Irish rugby legend Willie John McBride says there’s nothing to separate France and his nation despite Ireland‘s Six Nations Grand Slam this year.
Speaking on The Rugby Paper Podcast, the veteran second row also criticised of the World Rankings system, considering it meaningless in a World Cup year.
McBride, who made 17 test appearances for the Lions across five tours and appeared for his country 63 times in a 13-year career, is full of praise for the French team, citing their speed, fitness and consistency as something that has separated squad from their previous failures.
“You watch France now, especially when things are running for them, and they really are superb,” he said.
“Their support play is tremendous, but probably number one they have pace in their team that nobody else has.
“They can be a bit temperamental at time but they’re more mature now than they’ve ever been. In the old days you used to say ‘I wonder what team will turn up today’ and they were no good at travelling.
“Those days are gone now, and I think Galthie has been a big success story. Ireland are seen as number one in the rankings but that drives me mad because there’s nothing in it.”
McBride has been impressed by Ireland, particularly their fitness and constant desire to improve.
“Ireland’s level of fitness and preparation has been absolutely superb,” he added. “They have to got to keep that sort of preparation for the next few months until the World Cup. I have no doubt Andy Farrell will be able to prepare them for what’s ahead.
“They’re never happy with their performance. They always wanted to take another step and that’s very good, very healthy.
But with such a tightly contested top four in the World and other teams outside of that with a chance of victory, he believes it will come down to the attitude in the tournament that will make the difference, and declined the opportunity to label Ireland as the favourites.
“I wouldn’t brand them as favourites. No way, and I do hope Ireland forget about this number one nonsense.
“It’s Rugby Football we’re talking about. So many things can happen, just take England against France, where every little thing that happened that day ran for France.
“The World Cup is a tough scene, because you’ve got to play so many games in such a short space of time and there’s very little between Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and France.
“Even Australia, we don’t know what they’re going to be and we’re going into a new scene altogether after this Six Nations scrum. Obviously Ireland will be in there somewhere but the World Cup is won on match to match.
“It’s a matter of these teams settling down and whichever one can believe mentally, drive it into their heads, and take a positive attitude to the tournament is the team that’s going to come through at the end of the day.”
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