LONG READ 'No-nonsense' heroes square up for Six Nations-defining tussle in Dublin

Only one French forward played the full 80 minutes against Italy last week. That was Francois Cros, the Toulouse blind-side flanker, who increasingly is becoming Fabien Galthie’s most reliable forward. He is held in similar regard in Toulouse. Cros’s club and international teammate, Alexandre Roumat, described him as “exceptional….one of the most underrated players in France”.

That’s because Cros, like all good blind-sides, does a lot of the hard graft that goes unnoticed by casual viewers. His work is best appreciated by statisticians. In last year’s Six Nations, for example, Cros was credited with more cleanouts than any other player (36) and he was fifth for attacking ruck arrivals.

Cros is also consistent, intelligent and durable, playing more than 1,100 minutes for Toulouse last season, an average of 70 a game. Not a bad total in a World Cup and Six Nations year. “He was there almost every time we won,” said Toulouse coach Ugo Mola. “So it’s not too much of a coincidence.”

In an era of high-quality loose forwards in France – Gregory Alldritt, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch, Paul Boudehent, Dylan Cretin and Roumat – Cros has nailed down the blind-side position.

What may have helped Cros fine tune his game is Jack Willis. Toulouse’s Englishman is a genuine open-side. Traditionally France, like South Africa, have tended not to distinguish between their 6s and 7s. They field ‘lefts’ and ‘rights’ and at each scrum this is the side on which they pack down.

The benefit of this system is the flankers are more interchangeable; the downside is the lack of specialisations can be exposed against the very best sides who field a shorter, swifter jackaling open-side alongside a big, brawny blind-side.

O’Mahony was recently praised by one newspaper for his “no-nonsense playing style”, a phrase that should be engraved on the tombstone of every international blind-side.

Willis arrived at Toulouse in 2022, the same year Cros began to establish himself in the France squad. Last season was his best yet in a blue shirt. It’s doing the unflashy stuff so well – the cleanouts and the clear ups – that makes Cros so essential to France. In that respect, the 30-year-old is following in the tradition of all the best blind-sides.

They are the unsung heroes of the back-row, frequently overshadowed by their more glamorous and noticeable 7s and 8s, at least among the general public if not their teammates: Alan Whetton in the great All Black back-row of the late 1980s, for instance, playing alongside Michael Jones and Buck Shelford; a generation later it was Jerome Kaino wearing 6, packing down with Richie McCaw and Kieran Read.

England’s unheralded No. 6 in the 2003 World Cup was Richard Hill, a role fulfilled by Jonathan Thomas when Wales won Grand Slams in 2005 and 2008. South Africa’s Juan Smith never got as much attention as the flaxen-haired Schalk Burger and ditto for Dan Lydiate in a back-row of Sam Warburton and Taulupe Faletau.

But as Warren Gatland said of Lydiate’s contribution to Wales’s 2012 Grand Slam triumph: “Dan is a definitely an unsung hero. There is not a lot flashy about him. He does a lot of the donkey work to make the others look good and you need those type of people. They are the glue that holds everything together. He is probably a little bit in the same mould Richard Hill was when England were going so well.”

Peter O’Mahony has been Ireland’s glue since he won the first of his 111 caps in 2012. The 35-year-old was recently praised by one newspaper for his “no-nonsense playing style”, a phrase that should be engraved on the tombstone of every international blind-side.

O’Mahony’s appearance against France on Saturday week will be his last Test at the Aviva Stadium. It is fitting it will pit him against Cros, bringing together in a mouth-watering confrontation between the two best blind-side flankers in the northern hemisphere.

Few Test opponents know O’Mahony as well as Scotland’s lock Richie Gray, who first encountered the Irishman in an U20 match in 2009. “He ran around the corner and he belted me,” recalled Gray in 2023. Asked to assess O’Mahony’s strengths, Gray praised his “dark arts around the breakdown”, explaining how for a line-out jumper like himself the Irishman is a constant pain the backside. “He causes defences a lot of issues because he’s very good in that defensive role whether jumping or lifting. So [he’s] a very smart operator and trying to pick up what he’s doing can be difficult.”

England’s lack of savvy has been criticised recently. It’s perhaps not a coincidence they have lacked an outstanding blind-side.

England’s lack of smart rugby, their street savviness, has been one of the criticisms levelled at them in recent seasons. It’s perhaps not a coincidence in this period they have lacked an outstanding blind-side. Traditionally, this has been an English speciality; in the past 50 years, for example, the majority of Lions Test blind-sides have come from England: Peter Dixon in 1971, Roger Uttley in 1974, Mike Teague in 1989, Ben Clarke in 1993, Lawrence Dallaglio in 1997, Richard Hill and Martin Corry in 2001, Hill in 2005, Tom Croft in 2009 and 2013 and Courtney Lawes in 2021.

Tom and Ben Curry are good loose forwards but they are not natural blind-sides. Nor is Ben Earl. The best back-rows are perfectly balanced, such as Kaino, McCaw and Read, the most effective trio of the professional era. They complemented each other perfectly: Kaino, the enforcer; McCaw the terrier and Read the athlete.

Chandler Cunningham-South might be the next outstanding English blind-side. The 21-year-old impressed last season when he broke into Test rugby, but as Lawes explained recently, Cunningham-South is still a work in progress. Praising his “big hits and good carries”, Lawes continued: “I just hope he continues to work on the smaller details. Because while that stuff is great and teams need it and can get a lot from it, there’s a lot of minutiae that needs to be done for you to actually be a net benefit to your team.”

The “minutiae’” the unflashy and unsung work, is what blind-sides excel at, and Cros and O’Mahony are two of the best in the business. It will be a pleasure for all rugby connoisseurs to watch them face off in the Aviva Stadium next Saturday. It will surely be a day of ‘no nonsense’.