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New France coach 'will be appointed before 2019 World Cup'

France had an awful Six Nations

Eight years ago, we knew Philippe Saint-Andre would take over as France coach from Marc Lievremont long before the 2011 World Cup kicked off.

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Four years ago, we knew Guy Noves would replace Saint-Andre long before the first match of the 2015 World Cup.

Now we know we will know, some time before the 2019 World Cup, who will take over the hotseat when Brunel clears his desk and leaves the building with his tenure in a box at the end of his existing, extended contract in June 2020.

FFR President Bernard Laporte recently promised he would appoint Brunel’s successor before Japan 2019. “We have agreed that we have to switch quickly to the 2023 World Cup [cycle],” he said in an interview with Le Progrès.

“The next coach will be appointed before the 2019 World Cup. Because the guys I want, if I’m not the one who gets them signed, others will. So we have to move fast.”

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He also told the paper, without naming names, that he had met ‘the top five coaches in the world’ to discuss the impending vacancy.

Warren Gatland’s name has cropped up repeatedly in articles in France about who will next sit on French rugby’s iron throne. Jon Mitchell and Sir Clive Woodward have also been mentioned as possible first foreign coaches of the French national side. Woodward, famously, unsuccessfully applied for the job in 2015.

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Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter have also been linked with the job – both speak French and have experience of the Top 14, which could be regarded as a positive. Both, however, have appeared to distance themselves from the job. Cotter has said his current role with Montpellier will be his last as a coach, while Schmidt is on record saying he plans to take a long break.

The French press has also put up for consideration a possibly unworkable homegrown dream-team duo of Toulouse’s Ugo Mola and Clermont’s Franck Azema. Christophe Urios mothballed his national dreams for four years at least when he signed for Bordeaux earlier this year. Lyon’s Pierre Mignoni has long been a short-odds favourite among pundits. He has even been mentioned as a possible assistant coach for an overseas choice.

The topic is a hot one in French rugby circles. It was the subject of a Twitter poll for rugby magazine programme Late Rugby Club – and some French heavyweight former players have had their say. An indicative vote, if you will.

Fabien Pelous, the former Toulouse and France lock, was quick to condemn the idea. “Once again, we will try to copy others instead of being proud of who we are,” he told Le Parisien, describing it as, “a snub for some talented technicians who do excellent work in their respective clubs, such as the duo of Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit, Ugo Mola or Franck Azema.”

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Ex France coach Yannick Bru, meanwhile, believed overseas coaches would struggle with the French system. Asked by L’Equipe whether either Gatland or Schmidt could succeed where four French coaches in succession have failed, he said: “They are two great technicians, two great managers, but they will not be able to flourish in the current system of French rugby, in the duality that exists between the LNR and the FFR.”

His comments highlight long-standing systemic club-versus-country issues facing French rugby that efforts between the FFR and LNR over the past few years have failed to fully address.

“They’re going to ask for a total of 50 players to be made available,” Bru, now general manager at ProD2 side Bayonne, said. “They will ride over the interests of professional clubs.”

Before any coach is appointed – foreign or otherwise – there is the small matter of a national vote on whether France should go down the overseas route at all.

A letter was sent out last week to every rugby club in France announcing a “referendum consultation on whether to recruit a foreign coach to prepare for the 2023 World Cup”.

The vote – a Laporte promise announced on RMC Sport in January – will take place from 9-11 April. The result should be known on April 12.

Having already set about trying to manage expectations ahead of this year’s World Cup in Japan by saying describing qualification from the pool stages would be regarded as ‘a success’, Laporte told club bosses that he expected players and staff at Japan to be “up to the task of this exceptional event”.

“We must prepare for the future”, he added, looking ahead to France 2023 – where, he said, France should be in a position to challenge for the trophy.

“To achieve this major objective, the possibility of appointing a foreign coach to head our national team is a working hypothesis,” he said, describing it as, “a common practice in most rugby nations.”

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Hellhound 42 minutes ago
South Africa player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.


Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.


Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.


They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.


Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.


Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen

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J
JW 56 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

No where to be seen OB!


The crosses for me for the year where (from memory);


This was a really hard one to nail down as the first sign of a problem, now that I've asked myself to think about it. I'd say it all started with his decision to not back form and fit players after all the injuries, and/or him picking players for the future, rather ones that could play right now.


First he doesn't replace Perofeta straight away (goes on for months in the team) after injury against England, second he falls back to Beauden Barrett to cover at fullback against Fiji, then he drops Narawa the obvious choice to have started, then he brings in Jordan too soon. That Barret selection (and to a lesser extent Bell's) set the tone for the year.


Then he didn't get the side up for Argentina. They were blown away and didn't look like they expected a fight and were well beaten despite the scoreline in my opinion. Worst performance of the year in the forth game and..


Basically the same problems were persistent, or even exaggerated, after that with the players he did select not given much of an opportunity, with this year having the most number of unused subs I can remember since the amateur days.


What I think I started to realise early on was that he didn't back himself and his team. I think he prepared the players well, don't get me wrong, but I'll credit him with making a conscious choice in tempering his ambition and instead choosing cohesion and to respect (the idea of it being important in himself and his players) experience first and foremost (after two tight games and that 4th game loss). I think he chose wrong in deciding not to be, and back, himself. Hard criticism.


And it played out by preferring Beauden to Dmac on the EOYT (though that may have been a planned move).


I hope I'm right, because going through all the little things of the season and coming up with these bullets, I've got to wonder when I say his last fault is one we have seen at the Crusaders, playing his best players into the ground. What I'm really scared of now is that not wanting a bit of freshness in this last game could be linked with all these other crosses that I want to put down to simple confidence issues. But are they really a sign that he just lacks vision?


Now, that's not to say I haven't seen a lot of positives as well, I just think that for the ABs to go where they want to go he has to fix these crosses. Just have difficult that will be is the question.

24 Go to comments
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