RBS Six Nations Championship

France vs. England

20/3/2010

The climax to this year’s Six Nations will take place in Paris this Saturday evening, with the Northern Hemisphere’s two traditional powerhouses squaring off. However, should Ireland have failed to rack up the required cricket score against Scotland, the game will be little more than a denouement as France’s irresistible blend of power and panache will already have effectively wrapped up the title before a ball is kicked.

To anyone outside of England, this match is all about France, and rightly so. Marc Lievremont has crafted a side that looks as impressive as any Gallic outfit since the late nineties. Any team of the tournament compiled at this stage of proceedings would contain at least eight Frenchmen. Their front row has obliterated every scrum in its path; Imanol Harinodoquy has ensured that the tournament still boasts the world’s best number 8 in the absence of Sergio Parisse; Thierry Dusautoir and Yannick Jauzion have maintained their own exceptional standards.

Two men, however, have transformed a talented group into a team greater than the considerable sum of its parts – Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc. The latter has played with athleticism and exuberance, running like an accomplished outside centre and distributing with precision and imagination. But Parra is the key. The little Clermont Auvergne scrum-half is the oil that keeps the machine running at full throttle, his unfussy showcases of natural rugby nous have ensured that no momentum is lost from one phase to the next.

France are in no mood to take this match lightly, however. Only muted celebrations greeted their dismantling of Italy last weekend and, as refreshing as it is for the rest of us to see a side well-equipped to conquer to giants of the Southern Hemisphere, the French themselves know better than anyone there is work to be done and psychological roadblocks to overcome. Firstly, England, described by Lieveremont as his side’s “bête noir” and the architects of his “worst memory” in the game after last year’s 34-10 defeat at Twickenham.

Mathieu Bastareaud returns to the side, replacing David Marty at outside centre despite Marty’s two tries last weekend, in the only change made by Lievremont who keeps the same pair of wingers for the first time this spring. The five-feet-five Marc Andreu is a shining example of the value of brains over brawn in the manager’s game plan. While there is no shortage of bif in the side, its effectiveness is built on its intelligence and ingenuity.

And so, to England. Shambolic, soporific, torpid England. One can only be so interested in the seventh or eighth best side in the world competing for second or third place is a second-tier tournament, but the repercussions of this game will have a far reaching effect, likely to spread their tentacles over the next two seasons towards the World Cup in 2011.

As a fan, there can only be one satisfactory outcome to the match: The long, long overdue firing of John Wells. England’s forwards coach has presided over six years of perpetual decline in England’s pack play as well as their world ranking. He also appears to have Martin Johnson in his back pocket and a contract that underpins the entire financial foundation of the RFU.

 Englands Toby Flood during the training session at Pennyhill Park Hotel, Bagshot.

The selection made today by the deckchair manager here on the Titanic can only be the result of bafflingly selective ignorance Or Wellian conspiracy. Johnson makes six changes in all, bringing in Simon Shaw, Lewis Moody, Toby Flood, Mike Tindall, Chris Ashton and at long last Ben Foden. Louis Deacon, James Haskell, Jonny Wilkinson, Mathew Tait, Ugo Monye and Delon Armitage make way in a curate’s egg of a selection that at once hints at change – flying in the face of Johnson’s mantras of continuity and insistences of progress – and overlooks the root of his side’s problems.

 Englands Chris Ashton during the training session at Pennyhill Park Hotel

It is unclear how, but England have made their pack even slower. The knee-jerk selection smacks of the antiquated notion that it is the backs who are solely responsible for crossing the whitewash. Will Foden and Ashton provide a greater counter-attacking threat? Probably. Will Flood invite greater adventure from his three-quarters? Probably. But is that really the greatest issue? In one test, Andreu has scored as many tries as all of England’s wingers have in seven tests this season. Where is the reactionary pick to give England quick ball?

Tindall’s selection is particularly illustrative. Presumably included to counter the threat of the giant Bastareaud after Tait fell off a number of tackles last weekend, the Gloucester man can count himself fortunate to be included, having only recently come back from injury and having not been in the original Elite Player Squad. Tindall’s channel will not be filled solely with Bastareaud, but the pacey interjections of Andreu, Alexis Palisson and especially Clement Poitrenaud. If it were as simple as one lump versus another, one could understand, but even this is far from the point.

Tindall is a nod towards a strategy tailored especially for the opposition. But where is that in evidence up front? France have demonstrated only one significant weakness in this tournament – the line-out. Even after being taken apart by Ireland, and stealing not a single Scottish throw last weekend, Johnson has seen fit to neglect the sort of athletic line-out forward who could potentially disrupt France’s primary possession. The fitness status of Tom Croft and Nick Kennedy does not help matters, although the latter has been many miles from Johnson’s thoughts since he took over, but it would seem to have been the ideal time to give Couteney Lawes a legitimate shot. As it is, the Northampton lock will be back with his club this weekend after failing to even make the bench.

It all seems to point towards the monopoly over strategy and tactics held by Wells. “Do what you want to the backline, Johnno, but don’t touch my pack”? England’s lumbering eight can expect a lesson from the rucking prowess of Lionel Nallet and Julien Pierre; from the dynamic carrying of Harinordoquy; from the mobility of work-rate of Dusautoir and Julien Bonnaire.

France should be expected to canter to the most impressive Grand Slam of recent times. But England fans must wait patiently to see if their team has been given a complete reboot or just a new coat of paint. Don’t hold your breath.

France: Clement Poitrenaud; Marc Andreu, Mathieu Bastareaud, Yannick Jauzion, Alexis Palisson; Francois Trinh-Duc, Morgan Parra; Thomas Domingo, William Servat, Nicolas Mas, Lionel Nallet, Julien Pierre, Thierry Dusautoir, Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Sebastien Chabal, Alexandre Lapandry, Dimitri Yachvili, David Marty, Julien Malzieu.

England: Ben Foden; Mark Cueto, Mike Tindall, Riki Flutey, Chris Ashton; Toby Flood, Danny Care; Tim Payne, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole, Simon Shaw, Steve Borthwick, Joe Worsley, Lewis Moody, Nick Easter.
Replacements: Steve Thompson, David Wilson, Louis Deacon, James Haskell, Ben Youngs, Jonny Wilkinson, Mathew Tait.

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