LONG READ Why it's time to stop using Lions rigours as an excuse for French supremacy

Yeah, poor excuse. Top14 is far more difficult than Premiership, and longer too. + France also had international matchs, just like the Lions. From what I saw (Lions where on french channel “L’Équipe”) it wasn’t really difficult matchs. Lot of matchs against clubs without their internationals players. 1 loss and 2 wins against Australia, and I remember perfectly that one of these wins was clearly stolen by the ref (REALLY) litigious decision. The thing was, the referee focused on a potentially dangerous play before saying there was nothing there (which was debatable, but legal, being left to the referee's discretion). Whereas the real foul was a Lion diving on its support during the same play, which strangely went unnoticed.

So, when you should have lost even that Lion tour, just stay quiet about it. Do not use that to pretend the one in front of you can do better because of it. What if us, french, were complaining EVERY YEAR about how tired we are, playing more in top14 than the others ? We would look like idiots, and rightly so. So, instead of whining, we just use other players than our premium ones. It's the price of getting the richest, most financially stable, and most difficult championship in the world (yep, i’m a patriot, try to change my mind on this xD)

Funny, it is a sort of feeling I have when listening to polictics - they trying to sell the facts they are not seeing the way it should be seen. Yet the statistics tells a different - thank you for it by the way, yet I see the picture still a bit differnt, not arguing that France is better now.

I do think that 2 matches is a big deal in current rugby load for players and also the schedule, which is one bye week shorter for all.

I am not sure it is only Lions though - that is also a bit too far fetch may be, yet I think the psychological load of any more than a month tour is hard for any person.

There is a few things which is not so obvious at my point of view - for exampls - who you play home and away games- in Top 14, outside of very important away matches usually B squad is used by many if not all teams at aways - the point is to win home games and make the local fun base happy, you cannot buy the tickets away anyway - this make a sort of logic - home game to be won, while Lions, URC and Premeur is a bit differetnly build.

France is strong, well coached and what is for the short and rather homogeneous championship as 6N is extremely important - extremely well in defence (Wales, Wales, Wales…) - and defence wins the touornaments, especially such as 6N ones - in rugby it is almost a “biblical rule” now - there is no offence, which is overtrump solid deffence now - outside last 20 minutes of extremely phisical tests - like NZ-SA or FR -SA last year.

But this small “x factor” of about 2 more matches in Lions years is the one to make Les Bleus Grand Slam contenders every year after Lions Tour years. And the favorable schedule to this one…

What is well coaching though for me … - think if France had to play Ireland next away in Doublin now - after the Twickenham pumping of the Roses … - yet they pump Ireland in the round one… in Doublin and well deserved the GS this year… May be the Scotts are not bought in, but for them 3 matches on the same level is almost impossible so far

Sounds like Barrisi had 5 weeks too.

It’s the same situation with the hosts of the Lions as well, only once has the host country (Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa) gone on to win the following WC (and I think it was the last one?).

Certainly in regard to England, lions tours cannot be used as an excuse.

For a union with the resources of the RFU, Englands record since winning the WC in 2003 has been mediocre, both in the 6ns and more generally.

I think a 10 team league that is the prem, just isnt competitive enough, and France and Ireland have generally dominated the European cup, since Sarries had their winning run.

The RFU have made consistently poor coaching appointments.

It’s business as usual for French players, but for many B&I Lions it’s every other year. RWC one year, normal rythm on the next one, B&I Lions Tour just after and so on.

I think that both can be true at the same time. As a French supporter, I wouldn’t say France are lucky, but they can still benefit from the fact that many B&I Lions have a drop in performance.

Just as Northampton might have benefited from certain circumstances last year to put up brillant rugby and get to the ECPR final.

But I wouldn’t negate the mental impact Furlong was talking about: the B&I Lions Tour is such a psychological peak that you don’t know how to find motivation.

In football, many players talk about the drop in performance after winning the World Cup, with injuries coming in.

Just like I would never take away rustiness from the equation when nations play their first test of the season, or fatigue when SH teams end their tours in the North.

Saying it’s an excuse is misunderstanding basic human and sport’s realities. You just need to readapt, what’s so strange about that?

To me, only the RWC can be a plausible circumstance for possible conclusions.

All the other grandiloquent statements that we see in all the articles to try to grasp reality without nuancing are limited.

This is a great in depth analysis and really makes you appreciate the workload of all of these players. It would be very interesting to see this comparison with the Springbok players in Japan and the URC or Super Rugby players for the All Blacks, who are managed much better from a physical point of view so that they can focus predominantly on their test seasons.

Brilliant read!

I think France are just better, top to bottom at the moment. Players, coaching, domestic league and age grade.

Their slam stats are very interesting after Lions tours. It seems that winning or losing a Lions series has no real difference and takes an equal amount out of some players. Or it’s maybe just a statistical quirk? A clean sweep does generally require you to have some key matches played at home with home advantage.

There is a counter trend though against France winning titles immediately following RWCs - tournaments in the professional era were they have always been expected to deliver

(‘99) 2000 - England

(‘03) 2004 - France *the outlier but the 2003 RWC was won by NH team

(‘07) 2008 - Wales

(‘11) 2012 - Wales

(‘15) 2016 - England

(‘19) 2020 - England

(‘23) 2024 - Ireland

I do think their World Cup hangovers are a real thing

Using the lions tour as an excuse is poor form. France have as many minutes as the BAIL players, and are at their peak right now