from club to country has been seen as a real thing. a feather in France’s cap during Dupont’s break.
France loves to kick and Lucu has a starting gun, surpassing the scrum’s stats by half a length and being suspended respectively after the first round. Jalibert, meanwhile, continued to impress in French blue; so much so that Ntamack’s absence was barely felt at the World Cup. There has always been a persistent view across the Channel, too, that Jalibert is pound for pound the half better kite than Ntamack, but that the latter’s partnership with Dupont is with Toulouse, and Galthié wants to pick a half and stick with them. , Jalibert kept glued to the bench.
It would be disingenuous to attribute France’s indifference to its half-backs. The pair may not have enjoyed their most authoritative outing against Scotland but Galthié has far more fundamental issues to resolve – starting in two areas that Dupont and Ntamack could hardly improve: the break down and the line out.
Line-out cases
Grim reading – and viewing – for Sempéré who took over from Karim Ghezal after the World Cup, with the latter moving into a head coaching role at Stade Français. The line went out against the Irish in Marseille but once again, the caveat was that France had one of their main players, Willemse, off the field.
On Saturday at Murrayfield, there was no excuse. Cameron Woki, Willemse’s representative in the starting XV, is one of the most athletic locks in world rugby and an imposing forward; Paul Gabrillagues, Woki’s partner in the second tier, is renowned for his set-piece stuffiness and the French full-back of Alldritt, Charles Ollivon and François Cros is a rarity in professional rugby. Jump the three.
There is no excuse. Peato Mauvaka has been handed the captain’s jersey ahead of Julien Marchand as he continues to be an understudy to club (Toulouse) and country, but it may be time for Galthié to return to typing. Mauvaka is a great Hooker, but so is Marchand, and the latter is certainly better at the nuts and bolts of rugby than Mauvaka, who should be bursting off the bench in the final 30 minutes. The balance of the French occupier is off; and so also his line-out with him. After a success rate of 91 percent in 2022 and 88 percent in 2023, it is currently operating at 79 percent efficiency according to Stats Perform. And one of those 79 percent, even though Woki technically won in the air on Saturday, ended up being owned by Scotland.
read breakdown
Under Galthié, France developed into one of the best exporters of breakdowns in the world. Julien Marchand established in the oucher, Grégory Alldritt at No. 8 and Jonathan Danty in the middle – as well as others – themselves as three of the best champions in the world. But on the other side of the ball, France – also driven by defense coach Shaun Edwards – were accurate and aggressive clearing the defenders in the attack, which provided the quick ball for Dupont and his collaboration.
Among traditional ‘tier one’ nations in 2022, France had the second best attacking ruck efficiency, according to data compiled by Oval. Only Ireland, 0.2 percentage points, were ahead of Les Bleus in terms of keeping hold of their own ball at the ruck. That happened in a year in which France won the Grand Slam and they beat the world champions in South Africa.
Since then, however, there has been a gradual decline. It started in 2023 – a year in which they crashed out of the World Cup at home at the quarter-final stage after defeating the same Springboks – but after two rounds of the 2024 Six Nations, France have dropped from second place to 10th in terms of taking care of their own ball in attack. That leaves only Italy below them and even Australia above them.
High-ball maladritness
This may seem small, but it had major consequences for France. South Africa, in that World Cup quarter-final win, identified tremors in the French wings, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, as an area of potential exploitation and the latter’s insecurity under the high ball certainly did nothing to help with the French cause in the game. loss.
Thomas Ramos is usually flawless in this regard as a full-back but his wings remain susceptible. Scotland focused on Penaud on Murrayfield and forced errors and Bielle-Biarrey, the match-winner, looked unconvinced. Jalibert, too, dropped a dolly in the back field.
Before Ramos established himself as a regular in the French starting XV in 2023, Melvyn Jaminet held the No 15 jersey. At that point, France managed to recover 73 per cent of defensive high balls. In 2023, when Ramos was installed in the backfield, it rose to 93 percent. After two rounds of this year’s Six Nations, however, it has fallen to its worst point in two years, at 71 per cent, according to Stats Perform. The best teams are tackling their entrepreneurship from the air and it could continue to dazzle them.
Lack of attacking shape
France didn’t kick as much as we expected against Ireland – just 19 times – and then they tipped the balance the other way against Scotland, kicking 39 times, perhaps at compensation too much for their predicament with the starter a week before.
With the kicking errors corrected, the speed of the attacking ruck, when the ball was won, was still good – 62 per cent of his rucks so far in the 2024 Six Nations have lasted less than three seconds, an improvement of two per cent on their winning the Grand Slam in 2022.
Generating a fastball is one thing; be ready for it and know what to do with it. That’s where Arlettaz has a job on his hands. France’s attack against Ireland didn’t look smooth or fluent yet against Scotland it looked like Les Bleus were all singing from different hymn sheets.
Below, the ball has just been recovered by France after Lucu’s slightly mistimed box kick. The recycling is fast, but the reaction is not. Mauvaka, the usurper, is alone on the first receiver, crouching on the other side; four forwards are loitering on the blindside and, as the action progresses – detailed in the paragraphs below – Mauvaka passes Ramos who slips laterally before coming to Jalibert who does well to clear under pressure enormous. France were shoveling the proverbial ball and the midfielder had no choice but to hope that his clearance kick, which was hit 15 meters behind the gain line, avoided the Scottish defenders who were eagerly lining up with him. This was basically off the ball turnover, too – the kind of situations in which France usually thrives.
In many ways, a game against Italy, France’s next game in Lille, is the perfect match to settle a much-maligned blue shirt. In other cases, however, the Azzurri will have watched Saturday’s game at Murrayfield and their chances are trying. It’s been a big two weeks for Galthié and his assistants.
