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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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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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