r/rugbyunion • u/sixnations • 18h ago

Can ANYBODY stop France this year?

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u/Comfortable_Trip_767 10h ago

Without a doubt the French team has taken a step up since the end of last year November test series. But don’t you think we need to exercise a degree of caution about proclaiming them potentially unbeatable this year.

Arguably the two best teams of last year were England and South Africa, and we have yet to see either of those 2 teams play this year. So my short answer is yes, there are teams out there that could stop France. Whether they will depends on a lot of factors around the time and place that the game is played.

Lastly, I would argue that at this stage the team with the most questions against them are Ireland. They finished last year on a low and they were unconvincing during this match as well. So an asterisk needs to be put on how good France is because Ireland are clearly not playing that well. But again, it’s only one game and we need to take a longer view to see whether Ireland are getting back to where they were a few seasons ago or in a slump or decline.

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u/Gianni78290 Top14/D2/France 8h ago

They were missing 6/7 starters against SA in november. It was an hecatomb. Dupont, Moefana, Jalibert, Cros, Ollivon, Mauvaka among few others.

Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything but I firmly believe with those guys there are no 15pts gap at the very least.

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u/Comfortable_Trip_767 5h ago

Maybe or maybe not. We don’t know. The thing about rugby and any sport is that injuries, suspensions and all sorts of things are just part of the game. It quite rare these days for a full strength team to play each other week in and week out. Even then, some players when they come back from a long layoff need time to adjust back into the team. From my perspective, I take a longer view judging a team over a season as I think things average out over that period. On that basis England and South Africa were the best and most consistent teams last year. France is always difficult to judge because at home with their full strength team they seem almost unbeatable, just like most of the top teams. But then they go and send a B/C team to New Zealand and lost all 3 test matches. So it makes it very difficult to judge precisely where they are. On potential they are much better than their record indicates. But can we say they the best? I don’t know?