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France should do 'whatever it takes' to sign Joe Schmidt

Joe Schmidt. Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

The French Rugby Federation should throw the chequebook at Joe Schmidt in order to sign him as head coach of their national side, according to former England and British and Irish Lions wing Ugo Monye.

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Les Bleus are enduring a turbulent period under the guidance of current head coach Jacques Brunel, who has lost the faith of his players who are reportedly plotting a revolt against him following an extremely poor run of results.

Under Brunel’s stewardship, France have lost nine of their last 10 tests, which have included a first-ever loss to Fiji, their biggest defeat to England in more than a century, a second half capitulation which led to defeat against Wales, and a three-match series pummelling at the hands of New Zealand last year.

Their losses to Wales and England over the last fortnight means their Six Nations aspirations have been left in tatters with three matches still to play, and this has been reflected in the world rankings, where they have slipped below second-tier Fiji into an all-time low of 10th place.

Now just seven months out from the World Cup, Monye said that the French are the worst-coached team in the Six Nations, and believes that they need to sign a New Zealand coach to fix their woes.

Monye highlighted Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt as a prime candidate to resurrect France as a leading power within the world rugby landscape given his capabilities as a coach.

“I would be paying whatever it is to get Joe Schmidt to France,” he said on the BBC.

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As the reigning World Rugby Coach of the Year, Schmidt has led Ireland to their most successful period in the professional era, elevating them to as high as second on the world rankings after claiming their maiden two victories over the All Blacks, clinching three Six Nations titles in their last five campaigns, and winning World Team of the Year for the first time last year.

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Schmidt comes off contract with the Ireland Rugby Football Union at the end of this year’s World Cup, and has publicly stated he intends to take time away from the game to focus on his family, with his son suffering from epilepsy and having previously battled a brain tumour when he was younger.

But Monye believes that the FFR need to do everything in their power to get Schmidt on board, stating that France’s lack of southern hemisphere influence has left them behind their Six Nations rivals.

The 35-year-old said that the French language barrier has prevented top quality southern hemisphere coaches – such as Schmidt, Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland – from taking the reigns of the French national side.

“You can get anyone in the southern hemisphere to come up and coach in the northern hemisphere, in England, Wales, Ireland or Scotland and it’s no problem,” the 16-test international said.

“But to try to get the message across [in France] is so difficult.”

However, Schmidt has previous coaching experience in France, having assisted fellow New Zealander Vern Cotter at Clermont from 2007 to 2010, and has a good understanding of the language, making him an ideal candidate for the job.

“He coached there [with Clermont] for a few years and he’s fluent in French,” Monye said.

There are many southern hemisphere coaches currently plying their trade in the Top 14, with former Scotland coach Cotter in charge of Montpellier, while former Springboks boss Heyneke Meyer is head coach of Stade Francais.

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Flankly 49 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 58 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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