Fabien Galthié's Blues did not tremble to win against Japan (52-12). If the rejuvenated team composition could suggest an upheaval in the mind of the coach and his tactics, this was not the case. The Blues left the leather to a team that was well behind in the score and always relied on their solid defense.
World Rugby rules can change, players move on. The coach's glasses and eyes, on the other hand, do not move and the tactic, whether against the poor Japanese or teams of a completely different caliber, remains the same: touch the ball as little as possible, as if it could burn the French hands.
Dispossession without occupation
Face au Brave Blossoms the French, even if they decided to play morepreferred to leave the leather to their opponent to better counter. The famous dispossession therefore. An old refrain that the Blues seemed to have abandoned in the middle of the last 6 Nations Tournament after Marseille's rout against Ireland and Lille's purge against Italy. It was in Wales, where the coach had decided to rejuvenate his team, that the France team had held the ball for the first time in a long time (56% possession), same thing in the Crunch (59% of possession). This Saturday against the Japanese, the young people stayed, the ball less and the French only held it 46% of the time.
Even though they physically dominated the Japanese, the Blues did not decide – or did not need to, depending – to confine them to their own camp. Fabien Galthié and his troops only spent 51% of the time within the opposing 50 meters. But above all they defended well enough to avoid danger, proof of which is that the Japanese returned to the fanny locker room.
Iron defense…
In rugby, defense is not simple, far from it. But to defend well you must first tackle well, which the Blues did with 234 successful tackles out of the 262 they attempted, i.e. 89% success. An excellent percentage carried by players like Peato Mauvaka (24 tackles)Grégory Alldritt (23 tackles), Jean-Baptiste Gros and Alexandre Roumat (17 tackles each).
Also read:
France – Japan – How did the Blues crush Japan?
…fire attack
But to pass 52 points and score eight tries, the Tricolores attacked very well, in their own way but in a clinical manner. First they decided to play their game and impose their rhythm without constantly sending the ball to the four corners of the field. Thus, where the Japanese played almost 77% of their ruck in less than 3 seconds, this was only the case for 59.7% of French rucks. Even more striking difference, when we move on to those which lasted more than 6 seconds, this was the case for 16,42 % of them on the blue side compared to only 2.38% for Eddie Jones' men. Even with more than 30 points in advance, the XV of France wanted to maintain its playing framework.
However, the backs were also able to have fun, with 14 crossings (including four for Louis Bielle-Biarrey alone) et 38 defenders beaten (eight for Antoine Dupont) of the game was sent and the leather was also able to rediscover the joys of Saint-Denis.
Statistics that are worth what they are worth against an opponent as valiant as he is dominated. The Brave Blossoms ultimately had to content themselves with playing training partners before the long-awaited clash against the Blacks. These figures will still be enough to give work to Fabien Galthié's teams to erase the few imperfections such as discipline (11 penalties conceded). One thing is certain, next Saturday the XV could change, the tactics too, the large glasses will be there and will undoubtedly see things that we do not see.
