“Each player is an actor in the project”, the coach of Les Bleuets delivers the keys to success before the final against Ireland

A game for history. Friday July 14 at 7 p.m. in Cape Town (South Africa), a national holiday in France, the France under-20 team will face Ireland in the final of the world championship. A trophy of which the Habs are the double title holders and which they could be the first to lift in three consecutive editions from New Zealand between 2008 and 2011. Philippe Boher, coach of conquest and defense, presents the specificities of a group which shines by its maturity and its efficiency, offensive as defensive, before facing one of its toughest adversaries, the XV of the Clover.

Franceinfo: sport: Can you introduce us to your team?

Philip Boher. It’s a team made up of young players who have a certain maturity. For their age, you could say they are a bit advanced. We have a game in which there are important strategic aspects, but for us, French, with a culture focused on our specificities, we also have a game with a lot of adaptation, reading, decision-making.

It’s very important for us to have players who are players in the game project. You have to take momentum into account. Against the English, we got caught once, we adapted, we knew how to counter them and then hurt them. We have young players who are able to adapt to the balance of power offered to them.

Defense seems to be one of the big strengths of this team. What can you tell us about this?

This group has built its identity and generated a lot of confidence by being very focused and very applied to the defensive system. It’s a system that stems directly from what we do when we work in partnership with the XV of France throughout the Six Nations Tournament. It is extremely important, it accustoms the players and the staff to what is done at the highest level.

AToday we defend by going very high, we put a lot of pressure on the opposing teams, we are able to make two-man tackles, to win the advantage line. We are beyond 90% of successful tackles since the start of the competition, many balls recovered, few tries conceded while we still meet high quality opponents.

“We have a complete, competitive group, in which we largely double all the positions.”

Philippe Boher, coach of conquest and defense of the U20s

This team also gives the impression of having several game leaders. How to explain this?

Because we also work a lot on aspects of the mental preparation of our players and the group in general. It is shared with the staff, and each player is an actor in the project. Of course, we have captains, vice-captains, game, life, combat, commitment and defense leaders, as in all teams. But everyone knows how to stay in their place, bring their stone to the building, remedy potential failures.

All the players are able to take their responsibilities, it’s very important. We have players who analyze what is happening, who make decisions based on the balance of power. Our Anglo-Saxon friends call it “French flair”, but there is also all this work shared with them and the staff.

What to expect against Ireland, with whom you have a certain rivalry?

We will play our twelfth official game of the season on Friday. We have won 10 and lost one, against Ireland, by two points in the Six Nations Championship. We could reasonably have won this match, with a penalty for the win at the end. There is always a taste of revenge.

If they are at this level, it is thanks to a very Irish mastery of the fundamentals. They have a slightly more classic game, which they master perfectly. No unnecessary risk taking. The final arriving, it will increase tenfold the desire of our young players, that of showing that we can exist at the most international level, the desire to show that the Tournament, we could have won it by doing the Grand Slam ourselves.

A team profile almost the opposite of the game developed by your team in the end?

It’s a bit the hallmark of French rugby, we are in line with this desire to practice total rugby. We are also capable of imposing a certain power, on our conquest phases, of hurting the teams we meet. But we have this desire to keep the ball alive, to always have support capable of ensuring the continuity of the game, to make the right pass at the right time.

We know that the Irish have studied our system a lot, they will try to stop it. It’s up to us to prepare well, while keeping what makes us strong and being convinced that we are capable of imposing our power.