[RWC2023] France vs Uruguay (14/09/2023)

[spursindevon]

Uruguay were great and without that unlucky try they conceded they could have kept within one score right until the end. France were really poor, following on from a no better than middling performance against New Zealand. I see no reason why, if Italy play to their best, they can't give France and NZ a very good run for their money.

Agree, Italy need to play with no fear, they can more than match France up front, they just need to believe.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

TBF I worry myself.
Hell I can worry my dog!

You've really not been the same since you went all French….

Enjoyed watching Uruguay. But another match it's very hard to read anything into.

 

[IT157]

It would be the most French thing to beat New Zealand and not make the quarter finals.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

It would be the most French thing to beat New Zealand and not make the quarter finals.

Why did you say that

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

D'Arcy is dumb. Leave him be, it's ITV and IrishTimes fault.

 

[Lucas_Arg]

Good game for the Teros, tough game vs Italy. They have to improve their kicking game.

 

[Which Tyler]

Did anyone else see the weird pseudo teabagging of two ladies in the turnover demonstration just now? Or am I having a nightmare?

A] I'm surprised to hear that anyone here, who's actually knowledgable about rugby, watches the ITV coverage outside of match-time.
B] A bit of light tea-bagging is very much in keeping with some of TRF's conversations during the match.

 

[Hankstrom]

It's a win and this is all that matters to me. It was an obvious fail from a gameplan perspective, French players were not playing together, sometimes not even playing at all. That's how we are, period, good reality check for the B team but also for our staff to adjust for the next games. I feel Bourgarit, Villieres, and a couple of others could have passed the ball more in so many occasions to open the game and score tries. Instead they were trying to nail big plays solo or try weird plays like Hastoy kicking too wide for Villières. Play simple please

Someone said it above, Uruguay is also a typical South American team with massive grinta! They put so much heart in the game and they want to get their ticket to RWC 2027, their coach made it clear, they're on the right way. Arata and Freitas play in France and are praised for their game and mental in their respective squads. It's no surprise Uruguay has improved and wanted to make a statement last night. They did

 

[Batsumy]

Pfiou that was slightly tense last evening Les bleus were being arrogant on this one, too confident, wanting to throw some champagne rugby from the word start without consuming the opponent defense (rucks and pick and goes etc), without having the base collective game on the right foot start, thinking that it would be sufficient to go through the uruguay team. It was obviously not innit ?

Making 12 changes with mainly sparring partners on the field was also not the best idea but I guess you want to preserve your main players so it does also makes sense. However, what it does do is to have a bunch of headless substitutes wanting to show off and going individual rather than collective. The performance of most of the players yesterday was really not up to scratch, Jelonch was back for the first time in a match after 6 months out for injury and we could see he was not into that game at all, Villiere is a worry, he is not at his best level, not in the right timing, Moefana had a really poor match as well when you would wait from this guy to show his first team status, etc etc

On the other end, we have been rather dominant all along the match, we are only the ones to blame for such a poor match, that was first and foremost a collective failure to apply a game plan (which I'm unsure what it was) and to be able to score points after each dominance phases.

Yeah OK Uruguay were brave and did play well in the conditions of the evening but I would not read much into their perf looking at the poor display from the french, like I would not read too much into the french performance of yesterday. France is notorious historically to not be able to play well against so called lesser teams, we never really put 80 points to one of those, always have some difficult first periods, like we are not able to put a game plan in place for those kind of game, not sure why.

The most important is the victory, I just hope we won't regret this bonus point in case we had a difficult game against Italy.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Just saw the highlights, looks like it would have been a good one to watch the whole thing

 

[Batsumy]

Interview of Boudehent after the match (in Le Figaro), wow, lucidity and realism, this is good to see:

With the victory, are you smiling despite everything?

Paul Boudehent: I'm not going to give any adjectives, I have too many bad ones in mind... There are frankly a lot of regrets. I would first like to congratulate the Uruguayans who really played with heart. We expected it, they did it very well. For our part, next time, we will have to play our real game.


We did not recognize the XV of France. Why did you do everything backwards?

We're not going to start self-flagellation but we have to put in the ingredients. Between what we did last week (against New Zealand) and what we did there, it's not possible. We have the tools, we have everything in our hands. And we made a huge number of mistakes. There are a lot of things to review. We'll have to get back to work. We could, and should, have shown another face out of respect for all the people who came to see us.

