France reached their nadir at Twickenham two years ago. A record defeat by England prompted their experienced half-backs Camille Lopez and Morgan Parra to publicly question the way the side were coached, or not coached in their words. They were dropped for the next match and replaced by Romain Ntamack and Antoine Dupont, hope emerging from despair.
France were coached then by Jacques Brunel. He was hastily appointed after the national side’s messy divorce with Guy Novès. As a pal of the French Rugby Federation’s president, Bernard Laporte, he was only too happy to sign a pre-nup while his employers searched for a more suitable partner.
That turned out to be Fabien Galthié, who was dropped into Brunel’s management team for the 2019 World Cup. By the end of the tournament, the team bore more of his imprint than that of the nominal head coach, with Charles Ollivon and Grégory Alldritt installed in the back row, Bernard Le Roux at lock and Virimi Vakatawa and Gaël Fickou in midfield; not to forget Ntamack and Dupont.
The only two starters at Twickenham two years ago who were in the team that played Ireland in France’s most recent match in this year’s Six Nations were Damian Penaud and Fickou, who was on the wing that afternoon. That compares with six in the 2019 quarter-final defeat by Wales, a side that included Vakatawa and Ntamack, who missed the Dublin encounter through injury.
France were a shambles two years ago. They turned up at Twickenham to face a side renowned for their kicking without a recognised full-back and were duly exposed. England secured the try bonus point before half-time against a team that had won only seven Six Nations matches since the 2015 World Cup and just two away from Paris, against Italy and Scotland.
England, in contrast, were on their way up, even if they lost in Cardiff in the next round and missed out on the title. Eleven of their starting side two years ago took the field in Cardiff 12 days ago: two of the absentees were injured, Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes, while Maro Itoje missed the 2019 match. Only Chris Ashton and George Kruis are now out of contention, but Eddie Jones’s preference for a settled side is being questioned after two defeats this year.
“The bloke’s a genius. I never see him have a bad game and that’s why he’s one of the best players in the world, if not the best. It’s amazing to be playing with a captain who is as dominant as he is and who leads from the front in the way that he does.” The England hooker Jamie George was talking about Owen Farrell after the 44-8 victory over France but, two years on, players are having to defend a player whose place in the side, never mind his leadership, has become increasingly questioned. Jones is loyal to players who have served him, the England head coach needing more than one or two off-days to persuade him to contemplate whether there has been a paradigm shift.
One question is whether England are a side more in the image of Farrell, who made his Test debut in 2012, than Jones, who pitched up four years later. In tournaments Jones has used two fly-halves, Farrell and George Ford, regularly deploying the former at inside-centre. Marcus Smith and Jacob Umaga have been given a taste of life in the squad without coming near to selection, while Danny Cipriani was teased in the buildup to the World Cup before being omitted.
Cipriani’s one appearance under Jones came in the third Test against South Africa in 2018, when the series had been lost. His kick for Jonny May helped conjure victory but Farrell’s facial expressions at times during the match indicated he did not have confidence in the fly-half who had replaced someone with whom he went back a long way, Ford.
Jones never discusses the rugby reasons behind his decisions to leave out players. His one observation about Cipriani was that he did not think that the player would be content with a bit-part role in the squad; he was someone who either had to be first-choice or overlooked. If Cipriani struggled to integrate himself in the squad in South Africa, was that more down to him or his captain? Was he welcome?
Farrell has come to define England with his competitiveness, attention to detail, defensive organisation and ability to execute a gameplan, but as Jones anticipates a greater emphasis on more open, unstructured play leading up to the 2023 World Cup, he will have to consider whether he needs someone more instinctive at the helm.
It is not that England are now where France were two years ago, far from it, but the side that dismantled New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final has scarcely been seen since and the recurrent failure to react to events, highlighted by the failure to adapt to the way Pascal Gaüzère refereed the breakdown in Cardiff, is a weakness that will prevent them becoming, in Jones’s words, the greatest team the world has ever seen.
The word culture was used a lot by the previous England regime, and perhaps now is the time for another change. France used to alter their side for the sake of it and the result was wretched inconsistency, but the danger of making few voluntary changes is a feeling of comfort that turns into complacency, cancerous in a competitive environment.
Two years ago, France arrived at Twickenham with no discernible plan. All that could be said about them was that they never gave up. The considerable distance between the sides then has closed and, after winning in Cardiff last year for the first time in a decade and ending a 10-year drought in Dublin last month, France now have only Twickenham to topple. A reaction to the defeat in Wales will not be enough for England: they need to start using their heads.
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