I've taken the time to make this, so I hope you'll at least read all of it:
- In
2000, we beat NZ with a 1999-repeat, crazy score of 42-33 in Marseille despite being nothing on paper in comparison.
-
2001 we win a series over in S.A. after a mediocre 6N, and beat them and a prime Australia at home in November, and put 80 on Fiji.
- We beat England in
2002, quite easily (more than the score shows) and managed a Grand Slam in the midst of their prime. Beat S.A. in our all-time record 30-10. Then we tie against NZ when we absolutely should've won:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-OU3Xo_PEY
-
2003 We're the only team that gave England a fight, in Twickenham, and scored 3 tries to 1. We were right there the whole match and could've won if not for freakishly bad goal kicking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwT0wzU8XN4
We play a highly competitive game in Christchurch: 31-23. Excellent game.
In the 2003 World Cup we annihilated absolutely everyone (incl Ireland) until we met better than us, those same English, who were tactically superior to what Laporte was implementing.
- Following year,
2004, we win the Grand Slam. Incl 0-31 in Scotland. We beat a very good Australia at home, fairly well, but get SMASHED by NZ at home. One of our biggest flops in the pro era, the famous France inconsistency.
-
2005: we win our 3 away wins in Twickers, Dublin and Rome and come 2nd to Wales and their GS. We managed a draw in S.A. (30 all) and come close in Aus (37-31) in a super entertaining attacking game and then beat them at home quite comfortably (26-16), smash Canada, Tonga and then beat S.A. to make it a perfect November.
-
2006: 6N ***le. We smash England 31-6 and should've crushed Ireland by a record margin but this is the one we lead like 40-0 and Ireland storm back, the most classic case of France putting the foot off the pedal. Superb game IN S.A. we win 36-26. Nightmare in Lyon, NZ smash us 3-47. France are a farce for 80min once again, much better effort in Test 2 (11-23)
-
2007: second straight 6N ***le. Clerc scores the game-winner in Dublin, against an Irish team that was supposed to win the tournament. We beat England in both warmup games for the WC. We fall in the pool against Argentina, but manage a miracle against a seemingly invincible AB team. Then a freak try in the opening minutes and chasing the game for 75min and we lose to a realistic England at home at the WC. We completely botch our bronze medal game and ARG smashes us at home.
-
2008: bad year, Lièvremont's first: mediocre 6N, and we send a bad squad to Aus. November tour is fairly good.
-
2009: so-so 6N, followed by an under-control win in NZ in Test 1 (27-22), and Test series win over two matches losing narrowly (14-10) the second. Classic showdown in Toulouse vs the surging Boks (20-13) then smash a good Samoan side but then huge disillusion vs AB (12-39), disaster.
-
2010: Grand Slam but a year of Lièvremont's insanity: SMASHED in SA and ARG, November good games against Fiji and Argentina but then comedy play vs Wallabies at home (16-59). France just stopped playing after the 50th minute (when we were still tied 16 all).
-
2011: second at 6N. This is the one where we play like children and lose in Rome, awful awful. FB Masi had a gem of a game. Wins over Ireland both warmups, then mediocre pools for us, loss to Tonga where our guys are coaching themselves and just didn't want to play (even a Tongan player in an interview admitted France weren't interested). Big game against England, knock em out out of nowhere. Awful game vs Wales. Then if you've seen the final, then you know...
2012 to now is the PSA-era. We did win 4 straight matches from June to Nov '12, including a 33-6 thumping of the Wallabies, but that's individual class shining through. We've had no coaching since PSA came over, no gameplan, consistencies, serious strategies, a semblance of stability in lineup, etc...etc...and it's a miracle we managed a fine series in NZ 2013, gave them a game that November, and then beat England and took Ireland to the limit in 2014.
All this without mentioning we beat Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy almost every year, and by A LOT during that past decade.
I don't call that underachieving. It's what I've said: erratic, inconsistent, heads and hearts elsewhere, certainly. But not underachieving. Other nations have been underachievers, that's not us.
