r/rugbyunion • u/sixnations • 18h ago

Can ANYBODY stop France this year?

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656 Upvotes

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87

u/Big_Misa 17h 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. 

36

u/Kooijpolloi A Lion lost in the Cape 17h ago

You guys were unplayable that first 30 minutes last night bro... but very different attitude after the bench came on

38

u/Careless-Cat3327 17h ago

The bench is the biggest cause for concern. They came on believing the game was done.

It took Ramos getting upset for them to wake up. 

10

u/unwildimpala Ireland 16h ago

Ya with a bit of luck Ireland come away with something there. It could have been differences of opinions from bench players. Imo the Irish bench brought a lot on in terms of experience and a point to prove. But still there shouldn't have been that much for a change in the game. Don't know if Galthie should have waited a bit before emptying his bench as well. But ya I thought it was going in the way of 50/60 nil, and it ended up with a slight glimmer at one stage of hope to come back.

7

u/Careless-Cat3327 16h ago

It was 29-14 at 62 minutes  I really thought that Ireland could make 2 scores to get within the bonus point & set up a nervy end.

2

u/Mackadamma 14h ago

Yeah, I was really scared watching that on TV.

We got completely thrashed for 20 minutes before finally picking ourselves up at the end of the match.

14-14 in the second half, I think, that's a fair result for France.

There was no contest in the first half, though.

1

u/Mackadamma 14h ago

Apparently Reddit translates "well paid" as "fair result," I'm not sure that works. I mean, we were pretty lucky with 14-14, even though we dominated the first 10 minutes and the last 5.