Congratulations Allister Coatzee, his staff and most of the players for their first away victory as Springboks! Let's celebrate Bok fans! Why be so negative all the time?
That said, France are atrocious. Analytically, France should be at the same level as England - very similar in terms of economics and general rugby culture, but they are way worse. What is wrong? Horrible. Absolutely horrible.
Top 14 is the main culprit, a slow game championship with a "I'm choosing my match philosophy, I just need to finish within the 6 first at the end of the season", not competitive at all, too much foreigners because too much money with clubs not caring much for the national team, a golden retirement house for a lot of rugby stars and too much matches during the season to even start to think about creating a consistent collective rugby with the national team. This championship is just creating injuries on top of injuries, killing player bodies and make the players not consistent at all in their performance and their motivation.
And worse on top of all things, this crappy championship is not preparing the players to the international level, the french pack is roasted after 1 half, they are not used to play at such a pace, this is as simple as that.
How many players have shown some nice stuff during 6 months with the national team and have just disappeared without a word ? All the Bastaraud, Trinh-Duc, David, Mermoz, Fofana, Picamoles, Dupuis, Parra (and much more) have been sacrificed in the name of the top 14 and the money generated by it, this is the pure simple truth. If we would have taken care of these players when they were 18, stop them to get destroyed in a ridiculous championship, if we would have accompany them to the international level with the adequate physical and technical training without having to beg clubs for letting them free 4 days instead of 3 days before the first 6 nationstournament match, creating a proper environment for them to feel confident, we would not be where we are today.
Also, FFR is not as powerful as RFU because poor in terms of finance compare to the RFU (you have to remember that the RFU owns Twickhenham , it is 60 millions profit a year, enough to pay well english clubs to let go their players more often in the national team..and to create a more comfortable environment for the national team
Since Top14 (and 16) exist (2004), the french national team has sunk slowly but surely, losing first his flair and then losing everything about his rugby, the 2 last matches are almost the nails in the coffin of a 10 years long dying process. Ok sure you can argue that there has been some accidents here and there (defeating the ABs in 2007 or going to the RWC final in 2011) but the content of the french rugby is just dying slowly since 10-15 years.
Deeply, the rugby culture in the french championships has not adapted to modern rugby, we are still producing fat props that are just useful for the scrum (again a very cultural thing in France, supporters love scrums), we are still not understanding that the modern rugby has changed. We are still not teaching our players how to properly turn over the ball in tackles/ruck situation like all other team are doing perfectly now. Look closely at a lot of ruck situation where french players are just throwing themselves (diving) for no gain at all, it is what they are learning and this is what they are doing in their championship...
The FFR has his fault as well, mainly in the formation of the youth and a long term plan. Training of the young players is not adapted to the modern rugby , we also need to reshape all this.
Anyway, there is very hard times to come for the french rugby, we need to look at the situation with clarity and truth in mind, stop to hide behind a "glorious" past of french flair. and accept to rebuild from scratch even if it means loads of defeat to come.
I'm following rugby since very long time, when I see that in the 80-90s, we were beating Ireland, Wales, Scotland on a regular basis in the 5-6 nations, it was hard for them to beat us and nowaday, this is the other way around, we have extreme dififculty to beat Wales, we do not beat Ireland anymore and Scotland is becoming a strong client. the reality is that we are not progressing and all the others are progressing constantly.
The only light in this long tunnel is the 2023 RWC organized by France, I hope the french rugby exec will take the opportunity to take a fresh start now. I honestly wish a defeat against Japan on Saturday, the last nail in the coffin of the old french rugby, no more hiding and scapegoat.
