The victory, together with the offensive bonus which is going well, to return to equality with Ireland and Scotland, other successful nations of this first weekend of the Six Nations Tournament. The balance sheet is as flattering as it is misleading, if we have prolonged the Sunday siesta a little too much and missed this Italy – France (24-29).
When they were leading by 13 points after their 3rd try of the afternoon, signed Ethan Dumortier for his first selection (6-19, 27th), the 2022 Grand Slam winners seemed to be heading towards an end after- midday as gentle as the Roman landscape, despite a litany of faults. It was nothing: they tightened the buttocks until the last second, and a final sterile advance of the Italian pack in their 22 meters.
In the meantime, the French were even led from the 62nd to the 69th minute (24-22), before the saving test of the “supersub” Matthieu Jalibert, perfectly served by another “finisher”, Romain Taofifenua. “We will try to be positive but today there are more negatives than positives”, grumbled on France 2 Antoine Dupont, that his title of man of the match and the Garibaldi trophy failed to cheer up. And to add: “When you see the scenario, it could have been worse than that. »
Awesome Irish
18 penalties conceded by his team, evenly distributed over the two periods, “it’s not playable” at this level, slips the Toulouse strategist. Finally yes: it happened against Italy which remains behind the very best nations, despite real progress and emerging talents, Ange Capuozzo in the lead.
But we can imagine the carnage if the Blues reproduce this performance next Saturday in Dublin, against the Irish world numbers 1, who have just eaten up the Welsh, Saturday in Cardiff (10-34)… Because among the ready-made formulas of which this sport is fond, there is this one: “exceeding the bar of 10 penalties is prohibitive in international rugby”.
Very bad statistics
However, according to Thibaud Flament (and honestly, the opposite would have surprised us), the French did not ignore discipline during their internship in Capbreton. “It’s something we worked on, unfortunately, it didn’t show today, admitted the 2nd line, author of the first try of the afternoon. This prevented us from advancing, from imposing our game. The Italians were able to take advantage of this. »
“The big negative point is still the conquest, he added. In touch or scrum, we failed to win. They played very well too. “Inevitably, put end to end, and added to the 13 missed tackles and 13 turnovers conceded, it starts to do a lot and we frankly did not go far from a third transalpine success over the Blues in the Six Nations Tournament, after those of 2011 (22-21) and 2013 (23-18).
We glimpsed the disaster, which would have ended a series of invincibility now extended to 14 games and made a mess with the approach of “our” World Cup, when Charles Ollivon left his teammates at 14 for ten minutes (from the 51st to the 61st), after a fourth personal fault sanctioned by a penalty try.
Galthié wants to discuss with the referee of Ireland – France
“The bonus win was the goal. The objective that has not been achieved is the quality of the performance, ”summarized on France 2 Fabien Galthié, stretched like a tanga throughout the match. “We were prevented by the Italians and also by our attitude towards the refereeing. We were sanctioned 18 times, I do not add the advantages, plus a yellow card, especially in places where we should not make mistakes, and in a defensive position, where there is no danger. We got into trouble, frankly. »
Worrying necessarily, even if the Englishman Matthew Carley, whose Blues have struggled so much to interpret the decisions, especially in the ground game, will not arbitrate them every week. “I think we can quickly rectify the situation by discussing with the future refereeing body, positive Galthié. It will be Mr. [Wayne] Barnes in Ireland. You have to understand how he wants the game to go. “If possible as against the South African world champions, beaten by the Blues last November in Marseille (30-26), under the direction of the English whistle.