IRELAND APPROACH SATURDAY’S clash with France from a position of widespread trust in their head coach, but the home team cannot claim to be in similar shape.
While Joe Schmidt is still in something of a honeymoon period, extended by the improvements Ireland have made this season, France’s Philippe Saint-André is facing genuine questions as to his competence as an international coach.
Having taken over the head coaching position following 2011′s run to the World Cup final, the former French wing has won just 44% of the 25 games for which he has been in charge. Perhaps more jarring than that unimpressive figure is the fact that les Bleus have rarely looked to be making genuine progress in performance.
The peak of his reign so far has been the 2012 November Test series, when France impressively beat Australia, Argentina and Samoa, blending powerful displays from their Louis Picamoles-led pack with incisive play from the Freddy Michalak-directed backs.
That trio of wins saw France enter the 2013 Six Nations with real hopes of success, but defeats against Italy, Wales and England ultimately resulted in regression. The 2012 version of the competition hadn’t been much better, with just two wins [against Italy and Scotland] in those five games.
When looking in from the outside, the wonder about France is how a squad with so many high-quality individual players can make such a disappointing team. The perception within l’Hexagone is that Saint-André’s side is not the sum of its parts, a view that is hard to disagree with.
With France again struggling to perform this season, following a 3-0 series whitewash in New Zealand in the summer of 2013, questions are now being asked about how Saint-André even earned the position of national team coach in the first place.
As a player, Saint-André is a legend of French rugby. In 69 caps for les Bleus, he scored 32 tries – behind only Vincent Clerc [34] and Serge Blanco [38] in the all-time try-scoring list – including some that will never be forgotten [he was also involved in the 'Try from the End of the World'].
The previous peak of his coaching career came at Sale Sharks, with whom he won a Premiership title in 2006 and an Amlin Challenge Cup in 2005. Beyond those honours, he has accumulated little or no top-level silverware, but his CV includes spells with Gloucester, Bourgoin and Toulon.
It had always seemed certain that Saint-André would end up in charge of the French side from the moment he decided to turn to coaching; a playing legend of the French game was a perfect match for leading them off the pitch too.
When Saint-André was appointed in 2011, he brought with him former France hooker Yannick Bru as his forwards coach and Patrice Lagisquet [another highly-respected ex-international wing] as his backs specialist. Those men have become his trusted and loyal aides, his voice on the training ground.
However, with unrest at Saint-André’s rule now growing in France, there are questions regarding his own role in the operation. Monday morning’s Midi Olympique [a bi-weekly rugby newspaper] queried the 46-year-old on several fronts, with one of them being the ambiguous nature of his position.
Is Saint-André a selector or a manager? Is he both or neither? Should his role not be on the training ground at Marcoussis? These are questions posed by the five-page dossier, which also examines Saint-André’s strange player selections, his “fragile” communication, a confusion of direction within the playing group and his “invisible” game plan.
All are valid issues, with Saint-André failing to instil confidence in the rugby-loving public that they can be resolved any time soon. The latter in that list is perhaps of the most immediate concern ahead of a potentially decisive clash with Ireland on Saturday.
At the heart of the current lack of attacking direction has been the struggle of Jules Plisson to adapt to international rugby at as rapid a pace as France need him to. Saint-André has spoken about backing the undeniable ability of the Stade Français man in the longer-term, but that sentiment is disconcertingly familiar.
When Michalak was enjoying his best spell of form in the number 10 shirt back in November of 2012, it was he who was apparently set to establish himself as Saint-André’s playmaker. Rémi Talès has been tagged as the trusted ouvruer in more recent times, a statement that has been undermined by Saint-André’s verbal promotion of Plisson.
The messages have been mixed and muddled, like so many aspects of Saint-André’s time in charge of France. The players themselves seem to be unsure of how they are expected to play at times, never mind those of us watching on.
And despite it all, they are within reach of claiming an unlikely Six Nations title after three wins in four games in recent weeks. Aided by his strong personal relationship with FFR president Pierre Camou, it appears that Saint-André will end up leading France into the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The attacking skills of the likes of Brice Dulin, Yoann Huget, Louis Picamoles and Wesley Fofana have helped France to stay afloat in the last two years. The thought of what they could achieve if Saint-André can focus his ideas and provide the platform for that talent to flourish even further is frightening.
