At the Stade de France,
Wanting to turn on the air conditioning in a prehistoric cold, what a curious idea. But without the saving spark of Gaël Fickou at the end of the match to transform the Stade de France into a blaze, the Scots would have at least partially succeeded in their madness by coming to scratch the defensive bonus. We will talk for a long time about this second half, as ugly as the first will have been beautiful for the XV of France. Completely overwhelmed by the pressure and omnipresence of the Scottish team – “the best of all time” according to Galthié – in their 22, the French almost threw away a 19-point lead acquired in the first half. -hour.
Luckily, Dupont and his band woke up enough in the last moments to find themselves exactly in a position anticipated by the coach in one of the patterns of which he has the secret. “This is the scenario we had studied the day before: yesterday, with the leaders, we had said that we would seek the offensive bonus if a similar case arose. For many reasons, knowing that we could also lose the ball. »
The Scots have the seum, but are proud
That’s what happened. Two minutes from the end, the Scots had recovered a scrum in their five meters. But with a match in hand, getting out of such a trap is not easy. That too was part of the calculation. “In these areas, it takes a lot of effort from the opponent. The chances of them getting out and moving up the pitch are there, of course, but they’re slim. We made that choice. »
What is ultimately behind a successful bet? A bit of audacity, a big hand from Taofifenua, a mule charge from Barlot and a stroke of genius from Fickou, still strong on Sunday for his 10,000th cap at 28 years old.
After a setback in Ireland, a return to a winning and needy France, capable of defending, of holding its line to repel the repeated assaults of a spectacular opponent on the offensive level, or, at worst, of winning precious minutes before giving in. The one that starts well, ends well, and gets scared in between. Finally, not Thomas Ramos, armed with a shield of bad faith in the mixed zone: “We did not tremble, no, because the last ten minutes, we mastered the game, because we are in their 22 meters. Yeah.
Scottish captain Jamie Ritchie strangely does not have the same reading of events.
“It’s really hard to swallow, he regretted facing the press after the meeting. We were good so we are disappointed. We created a lot of chances but we couldn’t capitalize on them. After the first thirty minutes, I think we were the better team. »
A little more lucid than his rear, Galthié does not deny having suffered. “We had very difficult phases, the Scottish highlights. We had a lot of time to manage which were sometimes difficult times when the Scots were dominant. »
Galthié defends Haouas
So let’s leave Scotland the cardboard trophy for the beautiful game, but let’s not tolerate ingratitude. Without the excessive courtesy of Mohamed Haouas, author of a crippling whim on Ben White to reduce France to 14 and thus restore the balance in the force, the Blues walked for 70 minutes in numerical superiority. Surprisingly, the French coach did not complain too much about it, surely for the sake of elegance.
A gentleman does not practice stoning in public, even if it seems obvious that the Montpellier resident has toasted his last chance to be part of the party during the World Cup at home. “This gesture, I would like to say that it is a very hard defensive position to hold: you defend your line, you have to trigger to dominate the collision. He did it but he ducks, the scrum-half too. I consider at that time that he had neither the space nor the time. He paid dearly for it. I want to protect him, help him, encourage him. The kind of polite speech you make to help a drug-addicted friend recover while making sure to keep him at a distance.
At 14 against 14, it’s another sport. More spaces, more effort, more adjustments. “We didn’t panic, tempers Dupont, but we had to adapt. These are scenarios that you have to know how to predict. “The French scrum-half left feathers there, others, like Anthony Jelonch, left their skin there. Victim of a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, the Toulousain leaves a big void in the French workforce and could miss the World Cup. “His tournament, in any case, is over,” laments Fabien Galthié. For the XV of France, hopes remain high, thanks to Gaël Fickou.