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Shaun Edwards lists his priorities for France to win the World Cup

(Photo by Gaizka Iroz/AFP via Getty Images)

France assistant coach Shaun Edwards has listed his priorities if Fabien Galthie’s side are to become Rugby World Cup champions in late October. The tournament became headline news in midweek with World Rugby in the country to celebrate the 100 days to go milestone for the event’s first match, the September 8 meeting between Les Bleus and the All Blacks in Paris.

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Amongst the activities was the symbolic handing over of the Webb Ellis Cup from the 2019 winners, the Springboks, to the French hosts, a moment that has whetted the appetite of fans around the world for the finals.

It’s a tournament where the progress of the French will be heavily monitored given they are amongst the favourites to win the cup due to the renaissance enjoyed since Galthie took over with a coaching staff that includes Edwards, the former Wales assistant who helped them reach the semi-finals in 2011 and again in 2019.

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Ahead of the tournament, Edwards has written about some of the aspects he believes will be the difference between France becoming champions or just a team making up the numbers.

Among those priorities is keeping 15 players on the pitch, getting fitter, and finessing the attack as he believes that the high scores that have happened recently in Test rugby are going to reduce at the finals.

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“Just do what you have to do – make tackles, stop mauls,” he said in his latest Rugby World magazine column. “That is a big part of rugby now, you will get a lot of penalties and maybe even a yellow card for the opposition. So things you can control, control them.

“In this World Cup, if you can keep 15 players on the field, any of the eight teams can win. It has never been like that before. But you must keep 15 on the pitch,” he said before referencing the painful preparations that must be undertaken in the coming weeks and months to lay the foundations for World Cup success.

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“Every sportsman knows there has to be pain before pleasure. You have to get yourself into the shape of your life because most get 10 per cent or 15 per cent fitter for the World Cup. Every World Cup is special, so if you have your normal fitness level you will be left behind.

“From my point of view, you can add a little more detail in camp. But I have worked with these guys for four years now and watching the Top 14, a lot of them use similar defensive systems now – not identical, but similar. So I’d like to think our system is embedded in because there have never been as many points scored in international rugby as there are now.

“It’s nothing to see a score of 33-25. But I have a feeling that in the World Cup, when everyone is a little bit fitter, the scores will come down a bit.

“You need a good attack to win the World Cup, but you definitely need a good defence and set-piece. To be world champions you must have the full package. We will be grafting through the summer to try and attain that.”

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Fabien 531 days ago

Merci Shawn,

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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