Bernard Jackman, the head coach of Grenoble and former Irish international hooker, has expressed fears that the French team Ireland will meet in the World Cup will be far superior to the team beaten by Joe Schmidt’s side in this year’s RBS Six Nations Championship.
France dominated England in Paris on Saturday to record a 25-20 victory, with only a couple of late tries by the visitors serving to camouflage a very impressive display by Philippe Saint-André’s team.
Considering how his work at ground level in French rugby allows Jackman to keep a close eye on the fluctuating fortunes of their national side, the Dubliner’s opinion is worth taking seriously. The fact that he believes the French are coming into form ahead of the World Cup game between Ireland and France at the Millennium Stadium on October 11, will be of concern to Schmidt.
“What we need to understand as Irish people is that when France played the Six Nations in recent years there was a lot of negativity, a lot of criticism, and unhappiness from Saint-Andre about the level of game-time players were having with their clubs,” said Jackman.
“There was always this sense that they were too tired to play well for France in the Six Nations, but there is a huge amount of positivity now and the French always back themselves to do well in World Cups.
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“And they have always done well in the World Cup, whereas we haven’t. That’s the reality, indeed France should have won the last World Cup even though they were in turmoil the whole way through.”
Jackman, Leinster’s former hooker, has also noticed a significant mood swing among the French public in recent weeks, following four years of indifference, four years when Les Bleus have failed to defeat Ireland in the Six Nations Championship.
Two weeks ago, around 5,000 people turned up to watch an open training session at Stade Aime Giral in Perpignan at 9.30 on a Thursday morning.
“They are quietly confident they can beat Ireland,” said Jackman. “Last year they didn’t have a goal-kicker, and let’s not forget they missed four easy kicks in the Aviva.
“And in the last five minutes we were hanging on, and we were a team everyone was saying everything was perfect and they were a team who weren’t happy.
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“But they are happy now, they have had a really good pre-season, they are in good shape. The big worry for me was their scrum was very powerful.
“So, France are dangerous and all the southern hemisphere clubs respect France at a World Cup and we will have to be on the money to beat them,” said Jackman, whose Grenoble side made a winning start to the Top 14 campaign on Saturday when they came from behind to defeat Agen 38-23.
Elsewhere, Ronan O’Gara’s Racing Metro secured a 27-22 win away to Toulon, although Paul O’Connell was one of 18 internationals unavailable to the European champions.
Meanwhile, Saint-André caused a surprise yesterday when he cut François Trinh-Duc from his squad for next month’s World Cup. Trinh-Duc, along with Xavier Chiocci, Sébastien Vahaamahina, Loann Goujon, and Rémi Lamérat were all named in the original 36-man panel but have been dropped.
France Rugby World Cup squad:
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Forwards U Atonio, E Ben Arous, D Vincent, N Mas, R Slimani, G Guirado, B Kayser, B Szarzewski, A Flanquart, Y Maestri, P Papé, T Dusautoir (capt), B Le Roux, Y Nyanga, F Ouedraogo, D Chouly, L Picamoles.
Backs R Kockott, M Parra, S Tillous-Borde, F Michalak, R Talès, M Bastareaud, A Dumoulin, G Fickou, W Fofana, B Dulin, S Guitoune, Y Huget, N Nakaitaci, S Spedding.