France coach Philippe Saint-André is pleased with his side's fightback against Ireland, even though they are still winless in the Six Nations.
Ireland raced into a 13-3 lead at half-time of last Saturday's clash in Dublin but France struck back, late in the second half, to snatch a 13-13 draw thanks to a Louis Picamoles try which Frederic Michalak converted.
"This was a real game," said Saint-André.
" We performed badly in the first half. We didn't play very well and Ireland played very well.
"We showed a lot of character to come back. I talked to the players at half-time and after that we showed something.
"We're very disappointed with our Six Nations, but we've changed nearly 70 per cent of the team since the World Cup.
"We're still learning and the Six Nations is hard, it's tough. We just need to be much more precise because we had the opportunity to win this game but didn't do it."
France are at the bottom of the table, with one point from four matches, and host Scotland in their last match in Paris on Saturday.
Comments
gozar2013 says...
Agree totally with Ironman. When is this fool Saint Andre going to learn. He needs to pick players based on their position not out of position. Im afraid Michalaks best days are behind him. Pleased with comeback Saint Andre will say anything to save himself.
If he his their for the tour of New Zealand which I hope he isnt, it will be interesting to see what team he takes. If he takes Michalak, Debaty, Clerc,Szarzewski,Fritz, etc, France will be on hiding to nothing. Lets see what happens.
They have to get past Scotland first, and with the selections being made, and Saint Andre in charge, Scotland will be a hard enough hurdle for France let alone the All Blacks.
Posted 06:47 12th March 2013
ironmanI441 says...
Seriously PSA? How can the French keep thinking that they are going to hit the jackpot with some magic combinations rather than just putting the best 15 at their positions on the pitch? I like Freddie, as a 9 and as a club player. At 10 on the national scene? He will occasionally do something great but hes not a 10 and I doubt anyone who knows anything about Rugby would say he was. In Trinh Duc you have a talented young specialist who is doing well with Montpelier. They need a really common sense basics approach to coaching because they have enough flair just based on their nationality. Don't need a mad scientist to make them brilliant, just a decent to make sure they don't implode.
Posted 17:40 11th March 2013
Bash says...
Just put Trinh-Duc instead of Michalak, for the love of...rugby, even the English are starting to feel sorry for us
Posted 15:25 11th March 2013