France player ratings vs Wales
A game defined by Sebastien Vahaamahina’s inexplicable elbow to Wales’ Aaron Wainwright.
In a bizarre reversal of Sam Warburton’s 2011 red card against France, it was a split-second act that will haunt Vahaamahina for the rest of his career.
France had made five changes from the side that defeated Tonga almost two weeks ago with captain Guilhem Guirado coming in for Camille Chat at hooker, second row Bernard Le Roux replaced Paul Gabrillagues who drops to the bench, nine Antoine Dupont comes in for Baptiste Serin , left-winger Yoann Huget displaces Alivereti Raka and Gael Fickou comes in at inside centre for Sofiane Guitoune; both Raka and Guitoune drop out of the 23.
Here’s how we rated the French.
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1. JEFFERSON POIROT
Brunel was one of his coaches at Bordeaux Bègles and the French national team coach clearly holds him in high regard. The co-captain gave away a neck roll penalty in the 24th minute. Sadly Inspector Poirot was unable to solve the mystery of how to win a RWC quarter-final with 14 men.
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2. GUILHEM GUIRADO (CAPT.)
Rumours of mutiny to one side, Guirado spilled the ball that led to Wainwright’s opportunistic try that broke France’s early dominance. He was up for the fight and played his part in a largely dominant French forward pack.
6.5
3. RABAH SLIMANI
Started at tight-head prop in four of France’s five matches at RWC 2015. Tackled well in the loose. The master scrum technician didn’t get much beyond scrum parity against the Welsh.
6
Consider those bridges burned Michael. #RWC2019 https://t.co/LKL3fQswQZ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 20, 2019
4. BERNARD LE ROUX
When he was called up in June, a knee injury had kept him out of international rugby for a year. A backrow playing in the engine room, Le Roux had a relatively quiet shift.
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5. SEBASTIEN VAHAAMAHINA
The mammoth lock brushed aside Welsh defenders to claim France’s first try. Gave away a penalty for a high shot in front of the posts in the 19th minute, letting Wales further back into the game. Cost France a try in the 48th needlessly and got sent off for his troubles, throwing a game France deserved to win. Unforgivably stupid.
2
6. WENCESLAS LAURET
Got through a tonne of the less glamorous stuff, chasing balls down and antagonising the Welsh at every opportunity.
7
7. CHARLES OLLIVON
A huge tackle that saw him and a colleague hoist 135kg Thomas Francis into the air before dumping him backwards set the tone. Took France’s second try with immense confidence. A standout for Les Bleus.
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8. GREGORY ALLDRITT
You wouldn’t know he was a reserve in the Federale 1 just two years ago. Carried powerfully, although his lack of speed and decisiveness in passing let him down more than once.
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9. ANTOINE DUPONT
Completely outshone Gareth Davies, the tournament’s form nine. His box kicking was assured. This Enfant Terrible is a joy to watch and will go on to be a French great.
8.5
10. ROMAIN NTAMACK
It’s his ability to play make on the line that separates Ntamack from mere mortals. However, you need to kick your points in knock out rugby and his missed kicks at goal will have annoyed the young Toulousain. You can’t spurn six kickable points in a RWC quarter-final. Didn’t come back on in the secondhalf, a real blow for France.
7.5
11. YOANN HUGET
A quiet first half for one of rugby union’s chief pantomime villains. Intercepted the ball in the 64th minute with the Welsh threatening the line. Easily worth 2 of his 6 points alone.
6
12. GAEL FICKOU
Part of an early assault on Wales defense and looked sharp. The victim of a yellow card hit from Moriarty, but it didn’t slow down the Frenchman was a constant threat and was the catalyst for most of France’s most incisive attacks.
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13. VIRIMI VAKATAWA
Made a blistering break for Ollivion’s try. Got into George North’s face too. Picked a beautiful line off Penaud for his try and always made metres with ball in hand and Welsh players on his back. Will have left a number of Welsh defenders with PTSD.
8.5
14. DAMIAN PENAUD
Mixed the brilliant with the bizarre. Attempted to volley the ball with the line beckoning when a retaining possession would have been preferable. Needs to temper his enthusiasm. A vast talent no doubt but he needs to grow up a bit and bin the histrionics.
6.5
15. MAXIME MEDARD
The old man of the French backs. He didn’t always win his kicking battles but he was a steady influence from fullback. Some questionable decision making when France looked to kill the game 20 minutes out.
7.5
16. CAMILLE CHAT
Mr Neck came off the bench in France’s opening round victory over Argentina, and started against USA and Tonga. Was powerful in contact, carrying with menace.
7.5
17. CYRIL BAILLE
Sits behind Poirot, one of Les Bleus’ co-captains, in the pecking order at loose-head prop. Did nothing wrong in his time on the pitch.
6
18. EMERICK SETIANO
Was uncapped when he was called up for France’s initial World Cup squad in June. Played his part in a short cameo.
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19. PAUL GABRILLAGUES
Came on for La Roux. Didn’t do enough to rate.
NA
20. LOUIS PICAMOLES
One of only two players in France’s squad in a third successive World Cup, alongside captain Guilhem
Guirado. One impressive carry aside, not on long enough to rate.
NA
21. BAPTISTE SERIN
A bit of a super-sub, having made four replacement appearances at scrum-half in the 2019 Six Nations. Not on long enough to rate.
NA
22. CAMILLE LOPEZ
Carried on Ntamack’s kick missing exploits. Other than that kept the Frenchman from self-destructing, a major task for any French 10.
6
23. VINCENT RATTEZ
NA
Comments on RugbyPass
late 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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 commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments