France wins its first World Cup warm-up match
The Scottish and French teams faced off last Saturday at 9:05 pm in Nice for their first World Cup warm-up match. Cheered on by the crowds at the Allianz Riviera, the French team triumphed over the Scots (32-3). This match was the first time the French National team had ever kicked off at the Allianz Riviera. A headline event!
A SUPERB WIN FOR THE FRENCH TEAM
The French team, affectionately known as Les Bleus, left the recent 6 Nations Tournament with a bitter taste in their mouth. In Nice, we were won over by an impressive and effective squad. Six weeks of hard work have already paid off. Pumped up and placed in effective offensive and defensive structures, Jacques Brunel’s players literally steamrolled Scotland. The final score of 32 - 3 for France included five tries: one by Raka, two by Medard, one by Alldritt and the last one by Dupont.
We can safely say the French team is off to a tremendous start leading up to the World Cup in Japan (20 September-2 November). As for the Scots, they suffered their worst defeat against the French in 15 years. The Scottish team will no doubt be in fighting form and looking for revenge in a few days time in Edinburgh.
At the post-match press conference, French coach Jacques Brunel was asked about changes in the offensive strategy that helped give France the win:
"I don’t know. I don’t think there were that many changes. In the past, we had an average of 7-8 line breaks and scored one try. Today, we broke through the Scots line ten times and scored five tries. That’s the real difference. Maybe we are more focused, more applied. It’s true, we’ve been working on the details, some of them for two months. We spent a lot of time perfecting our moves and plays. We know more or less what the team will do, not each individual. It’s a good start, but next weekend (against Scotland again), will be another showdown, with new challenges. No question, we’ll need to be more effective."
The test match victory of Jacques Brunel’s team on Saturday evening at the Allianz Riviera shows promise, to say the least. Deploying a compelling 3rd line, the French team treated spectators to a superb match, not conceding any tries and scoring five of their own during the match. Now the promise needs to be kept next Saturday in Edinburgh against the same Scottish team, in a context that will be as thorny as the thistles themselves.
