The American football player Carson Palmer once said, “you don’t have a rivalry unless both sides are great teams,” a line of thinking that seems appropriate when looking to put a tag on Saturday’s Six Nations championship game between Ireland and France at the Aviva Stadium.
There is no doubt about the current status of the two countries in the global standings. It wasn’t always a rivalry. Ireland might have won the first six matches between the nations but right up to the advent of professionalism were chasing the French on and off the pitch.
Since 1996, Ireland have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, certainly compared to a run of abject misery from the mid-70s to the last year of the second millennium. France lead 20-12 with a couple of draws in the professional era but the last 15 years has been more fruitful from an Irish perspective; becoming a fixture to look forward to rather than dread.
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My first experience of playing France was also my Six Nations debut, the opening game of the 2004 Six Nations tournament, as a newly converted centre and wearing the 13 jersey for Ireland in the absence of an injured Brian O’Driscoll. Ireland had won three of the four previous meetings including the victory in Paris (2000) inspired by O’Driscoll’s hat-trick of tries.
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We lost that day at the Stade de France, our only defeat in finishing second to the eventual Grand Slam-winning French side. I am an unapologetic Francophile, especially when it comes to their rugby and that applied whether I was facing their club teams or in Test matches.
That day I was mesmerised by the stadium, by the pageantry and perhaps most of all by the way our hosts played the game. Nowadays we marvel at the amazing feats of Antoine Dupont and his team-mates, but France have always managed to produce players with audacious talent.
Jean-Baptiste Éllisalde and Freddie Michalak were the halfbacks, Serge Betsen, Olivier Magne and Imanol Harinordoquy formed the backrow in a star-studded French team, a who’s who of rugby royalty that we squared off against that day in Paris. French rugby has always been endowed with naturally gifted entertainers.
In the fledgling days of professionalism Ireland didn’t have any globally recognised names outside perhaps Keith Wood until he handed the mantle and the captaincy to O’Driscoll. When the Irish system began to kick into gear, the quality of the players it produced improved. Success in Test rugby is predominantly down to maximising our resources.
That process relied heavily on the sum of the parts rather than marquee names and in having the ability to overperform. We have produced high-quality players but equally as important is that our system is fit for purpose as it feeds the national requirements. We have also benefited from having the right coaches for the right teams at the right times.
Organisation, structure and the type of player we develop all fit snugly into our rugby identity. Ireland play to a system with strong role responsivity, where it comes down to collective execution to deliver a line-break, a successful 3 v 2, or finish off an opportunity to score.
There is a clearly defined role for each player, whether you’re James Ryan, Andrew Porter, Caelan Doris, Bundee Aki or Sam Prendergast, whether you provide the sprinkle of magic dust like a Dan Sheehan or a Jamison Gibson-Park or offer the occasional off-the-cuff freestyling like Mack Hansen and James Lowe. Ireland are well coached too.
While the Irish system draws admiring gazes from around the world, the French model perhaps does not get as much appreciation as it deserves. France have two fully professional leagues in the Top 14 and Pro D2 that provide lavishly to the national team.
Age-old disputes and mistrust has been resolved between the LNR and the FFR as the clubs are aligned to support the national team in a co-ordinated fashion even with private ownership, something that has never really been successfully navigated in England.
France have the agility and depth of talent to change course in selection without compromising style and substance. When they lost to England, head coach Fabien Galthié made changes for the game against Italy in Rome that elicited the desired response.
Damian Penaud walks into most teams in world rugby but an unusually off-colour display against England saw him dropped in the aftermath and replaced by Théo Attissogbé for the Italian match.
Attissogbé had scored a brace of tries in the opening game against Wales but was left out when Penaud returned from injury for the English game and, despite scoring a try in Rome, the Pau fullback cum wing might have to hand the shirt back to Penaud for Saturday’s game in Dublin.
French rugby has always had a light touch when it comes to structure and instead relied on the innate Gallic flair that, when in full flow, becomes almost undefendable. It can be challenging at times when managing highly-strung athletes.
The pressure on Galthié increased following the disappointment of being knocked out at the quarter-final stage of their home World Cup. He needs to win this Six Nations to turn down the heat or the clamour for his head will grow distinctly louder. His 7-1 split on the bench appears a manifestation of that pressure.
Ireland’s success in the last two Six Nations might perplex French supporters as they struggle to square a circle when they look at the Top 14 as against a modest four professional team set-up in Ireland.
Bonus points are unlikely to feature too heavily in any conversation this week about Saturday’s match but may play a bigger role as the next fortnight unfolds. This match is as much a battle of organisational structures as it is coaching philosophies: Irish cohesiveness and individual responsibility squaring up to the individual brilliance and unpredictability of the French.
The championship may not be won in the Aviva on Saturday, but it can be lost. The pressure and expectancy is off the charts. If Ireland prevail, they take another step towards ensuring Six Nations dominance for a third season in succession.
If France find their spark, they remind the world why, despite the volatility, they remain one of rugby’s most dangerous sides. I think this is why I loved playing against the French, because no matter the era, no matter the stakes, they always bring a game that challenges, excites, and defines what makes rugby truly special.
