Victorious over Wales, the French fifteen regained their desire and fighting spirit, allowing them to redeem themselves in front of their home crowd.
After the humiliation suffered against the Italians in Rome, Marc Liévremont once again triggered the well-known mechanism of rebellion, appealing to the pride and ego of our players to save face. We are always reacting rather than taking action, but this is nothing new.
This large victory does not hide the recurring shortcomings that we have observed since the beginning of this tournament. While the French were present in all combat phases, there was a total lack of animation once France had to take the game into their own hands. One only has to look at how the three French tries were scored: the first from a ball lost by the Welsh, the second from a blocked kick, and the last from an inspiration by our fly-half. The poverty of our game starts makes us too predictable, and our play sequences are too short to wear down our opponent. I repeat, this won’t be enough against the best.
This 2011 tournament was overall mediocre, and France emerges with no certainties. There is little time left for the French staff to make up for lost time and create a real game system matching the qualities of the players chosen for the World Cup. But can we really believe in it?
Eric Buchet
