2023-10-16 10:18:39
2023 Rugby World Cup in FrancedossierSouth Africa dashed the trophy hopes of the French XV, by one point, on Sunday October 15 in the quarter-final. In a post-match press conference, the coach congratulated the opponent, while captain Antoine Dupont blamed the refereeing.
Quite scrupulously respected since the start of the event, the Rugby World Cup protocol requires that the coach and captain of the team which has just lost the match appear first at a press conference (before then letting place for their opposing counterparts), thirty minutes after the final whistle. However, it was necessary to wait almost an hour before Fabien Galthié and Antoine Dupont deigned to sit on the stage, Sunday evening after the elimination of the Blues against South Africa, in order to answer the journalists’ questions. For the first time, the two men, accustomed to commenting on victories, found themselves beginning another ordeal, a media one, which no one doubts must have been, in their eyes, a chore, a torture perhaps. even. Because it was also the last time that we heard them express themselves, as participants in a competition that they had set themselves the objective of winning – an epiphany which, de facto, would have transformed them, and their companions, as eternal heroes of French rugby always in search of a global coronation.
The dream seemed perfectly realistic, given the French performances over the past four years (remember that at kick-off, the Blues occupied second place in the world rankings and that the day before, at the same place, Ireland, in pole position, was brutally ejected by New Zealand) and the extreme meticulousness with which the group had prepared a course which, in their mind, was to continue until October 28, the date of the final. However, to do this it was necessary to first get rid of South Africa, title holder (and already triple crowned), whose return to favor had nevertheless been dampened in the group by a defeat against Ireland.
“Hard and exciting at the same time”
First in group A, facing the second in group B, France (namely, the team, but also the entire public) suspected that the match would not be easy. Did she imagine herself packing up after this quarter-final? Certainly not. At 28-29, we can consider the defeat meritorious, it is especially crueler when we watch the film again. The confrontation could have gone to one side or the other, but, unlike several very indecisive French matches in recent years, did not smile on the Blues who are used to having the baraka.
Absolutely heroic from the kick-off, Toulouse hooker Peato Mauvaka, replaced in the 64th minute, recounts the last action: “It was hard and exciting at the same time. We’re trying to get back on track. There is a lot of playing time. We manage to keep the ball, probably hoping that the referee will end up penalizing the opposing team [et ainsi donner une pénalité à la France, qui, réussie, aurait été synonyme de victoire à l’arraché, ndlr]…And it didn’t happen.” Game over.
Arbitration incriminated by Dupont
Scattered on the pitch, the French players remained prostrate. Defeat was certainly possible, but not so much as unthinkable. Hence this gigantic disillusionment, which no words – not even obviously those of the President of the Republic, who will try to perfume the devastated locker room – can heal. “We must keep in mind the state of mind of a group having decided not to give up until the end, but that was not enough,” will modulate, fatalistically, Grégory Alldritt, among the rare gladiators, in the bowels of a quickly deserted Stade de France, to concede the final effort of a post-mortem reaction.
With more elegance, in any case, than Antoine Dupont. Before the third line at Stade Rochelais, captain Courage, although barely recovered from this broken cheekbone, which had generated a thousand and one speculations, had, perhaps under the influence of emotion, explicitly incriminated the refereeing (a French fad, which nevertheless often spares rugby) of New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe, while praising the South African performance: “I think that certain things that are clear and obvious to whistle have not been.”
«Respect et fair-play»
A path that Fabien Galthié, elegant in his analysis, was careful not to take, even specifying that with video, there is now a whole pool of officials capable of making decisions with full knowledge of the facts: “I I won’t go into that area. I understand the players’ position because there are a lot of emotions that are not easy to digest. But above all, congratulations to South Africa and their staff. Respect and fair play.”
Apart from this clarified point, as he will evoke the famous “playing facts” (very numerous in this high-level meeting rich in adventures, twists and turns and strokes of brilliance) which sometimes seal a destiny, the coach – who specified that he is always under contract with the French Rugby Federation until June 2028 – began his oration as follows: “I think first of our supporters, our families and those people who believe in us on a daily basis, the staff, the players.” A present indicative for the narration of a myth that, from now on, this XV of France will only be able to grant in the past tense.
#Blues #shocked #disappointed #Libération