Parra and Lopez are the latest to be sacrificed on Brunel's bloody altar
At the start of the 2019 Six Nations, there was no doubt who would be France coach Jacques Brunel’s first-choice halfbacks.
Morgan Parra and Camille Lopez made perfect sense. Despite having only played one international together – back in 2015 – the Clermont pair were and still are, by some considerable margin, the most experienced hinge in the France squad, with a combined 92 international caps.
A combination of the vagaries of French coaches past and, more recently, injuries had kept them apart.
This week – a fallow weekend for the international tournament – they, along with team-mate Wesley Fofana and four others squad members, have been released back to their clubs. They could play some part in Saturday’s Top 14 match against Grenoble at Stade Marcel Michelin.
Theirs has been a rapid fall from grace. Prior to the opening game of the Six Nations, Brunel had only praise for his pivot players. He told anyone willing to listen he was looking forward to finally being able to pick both together for the first time. He praised their consistency with Clermont. And he was delighted at the prospect of – finally – a settled French halfback duo.
As was pretty much any rugby fan. Parra/Lopez were the ninth different starting 9/10 duo for France in two years. No other starting pair had survived more than two games together. But it looked, at last, like it was relatively (in French rugby terms) plain sailing up to the World Cup in Japan.
Things didn’t go as planned. Like so many before them, Parra-Lopez got stuck on two outings – the defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory Six Nations opener against Wales, and the embarrassment at Twickenham.
Then, after the 44-8 loss to England, came the comments – and rumours of a full-on player mutiny.
Lopez, immediately after the game, told France Télévisions’ pitchside reporter Cécile Grès: “We are the first to blame, the players, since we are on the field, but I think it’s not just us, and we’re not alone in this sinking [ship].
And Parra told reporters: “We are able to do what the English do, but do we work on it in training? I think we don’t work on it enough, if at all.”
The two weeks between that game and the Scotland match featured a period of high Laporte-visibility at French rugby’s Marcoussis training complex, a series of player meetings, a major media relations crackdown, and the public unveiling of a leadership group that had been in place for some time.
And the matchday squad for Scotland, released early following a request from the players notably did not feature either Parra or Lopez. They had been replaced by Antoine Dupont and Romain N’Tamack, who had 13 caps between them – 11 of which belonged to the former. Baptiste Serin and Anthony Belleau were on the bench.
The rugby press in France, starved of the ease of access that it had previously enjoyed under Brunel, went into speculation overdrive. Those post-England comments were scrutinised and subjected to analysis after analysis. The common conclusion? That they were leading actors in the reported player mutiny.
Brunel insisted dropping 92 caps worth of experience for just 13 was entirely a sporting decision. “Given our performance [against England], we needed to change things,” he said at a press conference after announcing the squad, adding the Parra-Lopez partnership “did not perform as well as expected in the two games”.
He dismissed repeated suggestions the Clermont players were ditched for their criticism of the France staff and training methods: “What can I say to that? I can’t tell you anything more. Ask them, you’ll see what they tell you.”
It’s true. There were legitimate sporting reasons for Brunel’s decision. Parra-Lopez had not worked. France needed to do something. And there are legitimate sporting reasons for them – Fofana, too – to play this weekend, otherwise they will have gone three weeks without playing a competitive match.
It’s also true that there is no doubt, fitness permitting, both Parra and Lopez will be in the mix for seats on the plane to Japan.
But it’s equally true that they have dropped to the back of the national coaching team’s thinking for the Ireland game on March 10. So far back, in fact, that – like fellow released players Uini Atonio, Pierre Bourgarit, Geoffrey Doumayrou, and Yacouba Camara – it’s highly unlikely they will be considered for the trip to Dublin.
And it’s just as true that – with FFR vice-president Serge Simon paying very close attention – they will tell the media exactly nothing about what actually happened between the England and Scotland games at the 2019 Six Nations.
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments