Nick Cain looks at the challenge awaiting England in their opening six nations match in Paris
The high stakes have seen the ancient antagonism between the English and the French bubbling-up, and, as Stuart Lancaster’s side contemplate the old foe from across the Channel there is plenty to stew on.
In the professional era France have had more than a helping hand in the Six Nations from their knackered British and Irish opponents. Four of France’s seven title wins in the Five/Six Nations since 1995 – including the Grand Slams of 1998 and 2010 – have come the season after Lions tours, when Home Unions’ players are usually hanging.
Lions players are often left drained or injured by the demands of the four-yearly crusade to the Southern Hemisphere. By comparison, France’s summer tours usually generate nothing close to the ferocity of a Lions series, with their limp pro era record of zero wins in eight Tests on Australian soil and one win in 11 Tests on New Zealand soil telling the tale. The only uplift comes from a lost three, won two, drawn one record in South Africa.
A couple of French rugby journalists who crossed the Tasman Sea to Australia to cover the end of the 2013 Lions tour after France had been whitewashed 3-0 in New Zealand are good witnesses. They said that in terms of intensity and sense of occasion France against the All Blacks was like a vicar’s tea party compared to a Lions tour.
However, this pattern of post-Lions hangovers by the Home Unions does not augur well for England, especially as most of their Test contingent from the victorious series in Australia last summer are recovering from injury.
Lancaster will be without the services of Manu Tuilagi, Alex Corbisiero, Tom Croft and Geoff Parling in Paris, while another experienced hand, fly-half Toby Flood, has been written out of the script after his decision to join Toulouse next season.
More concerning is the way that the impressive winning runs of Premiership leaders Saracens and fourth-placed Harlequins were brought to an abrupt halt in last weekend’s Heineken Cup clashes when they were outmuscled and outplayed by Top 14 rivals.
Saracens’ comprehensive 21-11 defeat at Toulouse pitted a large part of a potential England backline to take on France – namely, Richard Wigglesworth, Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and Alex Goode – as well as the Vunipola brothers, Mako and Billy, against the French club commanding the most places in Saint-Andre’s 30-man Six Nations squad.
The eight-man Toulouse cohort includes the entire back row of Thierry Dusautoir, Yannick Nyanga and Louis Picamoles, lock Yoann Maestri, scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain, centre Gael Fickou, and wing/full-backs Yoann Huget and Maxime Medard.
The stark reality that emerged for Lancaster from the match is that the Saracens backs were far too easily contained by their Toulouse opposite numbers, with Doussain – who on this occasion switched from No.9 to fly-half – much more influential in the outcome than Farrell.
Not only did the nuggety Doussain show as much aggression and power in the tackle as Farrell, but his goal-kicking was immaculate. The Toulouse back three was also superior to that of the English league leaders with Medard and Huget proving to be more dangerous on the counter-attack as well as more adept in gaining large tracts of ground through their impressive tactical kicking.
The third musketeer in the Toulouse back three trio, the former All Black wing Hosea Gear, also did Lancaster a favour in highlighting Chris Ashton’s continuing problems in defence. The way he beat the Saracens winger’s weak attempted tackle with less than a metre of space to the touchline will not have been lost on Saint-Andre.
Ashton may have rediscovered his try-scoring touch, but the evidence suggests strongly that if the England head coach persists with the Saracens right wing – whose list of defensive errors at the highest level is growing – he will be asking for trouble in Paris.
The fanfare for Wigglesworth’s kicking skills, and, to a lesser extent, Goode’s, also petered out against Toulouse, and with Barritt rusty after his long absence there were clear signs that the Saracens backs should not proliferate in Lancaster’s line-up against France.
The main exception would be Farrell, because he has big game temperament, is an 85 per cent goal-kicker, and has done enough in an England shirt to merit the opportunity to keep it.
Another equally significant concern was the way that the Toulouse forwards, with their Test back row to the fore, got such a strong choke-hold at the breakdown, and in contact, that the Saracens forwards – including the Vunipola brothers – were unable to escape.
