Fabien Galthié’s men conceded, against the Irish, their first defeat in 14 games on Saturday in Dublin.
If the devil is in the details, so are the keys to success. After snatching victories, sometimes with the appearance of a heist full of insolent success, the coin this time fell on the wrong side for the Blues. France found the bitter taste of defeat (32-19), against Ireland on the second day of the Six Nations Tournament, Saturday February 11. “She is a reflection of the match, it’s a logical defeat”judged the coach of the XV of France Fabien Galthié at the microphone of France Télévisions after the final whistle.
The Blues have “gave many things” (including 12 lost balloons) to the Irish who did not ask for so much, for Antoine Dupont. “Physically, strategically, we felt that the slightest mistake, the slightest fault gave points, opportunities to score for the opponent.”
Enough for the XV of Clover, the best nation in the world ranking, to offer themselves four tries in as many styles – up close with the forwards, on the counterattack, or by concluding a licked combination of three-quarters at the end of the line – and his biggest success against the Blues in the Tournament since March 1975 (25-6).
A bit of precision
The Blues remained neck and neck for a long time. But, for lack of success, the successive in extremis rescues of Ramos, Baille, Dupont and Ollivon in the in-goal only delayed the inevitable. “We were caught in the important moments, we stuck to the score at minus 6 for a while, but we had some highlights that we did not manage to materialize.analyzed the coach.
“We still play a big match, but we lack precisionabounded his captain, Antoine Dupont. We have to score on our highlights and we may have played too much at home, which allowed them to come very close to our lines and score points as they know how to do. Offensive misunderstandings, timing errors, capricious rebounds, handling errors on high balls or in touch, nothing turned in the right direction.
Effective camp outings
Dross all the heavier as the entries of the XV of France in the opposing 22 meters were not numerous. “They managed to hold the ball and contain us in our half.”, advanced Fabien Galthié. “We need to be a little cleaner on our balls in our camp, on our camp outings. They targeted that, we had a hard time getting our game started afterwards.”added for his part Thibaud Flament, pointing out the difficulties of the Habs to rely on a deep and precise foot game.
More than once, attempts to clear Thomas Ramos and Antoine Dupont were countered, keeping the Blues under pressure. Undoubtedly the great Irish strategic success on this meeting.
Freshness
A few months ago the XV of France would probably have found a way to get out of this constant pressure. The resources seemed more varied. His favorite bulldozers Grégory Alldritt, Paul Willemse and François Cros, or the ease with the ball in hand of a Cameron Woki, were all weapons that allowed these Blues to find the necessary advance to get out of the opposing defensive pressure or to secure his conquest in the offensive phase.
But the first two, exhausted, drag their carcasses with difficulty, the Toulousain was a substitute and the Racingman forfeited. The performances of their friends Thibaud Flament and Anthony Jelonch were not enough to compensate.
The solution could then have come from the bench and these famous finishers so dear to Fabien Galthié. Whether “The substitutes made a big difference” on the Irish side, as the back of the XV of Clover Hugo Keenan pointed out, their tricolor counterparts did not have the same contribution as against Italy. Only Sipili Falatea, explosive and hard-hitting, was able to stand out by sinking the defense. Insufficient, however.