So far this year’s Six Nations has been a showcase for the benefits of change — two new coaches, each with shiny records saying two wins from two. Nobody is getting too excited by Eddie Jones’s England yet, but what of Guy Novès’s France? At least they have beaten the champions, Ireland. But now they face Wales on a Friday night in Cardiff, and there are problems.
1 The pulling hither and thither of their players
That Friday night kick-off, away, may yet take its toll. Ireland suffered with a six-day turnaround for their trip to Paris, but at least they’d all remained in camp together. France are going to have to play Wales on Friday with most of their squad having turned out for their clubs last weekend. For their captain, Guilhem Guirado, it’s a five-day turnaround. He played an hour for Toulon, away at Oyonnax, on Sunday. Seven of France’s 23 against Ireland started for their clubs last weekend, with a further five appearing from the bench. Two squad members, Teddy Thomas and Marvin O’Connor, were injured in so doing.
The weekend before the Italy game, Novès’s first in charge, during which he would introduce a host of inexperienced players to the rigours of the Six Nations, 17 of his squad of 23 were playing for their clubs. Sébastien Bézy and Paul Jedrasiak were preparing for their France debuts in such a way. Gaël Fickou, all 21 years of him, prepared by playing the full 80 for Toulouse. No wonder they are struggling to find themselves.
2 They are struggling to find themselves
It would be fair to say both France’s wins were of the scraped variety, but that’s about all that could be said of the similarities between the two. Against Italy, their set piece was shaky, but they won the game because of their ambition, even if it was a touch de trop from time to time. When it clicked they scored. Against Ireland (and the weather was foul), the game was won by the scrum — or at least the second-half incarnation of it.
But for 50 minutes, they’d looked a rabble of incoherence, just crying out for a steadying influence. Had Bézy looked ahead of him on his second cap he would have seen a melange of workmanlike foot soldiers, and behind him a line of talented youngsters more at home in the sunshine than the pouring rain. Until they brought on their scrummaging props (and Maxime Machenaud at scrum-half), it was very hard to see where they might turn for an authoritative presence.
3 Their authoritative presence is out for the tournament
Louis Picamoles played a key role in France’s first try of the tournament, looping round to take a return pass from Jedrasiak, the tyro he’d just fed. But he pulled his hamstring in the process. He limped off, and with him went France’s confidence. They looked a million dollars when they scored that first try through Virimi Vakatawa, another of France’s brilliant talents who could do with a team-mate of substance to lend them weight. Picamoles might have been that keystone, but he will play no further part in the Six Nations.
4 France’s scrum remains an unknown quantity
So dramatic was the change in outcome when they came on, it seems obvious that the props France finished the Ireland game with should be first choice from now on. Alas, Eddy Ben Arous has been lost to injury, but Rabah Slimani is surely now their starting tighthead. Whether France can make that set piece tell to such effect again remains to be seen. They were less convincing there (with Slimani in situ) against Italy, who then went on to struggle against England in Rome the following week, while England, in turn, had struggled against Scotland. And if France overcame Ireland’s scrum in the end we should not forget that Ireland were dominated there at home to Wales. France’s three remaining opponents will be sterner propositions in that department than the two they’ve faced.
5 Insofar as a style can be discerned, it requires high precision
It would be an exaggeration, then, to say that France have burst into this Six Nations, but there are signs of an attempt to rediscover what we like to think of as the “French way”, which was most recently espoused with any degree of success by the Toulouse team coached for so long by Novès himself. France have made more metres and more passes than anyone else in the opening two rounds of the Six Nations. If their ambition was swallowed up somewhat by the rain against Ireland, it found a degree of expression against Italy. And there is talent in that back division. Jonathan Danty looks like Mathieu Bastareaud with flair, Vakatawa is lethal, and Jules Plisson possesses a cool head for playmaking not always evident in France’s fly-halfs.
Meanwhile, at the back, Maxime Médard seems to have rediscovered the devil in his eye. The trouble is, the way Toulouse played in their glory years was the product of coherence, confidence and time spent together, little of which France have. The very success that Novès enjoyed at Toulouse has helped the French club game thrive, thus compromising his own regime as national coach. His best bet for Cardiff may be to whisper jouez in his players’ ears as they trot out into the cauldron.
