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« Le XV de France a été démasqué », selon Schalk Burger
Il y a tout juste six mois, la France balayait les All Blacks en match d’ouverture de sa propre Coupe du Monde et le monde du rugby semblait être à ses pieds.
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Six mois plus tard, c’est un véritable miracle du rugby que les Bleus aient réussi à remporter une victoire et un match nul lors de leurs trois premiers matchs du Tournoi des Six Nations. Une décision différente de l’arbitre vidéo contre l’Écosse et un placement un peu plus sûr du ballon sur le tee par l’Italien Paolo Garbisi et les Bleus se retrouveraient à la dernière place du Tournoi des Six Nations au lieu de la quatrième.
Six Nations
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Ireland
3
3
0
0
15
2
Scotland
3
2
1
0
9
3
England
3
2
1
0
8
4
France
3
1
1
1
6
5
Wales
3
0
3
0
3
6
Italy
3
0
2
1
3
La liste des blessés n’a pas non plus aidé Fabien Galthié, notamment en deuxième-ligne. et en plus de ça, la longue blessure au genou de Romain Ntamack et la pige d’Antoine Dupont dans le rugby à sept ont privé la France de sa charnière préférée, et ça se voit.
Au vu des premiers matchs du Tournoi 2024, les anciens Springboks Schalk Burger et Jean de Villiers estiment que la France a été « démasquée » sur le plan tactique.
Répondant à Hanyani Shimange dans l’émission Boks Office sur RugbyPass TV cette semaine, les deux champions du monde ont décrypté pourquoi la France ne profite plus de son long jeu au pied. Parallèlement à ce problème, Burger ajoute que les champions du Tournoi des Six Nations 2022 ont perdu l’intensité qu’ils avaient il y a encore quelques semaines.
« Vu la façon dont ils jouent, je pense que les gens ont compris les raisons de leur jeu au pied », a expliqué l’ancien troisième-ligne.
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« Une grande partie de leur jeu repose sur leurs entrées dans les 22. La précision autour du maul et avec Dupont, c’est un peu comme s’ils avaient un troisième-ligne supplémentaire dans les 22, car il est une vraie menace et il accélère le tempo du jeu.
« Là, ils n’ont ni Dupont ni Ntamack, mais je pense que c’est un peu plus compliqué que ça. Ils ne sont pas récompensés par leur jeu au pied. Je pense qu’ils ont été un peu démasqués.
« Ils n’ont pas non plus cette intensité. Si vous repensez au quart de finale que nous avons joué contre eux, l’intensité qu’ils avaient – le premier maul qu’ils ont marqué, [Peato] Mauvaka était à la finition, et c’était un maul dans les 22 mètres contre les Springboks, la meilleure équipe au monde pour défendre un maul.
« Chaque fois qu’ils ont eu un maul dans les 22, ils ont défoncé la porte et ont trouvé le moyen de marquer un essai. Ce week-end, contre l’Italie, lorsqu’ils ont eu la possession dans les 22, ils n’ont pas eu la même efficacité. Ce n’est pas la même agressivité, le même tempo, la même étincelle. Il semble presque facile de les éliminer, alors que pendant les quatre années qui ont précédé la Coupe du monde, on pensait que lorsqu’ils entraient dans les 22, on se disait ‘les gars, on est mal’. »
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Comments on RugbyPass
Really poorly written rambling piece ..
2 Go to commentsIt was so boring
1 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
27 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
53 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
9 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
27 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
9 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
9 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
4 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
2 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
9 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
53 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
3 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
53 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
160 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
160 Go to comments