It will take time to recover. Sunday evening at the Stade de France, players, supporters and staff of the French XV experienced the worst disappointment, eliminated from “their” World Cup in the quarter-finals by South Africa (28-29). The dream of a first world title at home has gone and it is now time to heal the wounds. Including for Shaun Edwards, the defense coach of the Blues, who returned home to the Pyrénées Orientales on Monday afternoon. Used to writing a daily column in the Daily Mail, the Englishman, sad and confused, returned this Tuesday to the cruel elimination against the Springboks.
“I still can’t believe we lost. One moment you’re in your training camp, surrounded by the media, everything is going a thousand miles an hour, and the next moment you’re at home and it’s silent, he confides. I went for a walk along the beach to collect my thoughts and I just had this empty feeling inside me. […] I woke up Monday morning after only two hours of sleep and thought: Was this all just a nightmare?”
Still in a “state of total shock”, Edwards also spoke of the heavy atmosphere in the French locker room after the match. Congratulating Fabien Galthié’s players in passing. “It was desolation. The silence. Thomas Ramos came to me to apologize but I don’t know why, he says. Maybe it was because of his countered transformation (by Cheslin Kolbe), but I told him that he had been fantastic and that he had nothing to apologize for. You obviously feel very responsible when you play at home because a whole country is behind you. But the players can be proud of the way they played.”
And now ? Beaten for the third time in a row at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup (after 2015 and 2019) but on the upward slope for four years, the XV of France will have to turn the page. The 2024 Nations Tournament will launch, next February, a new cycle until the 2027 World Cup in Australia. “Many of them (the players) will still be there in 2027. Having another chance will help them forget their frustration over time, but nothing is like a Tournament played at home, concludes the member of the French staff on a note more positive. I’m going to wait a few days before watching the match again. Maybe a week.” A week to try to forget and move forward.
