RWC 2015: French hold their hands up

The headline in French sports bible L’Equipe proclaimed ‘The Blues Not Up to Standard,’ as they reflected on Ireland’s 24-9 at the Millennium stadium on Saturday.

The match was dissected but the overwhelming tone was that Ireland had deserved their victory. In another article under the headline, 'When All You Can Do Is Defend,' French centre Wesley Fofana spoke of his frustration, adamant that France were not second best to Ireland physically.

“I’m not sure that the Irish we were superior physically. At half-time, we said: ‘it’s either them or us.’ We felt that we were holding them well and that if we attacked well the second half, we would win the match. They increased the intensity immediately after the restart.

“It has set us back, and they scored (a try) when we had to. Ultimately it was them (Ireland) that managed. I’m not sure they were superior to us on an individual level. We needed to stop turning over possession. The difference in the end was the ability to perform the basics.

“They (Ireland) might say when you’re just defending it’s difficult to win a match.

“Losing the game disappoints and frustrates us. We are in the quarter-final maybe not in the manner we wanted to be there but we are there.”

French coach Phillipe Saint-Andre was gracious in defeat. The headline read: ‘They More Than Deserved Their Victory,’ and the Frenchman admitted: “I wanted to congratulate the Irish tonight, they more than deserved victory. For us, we have to recover and analyse, knowing that we are still in the race, and prepare for a big game on Saturday in Cardiff face the All Blacks.”

Mathieu Bastareaud summed up his feelings under the headline, 'A match To Put in the Trash.' While scrumhalf Sebastian Tillous Borde admitted 'that Ireland beat us in the ground game,' before adding that they gave the Irish backrow too much scope to have such a big influence on the game.

Rugbyrama, the website for Midi Olympique, delved into the post mortem and among the headlines was one which questioned, 'Why was Freddie Michalak replaced so soon,' suggesting that Saint-Andre had panicked in replacing his playmaker.

Arnuad Coudry in his players ratings for Le Figaro newspaper gave Mathieu Bastareaud 3.5 out of 10, the same mark as Noa Nakaitaci with the entire frontrow and Michalak receiving four and only number eight, Louis Picamoles, described as 'valiant' making the grade with a seven.

Indeed Bastareaud in the same newspaper was pretty honest in appraising his own performance: “I am a competitor. Today, I have not responded in that way. Inevitably, I am very disappointed. There are plenty of things I’ve done wrong. I had a bad game. I am not ashamed in admitting it. It is by telling the truth that we can hope to bounce back,” before grabbing the headline writers attention with his promise that “I will give everything on the pitch to beat the All Blacks. “

Le Parisien’s headline read: “Dominated by Ireland, the Blues must challenge the All Blacks.’

But perhaps the most bizarre hypothesis came in the New Zealand Herald who suggested that France might have ‘tanked’ the match against Ireland because Les Bleus wanted to face the All Blacks rather than Argentina in a quarter-final.

These thoughts were peddled on the basis of an interview given by the 2011 World Cup winning coach Graham Henry to a radio station prior to the match in Cardiff in which he said: "There's a French psyche that doesn't like playing Argentina so I just wonder if they might be a bit indifferent going into tomorrow morning's game about the result (against Ireland). I don't think they mind playing the All Blacks."

An average of 10.9 million viewers France’s 24-9 defeat to Ireland at the Millennium stadium, which represented a record for the French television station TF1 and an audience share on the day of over 53 per cent.