In Marcoussis
What assessment do you draw from the first two matches of this Tournament? What did you like and what might have annoyed you? Patrick ARLETTAZ.- What annoyed me, I’m not going to say (smile)… The first match, not much honestly. We played with 14 very quickly against the Irish, whose rigor and ability to be in place we know. We weren’t. We didn’t have a good match, so there you go. After this difficult match for everyone, with a lot of disappointment and pressure, we focused on three essential things for the trip to Scotland. First of all, have an impeccable state of mind and solidarity. This is true whatever the level: after such disillusionment, we had to tighten up. It was the minimum, to show that this group was strong enough to get back up. Then, we focused on being more solid in defense, more realistic and more opportunistic in attack. On our launches, our ability to score when we enter the opposing 22… And, finally, the most ambitious: winning in Scotland. The group was wonderful as it accomplished these three objectives against an opponent underestimated in relation to its value.
Despite this, your team still had difficulty breaking through the opposing defense… It’s true, we broke through too few times against Scotland, but several parameters explain this. The players were affected by the defeat against Ireland. But they need the confidence to do things spontaneously and quickly. As soon as there is a little doubt, all the cogs take a hit. A little delay all the time, at this high level, is detrimental. It prevents everything. We touched it at times but too few times, it’s true. But, from where we came from, it was not possible to hope that we would do it much more often. If that means that in the future it has to be more often, yes, that’s obvious. This is what we strive to do. But without wooden language, we first need to regain confidence. And that means first returning to victory at all costs. Only victory can put us back on track.
What will be the ambitions against Italy? To continue winning already. This is an important ambition. It is not sufficient, I understand that clearly, but it is necessary. So first a victory. Then, in each match, we want to be more efficient in our offensive play, in our circuits, in our ability to threaten defenses, in our ability to play high, to defend, to weigh more in conquest, to win our duels, to play moving forward… Rugby is a whole. But the primary ambition, I repeat, is to win. The French team must win. The more you put in everything else, the more efficient you are in all areas of the game, so you have even more chances of winning. We are aware that we need to progress on many points to have more and more weapons to win. It’s not more complicated than that.
But in the French team, there is hardly time to put everything in place. Yes, I am discovering that. I now have twice as many caps as a coach (2) as a player (1), it’s magnificent (smile). But I’ll give you the steps. From the outside, we have the impression that with the wave of a magic wand everything will come… I was told that this group was wonderful, that the players really love each other, that they are not starlets. Like in a couple, it’s easy, when everything is going well, to say we love each other. It is in difficulty that we see the true face. This was the case after Ireland. And we went to win in Scotland. So everything I was told about this group was true.
Also read: XV of France: “Let people stop talking to us about this World Cup”, demands Thomas Ramos
After Scotland, Thomas Ramos said the players needed to free themselves. What did he mean? Exactly what I just said. When we have more confidence, more control, more rhythm, we will play more liberated. To be more ambitious, more effective, we need this confidence. It allows you to free yourself, therefore to have more automatisms, to end up with more binder, in a more fluid way. This sport reminds us to what extent, before taking extreme pleasure, it requires enormous effort and rigor. So that it becomes natural, so that you no longer have to think. It starts from the conquest, from a big defense before having a long sequence which leads to the test. But if it were easy it would be known…
The Maxime Lucu-Matthieu Jalibert hinge is criticized. Why don’t they reproduce in blue what they do with the UBB? It’s still the same thing. There is a certain logic. When the team hesitates, goes slower, releases are less fluid, there is a little doubt, adjustments need to be made, who suffers? Those who have to play 15 guys against 15 other guys who want to stop them. It’s a matter of one second between the right and wrong decision. The pace is no longer the same, the defense is no longer the same, the fragility that we detected is no longer in the same place… You can’t tell me that this hinge is made up of bad players. They don’t deliberately perform a little less well with the France team than with the UBB. You can’t think that…
By renewing your confidence in executives, aren’t you taking the risk of putting incumbents in an armchair? Does it work? The Scotland game shows yes. We win because there is this reaction. If they felt settled, we wouldn’t have won. They feel invested in the mission. But that doesn’t mean there will never be changes. There is emulation and it will happen at the pace we decide. We are not blind, we see the potential knocking on the door. And those who knock on the door are well aware that they are putting pressure on the incumbents…
Is Italy an ideal opponent to boost your confidence? I don’t believe in chance matches. I believe in our own construction. We are given nothing, we have to earn everything. If we want to win a series of victories, we must seek them out by working harder, by being more rigorous in everything we do. France comfortably beat Italy at the World Cup but, six months before, in Rome, the match had been difficult. With the same team though. The matches follow one another and are not alike. We saw the Italians playing on par with England, they have great offensive capacity. They have the level to play a great match against us and they won’t give us anything. It is with our work that we will seek what we must seek. It will only be at this price.
But it is a weaker opponent than Ireland and Scotland…Should we be making progress compared to Scotland? The answer is yes. We will try to be better than in Scotland, by being a little more ambitious about our ability to be more liberated. I am aware of what is said in the press, of the criticism. I find that very fair. I don’t have a problem with that. The press is ambitious for us but, rest assured, we are also very ambitious for us. On the evening of the defeat against Ireland, it was very ambitious to envisage winning in Scotland. We need to be better at our rugby? Yes, okay, no problem. We are aware that we must perform better. Not to satisfy you but to have more chances of winning our matches and in a more assertive way. I don’t coach so that people will stop criticizing me. I train so that we have more and more chances of winning.
The difficulty of the French in aerial duels is a real problem, and has been for a long time. How to fix it? Indeed, we are not performing well in this sector. It’s annoying because one of the metamorphoses of modern rugby is that there are more and more of them. In the fifteen meters, our wingers have more aerial duels than balls to play. We need to be better at our ability to get into the air, at the timing, at the anxiety-inducing side of throwing our bodies into the air with guys coming from everywhere. This is not trivial. But it will also mean having a more consistent game which gives us a better chance of winning. We had worked before Scotland without any convincing results, I grant you. We are working a lot again in this sector, on video, by unlocking speech. It’s one of this week’s focuses, but not the only one. We do our best but we are aware of not being good at it. We must progress, be better in aerial duels, whether offensive or receiving.
Fabien Galthié is very fond of data. Have you discovered their importance? Even if I just came from Perpignan, I haven’t discovered them, no! There, we had two or three things: the calculator, the television, which arrived at the same time as light two or three years ago… I’m kidding, don’t write it down (laughs). On the multitude of data, Fabien is more efficient than me of course. But I found some interesting things about new ways to analyze the game, including the effectiveness of the circuits, the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team, but also of our team. They provide in-depth and fairly reliable analysis on which we can rely. It allows you to go further. This gives a trend, which is often verified by video analysis. Afterwards, you have to go to the finer points but it awakens you.
Comments collected at a press conference
