After three months of waiting, the French public was finally able to celebrate their world vice-champions. Last Saturday, the Stade de France reunited with its team against Italy on the occasion of the tournament’s opening.
Our Blues had to ensure continuity after their superb World Cup final in AUCKLAND, but since then, things have changed, and a new experienced staff composed of Philippe SAINT-ANDRE, Patrice LAGISQUET, and YANNICK BRU has been put in place to implement their game plan and impose their work methods, but we know that all this cannot be done in six days.
The rematch against Italy was thus Act 1 of this new journey, and despite a clear dominance of the Italians, both in the area of field occupation and ball possession, the French managed to score four tries (to none) on well-negotiated counterattacks.
SAINT-ANDRE’s men relied once again on a particularly watertight defense and exemplary discipline (7 penalties) to control the surprisingly ball-retentive transalpines, but they were far too predictable to disrupt the iron curtain put in place by LAGISQUET.
In terms of offensive organization, the Blues showed themselves to be far too imprecise in the phases of conquest and clumsy in their sequences to demonstrate their new ambitions.
But the most important thing was achieved, this victory allows PSA and his staff to start this new adventure well and continue working in serenity.
For the rest, we will wait for the continuation of this tournament.
