Our final team preview ahead of the 2015 Six Nations is France – probably the toughest team to analyse and cast a prediction for of the lot.
Strengths
Spontaneously brilliant, sporadically dire – detailing France’s strengths and weaknesses is a tough task. The truth is, on paper they are strong across the board. Starting at the back, the brilliant Scott Spedding has been a revelation and his partnership with old head Yoann Huget and wild child Teddy Thomas is a delightful melange of raw talent and experience.
Wesley Fofana’s silky running from 12 is the perfect foil for the bowling ball international rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud outside him, but the one main positive of the last year for France is the emergence of Camille Lopez. The Clermont fly-half has been a late bloomer but at his new home in the Massif Central, he has found his feet. A gifted footballer and dangerous runner, he must be given the full backing of the team as for the first time in years, France have a bona fide brilliant fly-half.
The pack doesn’t boast the same fear factor that it has down the years, but in Thierry Dusautoir they have an inspirational leader on the pitch, and next to him Bernard Le Roux has been in barnstorming form for Racing Métro, culminating in that performance at Franklin’s Gardens in which he single-handedly blew the Northampton back-row off the park.
Weaknesses
Consistency has consistently eluded the French down the years, which will no doubt appeal to that famous French sense of irony. Or maybe not. The fact is, though, the many, many clichés that surround this French team, do so for a reason. The autumn was a case in point. Brilliant for two weeks against the Fijians and Australians, woeful on the final weekend against Argentina.
It’s a trend that extends to the Six Nations, too. In 2010 they swept to a Grand Slam, but since then they’ve finished second, fourth, sixth and fourth.
The front five does not look as powerful as it has done in times past. The era of Domingo and Mas is well and truly over and while there is bags of raw power in the likes of Alexandre Menini, Romain Taofifenua and Rabah Slimani, these are not players that will strike scrummaging fear into the hearts of opposition props – yet.
Key Objective before the World Cup: Find some sort of consistency in selection in the next month and back the first team through to the World Cup.
Key Player: Camille Lopez
It couldn’t really be anyone else, could it? Despite the aberration against Argentina (which was symptomatic of the whole team, not just him) there is a real feeling that he is the man that can bring together all the elements of the French side that are, in isolation, brilliant. France have a habit of picking general-like scrum-halves (Napoleonic in nature – one of those clichés I was talking about) that have taken on the mantle of goal-kicking and controlling the team. They have overshadowed and almost emasculated the fly-half, which is just no good – the man in the number 10 shirt is the primary playmaker, can see the most on the pitch and should feel in charge. If Lopez can continue as he has for Clermont this season in the France shirt, they will be hugely dangerous.
Last season: 4th
France started the 2014 Championship strongly, with a gritty win against England that included a breathtaking try in the final five minutes finished by Gael Fickou. There followed an obliteration of Italy, and everything was looking rosy.
But in true French style the wheels proceeded to fall off as they lost miserably in Cardiff, snuck past Scotland in Edinburgh thanks to an interception and their opponents’ poor discipline, before losing at home to Ireland in a game that could, incredibly, have handed them the title (although after England’s huge win earlier in the day, it was beyond unlikely).
Prediction
Where do you start? If everything comes together, they will be genuine contenders – but then how many times have we said that down the years, only for them to capitulate at some stage? They’ve got three away trips, too, with tricky fixtures in Dublin and London as well as a trip to Rome – a venue where they have lost on their last two visits.
All in all, it will likely be another middling championship for Les Bleus – despite there being bafflingly little to query with Philippe Saint-André’s selection for the opening weekend. If that team gels they could be lethal – but I still don’t see them having the backbone to win at either Twickenham or the Aviva Stadium. Predicted finish: 4th.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images