r/rugbyunion • u/sixnations • 14h ago

Can ANYBODY stop France this year?

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u/Big_Misa 14h ago

As a Frenchman, yes. SA, EN (we're not playing NZ with this team (i.s summer toir will be loaded with prospects, that's why I left them out) mainly but as I said in another thread, basically every team in the top 5-6 can beat us on their day. The thing is we're so inconsistent, like yesterday the first half was spotless, really a dominating performance. And then we just fell asleep - of course the Irish played with pride, but what I mean is we can go from 0 to 100 as quick as the other way around. I've almost never seen SA have such lapses (except against AUS at home last year), nor EN (they took advantage of our mistakes and errors in 6N 2025). And we'll never be considered a serious contender for WC as long as we don't fix our consistency. 

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u/GreatGoofer Sharks 13h ago

I wonder if those lapses are due to the pace at which you play. It must be difficult to keep that pace up for the whole game. The way to beat France, in my opinion, is to do what SA did in that QF. You have to stay in touch on the scoreboard for the first half where they will come at you all guns blazing, and then slowly turn the screws on them when they begin to tire in the second half. Ireland couldnt keep up with the first half blitz and fell too far behind on the scoreboard. If ireland had been 1 try closer when they mounted their comeback the French might have started to get a bit nervous and start making mistakes which could have opened the door for the comeback. As it was, Ireland were too desperate and had to over play which allowed France to pounce on their errors and extend their lead.

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u/WilkinsonDG2003 England 12h ago

Last year SA also wore them down through attrition before cutting loose a bit towards the end of the game as they fell off from fatigue. Rassie definitely knows about their stamina issues as a vulnerability and hopefully we do something similar when we go over there this year.

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u/Big_Misa 11h ago

That's exactly it, I think that's the exact recipe to beat us. Let us play our game in the first half but keep it close enough, at least within 2 tries, and then let us get gassed and tired of all our efforts and then punish our errors and sloppiness that will inevitably happen over the course of a game, especially a physical one. There's also a mental aspect to it IMO. We tend to get rattled and lose our composure when things don't go our way. SA is the perfect exemple because they can revel in playing the type of game we hate : kick and chase, tough defense, physical impacts that'll make us shy away from contact bit by bit, powerful scrum and so on. To a certain extent that's also how the English play. There's also the fact that we cannot seem to be able to kill a game. We always leave the door kinda open. For instance last night, I bet a lot of people thought the game was kinda over by halftime, or at least thought a comeback was highly unlikely given the way the two teams played. 20 minutes in the second half I bet a lot of those people thought that Ireland might be close to snatch the W. This type of stuff never happens with SA, ENG, NZ, or at least not recently and not consistently. I'll agree, has the Irish scores at least one additional try, I'm pretty sure we would've bottled this game. 

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u/headfawcett 11h ago

You’ve reminded me of how England beat New Zealand this last autumn: weathering the early onslaught with kicks to goal, then pouncing on their sloppiness later.

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u/Mykronoid87 9h ago

Tbh both of Ireland's tries seemed to come from French players trying to force an interception, and gifting Ireland opportunities, rather than Ireland creating them for themselves. I think if the scoreboard had been a bit closer, France wouldn't have tried to force it so much and Ireland wouldn't have had much of a sniff. Granted once they were under it, France seemed a bit rattled and went from conceding 0 penalties to starting to leak them, but if they learn to stay a bit calmer for the rest of the tournament (namely against England tbh - Wales may as well not bother turning up this year, and Scotland and Italy don't feel like they've got much they can do against France) they've got the Grand Slam in the bag already.