There was no hiding place in the French media’s postmortem following France’s record-breaking defeat by Ireland in Marseille, players, and coaches firmly in the crosshairs and arguably none more so than head coach Fabien Galthié.
Under the headline “Galthié strongly marked by the spanking inflicted on the Blues,” Midi Olympique’s Arnaud Beurdeley wrote that: “Fabien Galthié likes to play with the press. Sometimes inexhaustible, often unfathomable. He masters the oratory art of the press conference where he enjoys delivering his messages. Friday evening in the bowels of the Velodrome stadium, extinguished by the Irish, the coach of the Blues gave the rare image of a coach without response.
“Stunned. Shaken. Reversed. The boss of the Blues, sometimes stingy with words to directly evoke the performance of one player or another, never to highlight a structural insufficiency or a deficiency in a sector of play, has this time deemed it premature to launch in a strategic analysis to try to explain what is to date his heaviest defeat.”
Former French international Olivier Magne, speaking to Sud Ouest, dismissed Galthié's argument that the sending off of Paul Willemse had a massive influence on the outcome. “Against this Irish team with what the France team offered, they could have played with 18 (players) and not won.”
Magne, along with former international scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Élissalde, both paid tribute to the way that Ireland were set-up by their coaching team and the manner in which the players implemented those plans.
Le Figaro’s Arnaud Coudry questioned the impact of the new faces in the French coaching team, Patrick Arlettaz (attack), Laurent Sempere (forwards) and Nicolas Jeanjean (strength and conditioning). He wrote “that there were three sectors which suffered greatly on Friday against Ireland”.
He quoted the mission statements of the three coaches when they arrived and then held them up to the light of the work that the French team produced in Marseille. His verdict was damning, especially the attack. Coudry wrote: “At the Velodrome, we looked hard, but we didn’t see what he [Arlettaz] was able to implement.
“Rugby ping-pong, a deserted midfield, the tricolour machine was almost at a standstill.” He then added in French head coach Fabien Galthié's observations: “The offensive performance was not there. There was too much waste, turnovers, dropped balls. Less speed than usual. We did not prepare accordingly.”
Antoine Dupont’s decision to miss the Six Nations Championship to commandeer a place in the French Sevens team for the Paris Olympics is naturally lamented, his brilliant performance in Toulouse’s Top 14 victory over Bayonne at the weekend a reminder of what France are missing.
After the match the scrumhalf was asked for his thoughts on Friday night’s defeat to Ireland in Marseille. He replied: “My reaction is the same as everyone else. It was difficult to see the French team in difficulty. Playing outnumbered at international level, we know how difficult it is. The Irish were very well prepared, and the step was too high, I think. We put too many obstacles in our way.”
His replacement, Bordeaux’s Maxime Lucu, came in for some heaving criticism and it’s probably best of he avoids L’Equipe’s player ratings, notoriously unforgiving at the best of times. The scrumhalf received a 3/10 mark the summation read: “It would be remiss to compare him to Dupont in a match where his team were dominated by Ireland. However, he made bad choices and little mistakes. His poor choices led directly to the Irish scoring 10 points.”
Lucu’s halfback partner and Bordeaux team-mate Mathieu Jalibert received a similar mark under the withering “his [Jalibert’s] judgment was awry and his accuracy in the playmaking role was also lacking. His defence was poor, missing four tackles.”
Olivier Francois, writing in Le Parisien under the headline “We will need psychiatrist sessions”: why the slap received by the XV of France will leave its mark,” opted for a deep dive into the psychological trauma the defeat to Ireland will have, the legacy issues from the Rugby World Cup and the difficulty of moving on.
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The French players were gracious in acknowledging Ireland’s superior performance on the night, fullback Thomas Ramos said: “There is disappointment because we lost. It’s not easy to tell straight away what went wrong. We took tries too easily, we exposed ourselves too easily, against a great Irish team. We had prepared well for the match, it’s a shame.”
Centre Gaël Fickou admitted: “The Irish outclassed us in all areas. They deserve their victory, there is nothing to say.”
