Who are you and what have you done with the boys in Bleu? A rejuvenated France that banished the traditional Gallic clichés; the France that dazzled; the France where fans could dream of bold and daring people with ball in hand.
After an opening round home loss to Grand Slam chasers Ireland, France was given the benefit of the doubt. It was their first match without talisman Antoine Dupont; their first with new coaches of both attack and lineout, Patrick Arlettaz and Laurent Sempéré respectively; and France had to deal with the consequences of a first-half red card from Paul Willemse for two clumsy clatters.
Teething problems were expected in the first round and the French rugby public agreed on the condition that there would be a backlash at Murrayfield in the second round. As for the result, there was. But in terms of France’s all-round performance, there was little to write home about, apart from the odd moment of individual excellence and a persistent goal-line effort at the death – and even that could have had very different consequences. Whisper it softly, but France was even starting to resemble the scum that Fabien Galthié inherited at the end of 2019.
With Dupont and Romain Ntamack missing at center back, France look rudderless, listless and lifeless. It is also easy to blame the two halfback replacements, Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert. The pair have been the beating heart of Bordeaux-Begles this season – the same side currently third in the Top 14 who defeated Saracens 55-15 in January – and that progression and continuity from club to country was seen as real progress. feather in France’s cap during Dupont’s break.
France love to kick and Lucu has a siege rifle and tops the scrumhalf stats for both length and hangtime after the first round. Jalibert, meanwhile, has always impressed in the blue of France; so much so that Ntamack’s absence was barely felt at the World Cup. There has also always been a feeling across the Channel that Jalibert is pound for pound a better fly-half than Ntamack, but that the latter’s partnership with Dupont and Toulouse, and Galthié’s desire to select a fly-half and staying with them kept Jalibert glued to the couch.
It would be unfair to pin France’s aimlessness on their half-backs. The pair may not have enjoyed their most authoritative performance against Scotland, but there are far more fundamental problems that Galthié needs to solve – starting in two areas that Dupont and Ntamack could hardly improve on: the breakdown and the lineout.
Disasters at line-out
Grim reading – and viewing experience – for Sempéré, who took over from Karim Ghezal after the World Cup, with the latter given the role of head coach at Stade Français. The lineout capitulated against the Irish in Marseille, but once again the caveat was that France had one of their key jumpers, Willemse, taken off the field.
There was no excuse on Saturday at Murrayfield. Cameron Woki, Willemse’s replacement in the starting XV, is one of the most athletic players in world rugby and an imperious lineout forward; Paul Gabrillagues, Woki’s second-row partner, is known for his eagerness to learn and the French back row of Alldritt, Charles Olivon and François Cros is a rarity in professional rugby. All three jump.
There is no excuse. Peato Mauvaka has been given the hooker’s jersey ahead of Julien Marchand, who was always the latter’s understudy at both club (Toulouse) and country, but it could be time for Galthié to return to type. Mauvaka is a wonderful hooker, but so is Marchand, and the latter certainly excels more at rugby than Mauvaka, who should explode off the bench in the final 30 minutes. The whore balance in France has been disturbed; and so is their line-out with it. After a success rate of 91 percent in 2022 and 88 percent in 2023, it is currently running at an efficiency of 79 percent, according to Stats Perform. And one of those 79 percent, although technically won by Woki in the air on Saturday, ended up as Scotland’s possession.
Bad luck
Under Galthié, France developed into one of the best exponents of the crisis in the world. Julien Marchand at hooker, Grégory Alldritt at number 8 and Jonathan Danty in the middle – and others – have established themselves as three of the best jackallers in the world. But on the other side of the ball, France – something also driven by defense coach Shaun Edwards – were accurate and aggressive in clearing defenders in attack, giving Dupont and co the fast ball to thrive.
Of the traditional ‘tier 1’ nations, France had the second-best attacking ruck efficiency in 2022, according to data collected by Oval. Only Ireland were ahead of Les Bleus by 0.2 percentage points in retaining their own ball at the ruck. That was in a year when France won a Grand Slam and defeated eventual world champions South Africa.
However, since then there has been a gradual decline. It started in 2023 – a year in which they crashed out of a home World Cup at the quarter-finals after defeat to the same Springboks – but after two rounds of the 2024 Six Nations, France have fallen from second to 10th in terms of being in attack for take care of their own ball. That leaves only Italy below them and even Australia above them.
High-ball maladroitness
This may seem small, but it has had major consequences for France. South Africa, in that World Cup quarter-final victory, identified France’s shaky wings, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, as an area of potential exploitation, and certainly the latter’s uncertainty under the high ball helped France’s cause certainly not in the future. loss.
Thomas Ramos is usually flawless in this regard as a wing-back, but his wings remain sensitive. Scotland set up Penaud at Murrayfield and forced mistakes, while Bielle-Biarrey, the match winner, never looked confident. Jalibert also dropped a dolly in the backfield.
Before Ramos became a regular in the French starting XV in 2023, Melvyn Jaminet occupied the number 15 jersey. At that point, France’s success in recovering defensive high balls was 73 percent. In 2023, with Ramos installed in the backfield, this increased to 93 percent. However, after two rounds of this year’s Six Nations, it has fallen to its worst point in the past two years at 71 per cent, according to Stats Perform. The better teams are aware of their fallibility in the air and this could continue to harm them.
Lack of attacking form
France didn’t kick nearly as hard as we expected against Ireland – only 19 times – and then tipped the balance the other way against Scotland, kicking 39 times, perhaps overcompensating for the lack of boots from a week earlier.
With the kicking errors corrected, the speed of the attacking ruck when the ball was won was still good – 62 percent of their rucks so far in the 2024 Six Nations have taken less than three seconds, which is a improvement of two percent compared to their Grand Slam triumph in 2022.
Generating a fastball is one thing; being ready for it and knowing what to do with it is another. That’s where Arlettaz has a job. France’s attack never looked smooth or flowing against Ireland and against Scotland it still looked like Les Bleus were all singing different hymn sheets.
Below, France have just recovered the ball after a slightly mishit Lucu box kick. The recycling is fast, but the reaction to it is not. Mauvaka, the hooker, is alone with the first receiver and scrambles sideways; There are four attackers loitering on the blind side and as the action progresses – detailed in the grabs below – Mauvaka feeds Ramos who slides laterally before leaping to Jalibert, who does well to break free under immense pressure. France pulled the proverbial punch and the fly-half had no choice but to hope that his free-kick, which he struck 15 yards behind the gain line, would elude the Scotland defenders who had eagerly lined him up. This was also outside of what was essentially a turnover ball – the kind of scenario in which France usually thrive.
In many ways, a match against Italy, France’s next opponent in Lille, is the perfect match to smooth out the now very creased blue shirt. In other countries, however, the Azzurri will have watched Saturday’s match at Murrayfield and assessed their chances. It’s been a big two weeks for Galthié and his assistants.