Shaun Edwards' Wasps-influenced tactic for quickly tackling the language barrier in France
Shaun Edwards has revealed his approach to tackling the language barrier now that he is defence coach at Fabien Galthie’s France.
The Englishman learned his trade on the books at Wasps and Wales over a considerable period of time, but he is now very much out of his comfort zone having started working with the French the weekend after he returned from the recent World Cup in Japan.
In his first major interview about his new role in a country he claims he always wanted coach in, Edwards told Midi Olympique, the bi-weekly French rugby newspaper, how he is settling in ahead of the 2020 Six Nations which kicks off for Les Bleus with a February 2 home match versus France in Paris.
In tackling the language barrier, he explained he had taken advice from Serge Betsen and is leaning on the influence of new France team boss Raphael Ibanez, both of whom he coached at Wasps.
“Wherever I worked, I adopted an attitude that allowed me to adapt to them. I have no fear,” he insisted to Midi. “Players only want one thing: to win. So they want coaches who want the same thing and who help them get there. And then I’ve already trained French players in the past, like Raphael Ibanez or Serge Betsen.
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“I recently met Serge to talk to him about it. He explained to me the differences in training in France, the relationships with coaches, etc. He gave me lots of good advice that I will keep very precious. It’s someone that I respect a lot.
“Raphael is one of the reasons that made me work with France today. It also reminds me of a discussion I had with him the other day: obviously, I am not yet bilingual in French because I cannot have a long conversation.
“However, I can train in French because when you train, you have to be concise. When he arrived at the Wasps in 2005, Rapha remembered: in the field, I said only two or three words, four maximum. It helped him a lot.
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“So I hope these short sentences will also help the French team. To come back to your question, the presence of Raphael played a big role in my decision. Because he is a professional and he can create a competitive environment for players and coaches so that everyone can progress.
“I always wanted to train in France. I have always loved your rugby and watched the Top 14 carefully. My son studied in France too, and he speaks your language fluently. In short, I always suspected that I would eventually train in France one day or another.
“This desire also came with my confrontations with the French teams: I still remember the Heineken Cup games against Toulouse when I coached the Wasps. It made me want to work in this environment.”
It is not every day that a player candidly admits he was in the wrong… step forward Clermont's Damian Penaudhttps://t.co/9noGPQYXy9
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He didn’t hang around getting stuck in after Wales’ World Cup finished with a bronze medal defeat to New Zealand. “I came back from the World Cup on Monday and the following Saturday I was in France to start working with the French staff in the village where Fabien was born.
“We started our meetings, and also met the media, which was a very important moment. We also visited the clubs but above all, we had the opportunity to train together.
“We did it with Massy’s team, and we worked the same way as we will with France’s XV. It was very beneficial for me, I was able to train in French. I want to do it with the XV of France. We will repeat the experience in two weeks with the under-20s in Italy.”
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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