|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
French flop
Posted: Tuesday March 21, 2000 10:32 AM
World Cup finalists and conquerors of mighty New Zealand last November. Six Nations Championship flops just four months later. France is in a rugby union tailspin. France coach Bernard Laporte is threatening to quit unless he sees a change in the structure of the game in his country. The nation is ready to disown a team, which contrived to brilliantly beat the All Blacks and reach the World Cup title showdown in Wales. Because now, you see, the French squad isn't good enough to beat Ireland at home. They had done that successfully for the last 28 years. But last Saturday at the Stade de France, Irish eyes were smiling after a 27-25 triumph.
We all called it an upset. The rarity value saw to that. But France should've lost to Ireland in Dublin last year. David Humphreys, who kicked the winning 42-meter penalty at the weekend, missed one from closer range last season, which would've secured victory. Since then, of course, that fabulous one-off display against the New Zealanders has made up for a multitude of French rugby sins and years of flagging fortunes. As Laporte so eloquently put it: "The World Cup semifinal is the tree that hides the forest." Yes France beat the favorites in the last four. But, it then conceded 30 points in the final against Australia, and never looked likely World Cup winners that day in Cardiff. Laporte pointed out that France, even though stricken by injuries and suspensions to key players, has 700 professionals, which should have provided enough player power to defeat Ireland. The Irish choose from just 200 professionals, but the large majority of its squad plays for two clubs. It concentrates its talent pool in team's which play, perhaps, 20 games a year against decent opposition. The trouble in the French game is that its talent is spread too thinly across clubs playing too many matches in the domestic championship. The schedule is more likely to offer a top team convincingly beating one of the lesser lights than a competitive and purposeful head-to-head duel of French international candidates. France first of all needs to head down that same road of total professionalism as England, whose team is now the flagship for Northern Hemisphere rugby. The English have a long way to go to compete with the Southern Hemisphere boys week-in, week-out. But at least it is heading in the right direction. France on the other hand, is falling by the wayside. All the Gallic flair in the world can't reproduce that stunning success against the All Blacks on any kind of regular basis. Laporte is right when he calls for a streamlined intermediary championship between the French championship and international matches. He's right to demand that the top clubs like Toulouse, Agen and Stade Francais (or at least its leading players) meet more than twice a season. And he's right to insist (as does former French international star Serge Blanco) that players enjoy a clean break from the game from July 15 to September 30 to bring them in line with countries in the Southern Hemisphere. France has enjoyed more World Cup success than any other nation from the "north" and is held up as the paragons of European rugby style. Yet, Irish center Brian O'Driscoll ran through them like a knife through butter to score a superb hat trick of tries in St. Denis. Laporte says that unless French players face that kind of opponent 10 times a season, they'll simply continue to suffer. Twenty matches a season with an international feel can offer a solution. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa do it. Now it's time for the French Rugby Union to act. Phil Jones is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
