2023-09-08 11:25:04
It is sacred union. Never before has the French XV approached a World Cup with unanimous approval and this one is also being played at home. The former Blues? “This team is marking its time, and I don’t think we have had such performances with the other French teams,” judge Christian Califano, pillar of the Blues from 1994 to 2007. An enthusiasm shared by his former teammate and third row Olivier Magne: “These Blues are confident and have done everything they can to be in a position to finally bring back the title. »
The playing masters of the Blues of yesterday are just as laudatory. “This French team is the best armed of all time, with almost three excellent players on each line who can do the job, it’s huge,” praises Pierre Villepreux, co-coach of the Blues from 1995 to 1999. “The French XV finally has a typical team, a lot of certainty in its game, and experienced management”adds Philippe Saint-André, in charge between 2011 and 2015.
Forget the three previous failures in the final
Even Emmanuel Macron, visiting the base camp of the XV of France in Rueil-Malmaison on September 4 to encourage the troops, did not hesitate to polish the costume of the Blues’ favorite: “You are at home, you are the best prepared team in the world, there is no doubt. » Of which act. The XV of France will be world champions, because they “deserves him in some way for all of his work!” “, insists Jean-Claude Skrela, who was in the heyday of the French team in the 1970s before coaching it at the end of the 1990s.
After three world finals lost in 1987, 1999 and 2011, the Blues are required at the top, and this is the sporting challenge of this tenth edition which exceeds all the previous ones. Starting with the 2007 meeting, where France already hosted most of a World Cup that it co-organized with Scotland and Wales. His XV then did not raise the same mountains of enthusiasm, but popular enthusiasm was present in all the cities hosting the tournament.
The results of the French XV during previous World Cups. / Visactu
However, a cold shower hit him from the opening match, the Blues having their pride scratched from the start by the Argentinian Pumas (12-17). Then of course, there was the revenge quarter-final snatched from the New Zealanders (20-18). But a rather poor finish in the semi-final against the English (9-14) and a rather dull overall spectacle, ultimately crowning the hardworking but overpowering South Africans, left only an unvarnished memory.
Relieve pressure
A lesson from the past to ponder? A World Cup at home can indeed be difficult to negotiate. The English know this well, they who in 2015 put away their crampons in the first round. But the Blues this year seem made of different wood, almost insensitive to pressure. They arrive after a grand slam in the 2022 Six Nations Tournament, 14 victories in a row during this period, and even if Ireland ended this series to win the Tournament and the 2023 grand slam, the Blues finished best attack in this competition (21 tries and 174 points in total).
All this is obviously not all-risk insurance, especially since the jokey draw normally reserved for the Blues a quarter-final against Ireland or South Africa, in other words the two other nations which have the favors of the predictions this year. The story could therefore end there, without necessarily having much to say but eternal regrets to digest.
Should we therefore only look for joy on the field through these three flagship teams? World Rugby swears the tournament will be “undecided to the end”. Except that if there is suspense, it is above all due to the lackluster state of certain squads. England is looking for itself, Australia is limping, Wales is lost and Argentina is stalling. Which therefore validates the hypothesis of a nation jostling the traditional guests in the quarter-finals on the side of groups C and D. The twirling Fijians? The Samoans recently very leggy? The hungry legionnaires of Georgia? For them too, history is in the making.
#French #finally #armed #glory