Although the margins between the sides have been wafer thin, sometimes non-existent in recent years, Philippe Saint-André has portrayed his team as underdogs against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 5pm), and with some justification given France’s relatively awful record under him, especially away from home. Les Bleus have only won three games in 15 away Tests under Saint-André.
The first of those was in the 2012 Six Nations, in his second game in charge against Scotland at Murrayfield (by 23-17), since when they beat an under-strength Argentina (by 49-10) in the second Test of their tour that summer. Their only win in 11 Tests abroad since then was again in Murrayfield last season, when emerging with a somewhat fortuitous 19-17 victory.
“It is important for us to win an away match against a major team,” Saint-André admitted after confirming his selection to play Ireland, “but to do that we have to be more effective than we were against Scotland.
“Ireland are an extremely disciplined side. They usually give away only around eight penalties whereas the Scots give up 13-14. They are full of confidence and showed that when they seized the game by the scruff of the neck against the Italians once they were down to 14 men. They have won eight in a row and are the favourites for the title. We have to compete with them in every area, duels in the air where they are very strong, tackle hard and not give an inch.”
Loosehead change
Saint-André has made one enforced change to the team which laboured to a 15-8 win over Scotland in Paris last Saturday. The Racing Metro loosehead
Eddy Ben Arous
will make his first start for France in place of the injured
Alexandre Menini
, after making an impact off the bench.
Vincent Debaty
is recalled ahead of Thomas Domingo in what Saint-André admits is an attempt to target
Marty Moore
in the endgame as the Toulon loosehead did when Ireland sealed last season’s Six Nations title in Paris.
“Debaty gave his Irish opposite number a really hard time in the final 20 minutes of the game last season so it is logical to have him on the bench. Our bench is packed with power players so we can introduce them late on and they will give the impetus to break tackles and gain ground. [Morgan] Parra will be able to come on and kick penalties.”
In the expectation that Johnny Sexton and Jamie Heaslip will both be named in the Ireland line-up today, Saint-André had no qualms about admitting the French-based Sexton would be targeted.
“Well they are both very good players and stalwarts of this Ireland side. Sexton, though, hasn’t played for 12 weeks so we should really test him early on.”
In other words, Sexton can expect to see plenty of Mathieu Bastareaud – such a go-to man for this French team – coming down his channel.
Whereas Bernard Laporte made no secret of France's desire to lay down a psychological marker for the countries' meeting at the 2007 World Cup by winning at Croke Park in the preceding Six Nations, which they famously did through Vincent Clerc's late try, Saint-André maintained this game was entirely an entity in itself.
“No it is only psychological as to what happens for the rest of the Six Nations, the World Cup is another tournament. The players are confident in themselves and up for the match which we hope we will produce a great performance. The last three matches with the Irish have been very tight, two draws and what a defeat by two points so expect another tight one.”
One more opportunity
Tighthead
Rabah Slimani
, scrumhalf
Rory Kockott
and fullback Scott Spedding all held on to their places as Saint-André seeks to give one more opportunity to a group who are in their third week together.
“Rabah did well last weekend and merits another chance. Morgan [Parra] came on and did well last Saturday but Rory Kockott was having his first start and did some good things with Lopez so we felt he deserved to be given another go.
"At fullback Brice Dulin is making progress but he is not there yet in terms of tackling and passing the ball."
The players and coaches have been making all the right noises about the strong spirit within the squad, but there remains no evidence of this being a clear and well-coached side based on the evidence of the win over Scotland.
