Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The 'so perfect' France reaction to keeping alive U20s title defence

Hoani Bosmorin scores for France U20 against Wales in Athlone (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Tuesday was moving day at the World Rugby U20 Championship and there was no one more menacing than France, the defending champions. Any suggestion that their last-gasp defeat to New Zealand last Thursday had loosened their grip on the trophy they have won for the last three times in succession was dismissed clinically in the Athlone mud.

ADVERTISEMENT

The French had immediately done their numbers in the wake of the 26-27 loss to the Baby Blacks in Stellenbosch and knew that a bonus point win over Wales on pool match day three would still qualify them for the semi-finals.

This they did, overcoming initial Welsh defiance to have the four-try bonus point bagged by the 44th minute. Then it was a matter of minding themselves, using their bench to rest up some key players and then waiting for the results from the 7pm matches to learn who they would face at the Cape Town Stadium this Sunday.

Video Spacer

Jaco Peyper weighs in on fresh ‘Bomb Squad’ debate

Video Spacer

Jaco Peyper weighs in on fresh ‘Bomb Squad’ debate

In the end, they were paired with New Zealand whose win over Spain in a match that was abandoned at half-time clinched them the top spot in the pool and the No1 ranking, setting up a second Baby Blacks-Les Bleuets meeting in 10 days.

The English national anthem was playing out on the pitch before their kick-off versus South Africa when RugbyPass caught up with the French assistant coach in the Athlone tunnel. Philippe Boher is a character with an encyclopedic knowledge of age-grade rugby – he was involved with the set-up as far back as 2008.

Attack

183
Passes
126
150
Ball Carries
101
237m
Post Contact Metres
112m
8
Line Breaks
3

Four titles in a row at the Championship? “We’ll see. Every competition is hard, very hard. It’s not easy to come again each year in the final. We’ll see. We’ll do our best in the semi-finals.

“We knew that there was a chance for us, so we weren’t devastated effectively in the Stellenbosch defeat, but the pressure was on us to win with a bonus point to be sure we qualified. We did very well. So perfect,” he said reflecting on the 29-11 win over the Welsh in what was essentially a winner-takes-all quarter-final.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It was important for us to have a good game and play our better rugby than we have done in the two previous games. That was done, and the second thing was we qualified for the semi-finals so it’s okay for us. We are going to prepare well now.

“The weather conditions were hard but we had very good moves, tried to find some spaces and that was interesting. Our lineout and scrum worked well too, and good defence also. First half we were good. After we had a lot of changes so we became not so efficient.”

    • Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal

Related

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

5 Comments
T
Tony 133 days ago

Can someone please explain how you can finish 1 and 2 in your Pool then have to play each other again in the semi Final ?

Normally the winner of a Pool plays the Runner up in another Pool etc

In what other Sport does this happen ?

cheers Tony

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
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.

287 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution in France loss World Cup-winning halfback on Cam Roigard’s substitution vs. France
Search