To beat New Zealand, mused Philippe Saint-André this week, “we have to play the French way”. It is an often used term but what does it mean today? Revolution, as in a report this week from a French journalist not covering the World Cup, which claimed that the players had mutinied against the head coach and taken over the ship before it sank? Flair, as in footage coloured mostly in black and white?
“I do not know if there is a French way,” said the flanker Yannick Nyanga. “If there is, it is not always good. All I know is that there is nothing that cannot be done.” Perhaps that is the French way, making the possible look impossible and causing shock by bringing it off, the masters of disguise.
Thierry Dusautoir, the captain, speaking on the eve of the quarter-final against New Zealand, spent most of his time saying that the players backed the head coach, rather than wanting him sacked. Like all the France players shoved out to speak this week he said that history has no significance this weekend. But it is in the past that France’s future lies and not just because the 61-year-old Guy Novès will take over from Saint-André on 1 November.
France’s record under Saint-André has been poor. They have failed to finish in the top half of the Six Nations in the last four years, during which time they have not beaten Wales or Ireland, and while comparisons are being made with 2007, when Les Bleus defeated the All Blacks in the quarter-final at the Millennium Stadium, they were then the Six Nations champions and had won the title in three of the four years since the previous World Cup.
A more pertinent reference is 1999 when France defeated New Zealand in the semi-final. They had finished bottom of the Six Nations that year and lost to Tonga on a summer tour that finished with a 54-7 defeat against the All Blacks in Wellington. They had beaten Namibia, Canada, Fiji and Argentina on their way to the last four, no more convincing than they have been this tournament, but after trailing 24-10 to the All Blacks early in the second half at Twickenham, scored 33 unanswered points in a crazy 28 minutes to send the favourites on the next flight home.
That was the French way then, the capacity to destructure a game in a sidestep, but it has rarely been glimpsed since. Japan’s departing coach, Eddie Jones, this week bemoaned what he saw as a tendency of national coaches to copy New Zealand but it is England whom France have looked to this century, looking to lay foundations and strip the inside of emotion, not the French way.
There is still emotion off the field, contained in the suggestion that Saint-André would be riding to the Millennium Stadium in a tumbril following his players on the team bus, and a French media conference gets more animated than most, but unless Les Bleus capture the emotional intensity that has fuelled sides such as Ireland, Australia and Wales this tournament, something many of the tier two nations displayed, they will surely slip to their ninth consecutive defeat by the All Blacks.
“One thing we are, and have been since the start of the World Cup, is united as a group of players and staff,” said Dusautoir, replying in the affirmative when asked whether he had total confidence in Saint-André. “I do not know where the story about a players’ uprising came from; you will need to ask the person who wrote the article. We are one and all we are interested in is getting through to the next round. We know we will be up against one of the best teams in the world and we have to be ready.”
Dusautoir was being dutiful as Saint-André’s record’s hardly inspires any sort of confidence, never mind total confidence, 20 victories in 45 Tests and a drop in the world rankings from third to seventh, but there is an acceptance in France that the way the game is organised in the country, where the Top 14 is pre-eminent, forces the head coach to row against the current. The appointment of Novès seems an attempt to reconnect with the past and exhume the French way, even if, as with Gareth Jenkins and Wales in 2006, the fear is that the right appointment is being made at the wrong time.
One French journalist, smiling wryly before Dusautoir arrived, pointed out that French revolution stories tended to be written before the start of the knockout stage. Was it the chaos theory, an attempt to disarm opponents by making them think they would be facing a rabble?
New Zealand will not be fooled and not just because of what happened in Cardiff eight years ago. They have lost three matches in the past four World Cups, two to France. They have been single-minded since touching down at Heathrow last month, talking about themselves as contenders rather than holders, one of 20 rather than the special ones, humility not hubris.
“France have instinctive rugby players and when their backs are against the wall, they let loose,” said the New Zealand head coach, Steve Hansen, who was part of the management team in 2007 and again four years later when the All Blacks defeated France in the final.
“They have Wesley Fofana: give him too much room and he will skin you. All their players have the ability to turn nothing into something.” They also have Brice Dulin on the wing who, having failed to contend with Anthony Watson at Twickenham in August, will have to tackle the equally nimble feet of Nehe Milner-Skudder.
It is likely to be the last time two of the leading players in the professional era meet on the field, Dusautoir and Richie McCaw, captains and flankers both. Dusautoir appeared to carry France single-handed at times during the last World Cup, the calm amid the craziness, and where there is his will there may be a French way through.