What feeling predominates?

There is bitterness. My family made the trip, a lot of players' families were present, there were a lot of supporters. All this has a cost. We could, and should, have shown another face out of respect for all these people. It was the least we could do to put in a good performance for them. We're not going to be selfish. The bitterness is towards these people who took their time and money to come see us…

Did you take your opponent lightly?

Honestly, no. The problem is that what we saw on the pitch makes me lie… I prepared for it like any other matches. But we don't have the same ingredients. We need to roll up our sleeves. And, also, that we look in the mirror and tell ourselves the truth

He sounds like France has lost

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Taofifenua tackle raises questions about bunker system

France's Romain Taofifenua avoids red card for a high tackle on Thursday, raising questions about inconsistent decisions from officials at the Rugby World Cup.

www.bbc.co.uk

And another one.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Yeah, he got him before the first tackler made any difference to the dynamics

Yep, arguably held him back just a fraction but made no difference to the outcome. Wasn't a clear cut change of direction like Farrell / George.

Really not a good look though. Biggest player on pitch (tier 1) wipes out smallest (tier 2) and pretty much gets away with it.

Can Uruguay appeal? It wouldn't make any practical difference to them, but it might to Fra.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I know Uruguay have been consistently improving for about a decade but even still their performance pleasantly surprised me. For example, decent maul attack and defense and excellent at both sides of the breakdown - all against near top class opposition. All credit to the Uruguayan union and players and hopefully they reduce the errors in the opponents 22 in the rest of the tournament. They left quite a few points behind in this match.

Berchesi (?) is a much better kicker and game manager but I can see why they went with the young lad at flyhalf.

If Italy continue to stick Capuozzo on the wing then that will limit their scoring threat and on this showing Uruguay could post a competitve points total against them. This group looked very dull on paper but still has potential for some unpredictability.

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

Just saw the highlights, looks like it would have been a good one to watch the whole thing

It's been my most enjoyable match to watch so far this WC.

 

[OwenPB]

Interesting to see how all of this falls out over the next week.

Obviously, the not-a-Red decision has to be reviewed and a ban handed out. The law is clear and has to be applied evenly regardless of the player, their nationality or the opposition. Nothing in that decision supports keeping it as a yellow and there are multiple examples of it being a red from other games in the past 7 days. If there's to be any sort of agreement that the system is working, they have to review and change that to a red. It doesn't help Uruguay get a better result, but it's the correct decision.

I think the overall French performance was to be expected, at least in terms of the drop-off from the first 15. I think Ireland has the same issue, too, btw: The first 15-18 players have been playing together so long and are just better than their replacements, then wholesale changes like yesterday cannot yield the same level of rugby. That's not to say that the 15 that took the field are bad, they are still collectively good enough to be a top team, but they are a full step below the team that beat New Zealand on Friday last. Add in the lack of common game time at this level, the pressure to perform well enough individually to maybe break into the first 15 and the surprising attacking skill that they faced, it's pretty much expected that they looked like they don't play together much.

Namibia & Italy will be beaten and France will finish first in the group, but potential injuries, suspensions and whoever their opponents are in the Quarters, all make last night's result even more interesting.

 

[AlRums]

Just saw the highlights, looks like it would have been a good one to watch the whole thing

If you like swearing at the refereeing then yes

 

[Umaga's Witness]

If you like swearing at the refereeing then yes

I made a decision many years ago that rugby would be way more enjoyable if I didn't get upset be refereeing decisions. So I don't. I think it also helps having been an all blacks fan during a time when we didn't lose very often. A lot of all blacks supporters during that time switched their bias to notice and get upset by decisions going in favour of the all blacks - everyone just wanted a challenge and didn't want the opposition to have any excuses.

Actually the vast majority of people I talk to say they don't watch the all blacks anymore because we always win. Given that's not even true now, proves they're not lying about not watching the all blacks. And the other reason why poeple don't watch rugby anymore is because of the reffing and how the media continuously markets rugby as an awful game that is reffed poorly. If the media took a different view, and that includes designated rugby analysis shows, then people might be able to take a different perspective like I do, and just enjoy the positive things the game offers

 

[OldSchoolRugga]

Uruguay showed great spirit and determination. They showed some nice creativity in the backline. France were just better on the day. Another smaller rugby nation on the up and up.