Forget the Paris implosion – France are building a force to be feared | Ben Ryan

Feb 06, 2019

France have learned from their mistakes and beginnings of a team for tomorrow could be forged against England on Sunday

In the aftermath of France’s second-half implosion against Wales, there was an explosion of a lazy stereotype with “typically French” uttered loin et large across TV, radio and social media to explain away the team’s performance.

Having spent the past 18 months working in French rugby such pigeonholing sits uncomfortably. Surely no one can have been referring to an inability of French sportsmen and women to deliver when it matters? The current French football world champions, who won the most competitive tournament in the world, might disagree they bottled it for a start. It does not apply in French rugby, either. The under-20s won the most recent Junior World Cup and their under-18s won the first Youth Olympics’ Sevens gold medal. The women’s XV side, meanwhile, are the grand slam champions.

If anything else is needed to fire up France, the vocal criticism of the team by the French media this week will have done that

Tags: England rugby union team France rugby union team Rugby union Six Nations Six Nations 2019 Sport