FRANCE COACH Philippe Saint-Andre today said that he would take any victory against Ireland — no matter what the score — to salvage the country’s disastrous Six Nations campaign.
France, rooted to the bottom of the table in their worst start to the tournament since 1982 and in danger of landing their first wooden spoon since 1957, travel to Dublin to play Ireland on Saturday.
Les Bleus, however, have the psychological advantage of knowing that they have only lost once to Ireland in their last 13 Tests — the Irish’s Grand Slam victory in 2009 — which could help them avoid a damaging fourth consecutive defeat.
“The French team’s role is to win and win well but in our situation, we’d take a 3-0 victory,” Saint-Andre told a news conference after announcing the starting XV for the match at Landsdowne Road.
“You’ve got to make your own luck. We didn’t face up to the situation in the first three matches. We’ve got to score when we’re playing well, concede fewer points when we’re not (and) be better defensively.
“Against England, when we scored, we weren’t aggressive enough in the first line of defence. We missed a lot of first tackles. We’ve worked on that to be tighter against Ireland. We’ve got to learn to win matches again.”
Saint-Andre, who has made three changes from the 23-13 defeat against England, said a victory would lift the team, French rugby and the public back home and the team had worked hard in the last week.
Clermont scrum-half Morgan Parra and Toulon’s Frederic Michalak will start, while Florian Fritz returns to centre ahead of Mathieu Bastareaud. Toulouse fullback-cum-wing Maxime Medard returns on the wing in place of Benjamin Fall.
