Who can deprive England of the world title in New Zealand? At the dawn of the Rugby World Cup, which starts on Saturday (October 8-November 12), the contenders seem few, so obvious is the stranglehold of the “Red Roses” on the world stage. The one-year postponement of the competition because of the Covid has changed nothing, if not reinforced this state of affairs.
With a trajectory going crescendo for twelve months, punctuated by two convincing victories against the New Zealanders, reigning world champions, and a second place in the Six Nations Tournament behind the inevitable English, the French women are legitimately part of this handful of outsiders able to shake up the hierarchy.
They nevertheless have a glass ceiling to break: never titled in the World Cup, they have also never done better than a third place in the competition. At the World Cup, the Blues are like bronze subscribers, with six of the eight editions of the competition concluded on the third step, including the last (1991, 1994, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2017).
“Edit Attack Formats”
“Humble and Hungry” – their motto, flocked in full on their shirts, has perhaps never so well summed up the state of mind of captain Gaëlle Hermet’s teammates this year. Hermet, 45 caps, operational again after a knee injury but not on the sheet for the opening match, knows that in front, the big nations “worked hard”. And impressed: the New Zealand “Black Ferns” atomized (95-12) the Japanese in a warm-up match. Same punishment inflicted by the English “Red Roses” to the Welsh (73-7) before flying to Oceania.
France also worked, but with more messy results: they barely managed to overcome Italy (21-0) at the start of September, before being beaten by these same transalpines (26-19) a week later. The upheaval at the head of the Bleues in May, five months before the competition – Thomas Darracq became coach of the XV, replacing Annick Hayraud who fell a notch as manager – can it be detrimental to them?
Difficult to measure how much the approach to the game advocated by Darracq has spread within the workforce. The 45-year-old technician defines himself as “Project Manager” game, dilutes the responsibilities with Hayraud, who knows the group. He advocates the “versatility”, the “healthy competition” and wishes to draw inspiration from the success of the Fabien Galthié-Raphaël Ibañez duo in the men’s category. Above all, he took office with specific plans in mind.
During the weeks of preparation, the accent was placed on the need to optimize the athletic potential of the players, not exploited enough over eighty minutes. Other lines of work: «retoiletter» the defensive system and “change attack formats”, in order to better adapt to the adversary’s systems. The staff also called on Gaëlle Mignot to fill in the apparent gaps in attitudes in contact, one of the keys if the French women want to hope to pocket the deal. They will also have to find this fluidity in the transmissions which was theirs a year ago, at the time of the autumn tour.
Classic and continuity
Above all, Les Bleues will have to concretize their highlights better than during the last Six Nations, where many of the points that were promised to them often evaporated five or ten meters from the in-goal. It is for all these reasons that we can explain the presence of the unexpected septiste Joanna Grisez, zero international cap but sevens world rugby champion, among the 32. The AC Bobigny winger will even be aligned opening match against South Africa. A “outstanding finisher […] able to be strong in small spaces, a physical and aggressive player in a good way,” hire the coach.
For the rest of the troops, classic, in the continuity of the last few months: executives accustomed to very high level games, such as the third line Romane Ménager (50 selections) and Marjorie Mayans (48 selections), even if for the last mentioned , the last game with Les Bleues dates back more than a year. To orchestrate the tricolor game, a five-star hinge: the pair made up of scrum half Laure Sansus (30 caps), best player of the Six Nations and for whom this World Cup is the last international competition, associated with Caroline Drouin (25 caps) at opening, should cause some damage.
With eight qualified out of twelve in the quarterfinals, the pools will be a good exercise to harmonize the forces present. Even if we should not procrastinate in group C: in addition to South Africa, Fiji and especially England are already waiting for Les Bleues. Before the rematch in the final?