France – Argentina – Fact of the match: winning dispossession for the Blues

As they had declared before the meeting, the Pumas “had a plan” to bring down the Blues at the Stade de France. Which was, in fact, not very difficult to guess, which consisted of bombarding the back of the tricolor field with candles between Gabin Villière and Léo Barré, while at the same time locking in the tricolor attack by means of their inverted defense. And to be honest, given the lack of skill of the Blues in the aerial duels (7 missed receptions during the first act), this plan could well have succeeded… On the condition, to do so, of raising the level of discipline and taking care of their blankets, two reefs on which the Pumas’ teeth were clearly broken…

Really? If we feared at the start of the match that the Blues would give in to the trap of nervousness where the Argentinians clearly wanted to take them (penalty returned against Paul Boudehent, 7^e) it was the latter who cracked first. First through a dangerous clearance from Montoya which injured Gros and earned him a logical yellow card. Then another tackle delivered by Sclavi to the same Wardi, prohibited because it was carried out on his knees, which would have earned the same sentence. And finally by this crude voluntary forward from flanker Juan-Martin Gonzalez to prevent Louis-Bielle-Biarrey from repeating the feat achieved against the Blacks, chasing a new kick from Ramos. Enough to force the Argentines to play for twenty minutes in numerical inferiority during the first act, and logically make mistakes under French pressure (in the scrum in particular) to the point of conceding a total of seven penalties which offered three penalties to Ramos , without forgetting a penalty concluded by Flament. That's 23 hard and fast points directly attributable to Argentine indiscipline. Or the big French pressure, rather, also materialized by this double counter from Charles Ollivon on Bazan Velez, at the origin of the Bielle-Biarrey try (58th).

The “black game” to nail the coffin

The other aspect of this pressure? It lay, precisely, in the way in which the Blues bypassed the Argentinian defense rush, by focusing mainly on their kicking game. The penalty try awarded after the foul on Bielle-Biarrey is the best illustration of this, since beyond having posed the danger after a paw from Ramos, the situation had previously been resolved by a brilliant “chip » from Dupont over a ruck. A gesture which clearly underlined the difficulties of the Pumas in covering their backfield, accentuated the attempt of a Bielle-Biarrey faster than everyone in pursuit of his own kick (58th), or even by the two 50:22 found by Fickou (8^e) puis Ramos (28^e) which allowed the Blues to establish their territorial domination and install their now famous “black game” around Antoine Dupont. Not always perfect (like this lost ball at the 50^eprelude to a long Argentinian highlight concluded by Gallo) but systematically tiring for the enemy's bodies and morale, and whether we like it or not, devilishly effective (Flament's essays at 8^e and de Villière at 36^e). Enough to logically accentuate the frustration and indiscipline of Pumas, cruelly ineffective in the scoring areas, as the consequence of the vicious circle from which they never found a way out. It seems that, in light of the last two successes achieved by the Blues and, on the contrary, the declarations of intention prior to this autumn tour, the page of rugby “dispossession” is still far from being turned, deep DNA of the XV by Fabien Galthié…