Dusautoir demonstrated again just why he captains not only his club but his country, with an immense contribution. The flanker is fast, decisive, and like a limpet at the breakdown – and Saracens were unable to loosen his grip as the penalties and turnovers he engineered swung the match inexorably towards Toulouse.
Nyanga is out of the same mould but even more athletic, and then there is ‘The Iceberg’ at No.8. Picamoles overshadowed Billy Vunipola, ripping into the Saracens pack like a big beast in his prime, whereas Billy looked more of a tentative cub.
That is hardly surprising given that the English No.8 has just five caps compared to Picamoles’ 38, but it also highlights just how quickly England are asking Vunipola to become a dominant force.
The young Saracens back rower showed against New Zealand at Twickenham in the autumn that he has the physical power to do the job, but whether he can summon the the same confidence in hostile environments like the Stade de France at this stage in his development is, as yet, unproven.
It is implicit that if England are to win in Paris he will have to go toe-to-toe with Picamoles more successfully than he did in Toulouse.
England’s two flankers, almost certainly Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood, will also have their work cut out. Re-appointed captain Robshaw will need to bring something at openside greater than a high work-rate if he is going to outplay Dusautoir.
If quick ball is England’s surest way of escaping the suffocating defence which Toulouse put on Saracens – and which France will want to emulate by strangling England – then it is imperative that the French captain is cleaned off England’s carriers with ruthless efficiency. The indefatigable Robshaw is tailor-made for what could be a match-winning mission of tracking Dusautoir into the tackle zone and wiping him out.
Robshaw saw from Harlequins 16-13 home defeat by Clermont, where his deft chip and Danny Care’s brilliant balletic improvisation created a magical try for Matt Hopper, that simply sticking your head down and trying to outmuscle the French is unlikely to work.
Instead, England will need a game plan which keeps the French guessing and tears holes in their blanket defence. Getting an edge at the set-piece remains a proven formula for rattling the French, and that means getting on top of the squat French front row of the Clermont pair of loosehead Thomas Domingo and hooker Benjamin Kayser, and the new Stade Francais tighthead, Rabah Slimani.
Slimani unsettled the New Zealand and South African scrums in the autumn, but if the bigger English front row of Joe Marler/Mako Vunipola, Dylan Hartley and Dan Cole keep their backs straight and bear down to stop the French getting under them, they could be in business.
England will take heart that the Harlequins and Saracens scrums went well. At loosehead Mako Vunipola held his ground against Census Johnston in Toulouse, while the Quins front row fought an honourable draw against Clermont with Joe Marler doing well at No.1 opposite the Georgian heavy Davit Zirakashvili, and tighthead Will Collier refusing to budge against Domingo.
England’s best hope of a second successive win in Paris under Lancaster is to play the fast raider rugby that shook France out of their stride two years ago. That will depend on playing at a tempo which fragments their formidable defensive line and allows England to target the fly-half channel that has habitually been France’s soft spot. Having ditched Francois Trinh-Duc, Saint Andre has two international novices vying for the No.10 shirt in Remi Tales (Castres), who at 29 is no spring chicken, and Jules Plisson, the uncapped 22-year-old Stade Francais wunderkind.
Tales did well in the autumn, and is defensively sound. The Castres fly-half’s two drop-goals in the French Championship final against Toulon helped the club win their first title for 20 years. But this will be his first Six Nations, and there are questions over why the French have knocked at his door so late in a career which saw him spend seven seasons in Pro 2 with Stade Montois and La Rochelle.
Plisson has enough promise to have kept Morne Steyn, Stade’s star Springbok import, out of the starting line-up – and given a gap he has the pace to scare any defence. However, it is doubtful he is ready to make a starting debut in the Paris cauldron with so little experience.
Whichever side emerge intact from Le Crunch, it will be the one that have their tactical head screwed on tightest – and, at fly-half, the French could have a few loose nuts.
*This piece was published on Sunday, January 19 before it was announced Thierry Dusautoir would miss the entire Six Nations though injury.
