France boss Philippe Saint-André urged his players to learn from their poor Six Nations campaign after they finished with the wooden spoon despite beating Scotland in their last match.
Les Bleus claimed a 23-16 win in Paris, thanks to tries from Wesley Fofana and Maxime Medard, but a late Tim Visser try prevented them from finishing above Ireland on the table.
France face the All Blacks in a three-Test tour in New Zealand during June, and Saint-André admits that his young team must grow up quickly.
"These are matches of a lifetime," Saint-André said of the series against the All Blacks.
"If one day you want to win a big competition you have to face the big teams.
"We're last in the Six Nations and we have to accept that and face up to it.
"The game was like our tournament: complicated. The second half was better and we started to get back into the game and scored two very good tries.
"But we missed two other good chances.
"This team is young, it has a soul and fights. But it lacks control, collectively and individually, and you need control and patience when you play rugby at the highest level.
"The objective is to be ready for the 2015 World Cup. I think we will learn enormously from this Six Nations."
Comments
gozar2013 says...
Kybone you hit it all on the head. When is this fool Saint Andre going to wake up and look in the mirror. It was his player management, selections, replacements, and game plan which cost France dearly.
He also needs to pick some young players and stick with them and give them a chance, because a player is not going to develop by playing one test in a blue moon.
I was hoping Saint Andre would get the sack before the tour of New Zealand, but it looks unlikely at the moment. If I was him I would leave Michalak, Clerc, Debaty, Szarsewski, and Ducalcon at home,and big some fresh motivated young players and start getting a team ready for 2015.
Posted 03:44 18th March 2013
Bambo says...
Bash - unless it is against Argentina, Australia or Samoa and the poor bugger has been given a rest in between his 40+ matches on the trot. He's a real talent but has been overused and misused by PSA.
Posted 20:42 17th March 2013
Bash says...
We must learn....
Don't start Michalak!
Posted 11:23 17th March 2013
mlbp says...
The players have to learn and the coaches have to learn, too. France's game management was poor and substitutions were horrendous at times. The selection policy was bad in some cases. Some players do not seem to be up to the necessary international standard compared to others France have available.
Forestier is a lot better than Debaty, for example. Bringing on Ducalcon, Szarzewski and Debaty at Twickenham gave England the upper hand in the tackle/ruck area and they started dominating. Domingo, Kayzer and Mas were giving England all sorts of problems in the tight exchanges. That is an example of poor game management.
Selecting Michalak ahead of Trinh-Duc is not a mistake. If you believe in a game plan you stick with it, but a coach needs to read the games better than Saint Andre seems to do at the moment. This increasing tendency towards substituting players indiscriminately after a pre-planned programme is totally flawed. That cost France their losses to some extent.
Rushing Dusautoir into action for the first two matches was a bit of a mistake, too, mostly if you keep Nyanga out of the squad. Nyanga was superb and was substituted against England when he was at least at the same level as the English back row. He wasn't even on the bench the first two matches.
Tinkering with the locks was necessary as some players looked out of gas at times. However I wonder how players can feel now that they see they are not given continuity. Taofifenua, Suta, Vahaamanina and Samson were given runs and that is good, they are all on their toes as they know they can make it to the squad. A positive for PSA.
Parra and Machenaud offer contrasting styles but for a player like Michalak (even for Trinh-Duc) Machenaud looks the better option. He is a terrier and a dynamo. France need that kind of player to be on the front foot.
Huget proved to be an excellent 15 after all. Another positive.
Posted 08:59 17th March 2013
kybone says...
Is this bloke for real?! A good portion of French problems have been caused by his own ineptitude. Ridiculous team selections, ridiclulous changes during games, and he just seems to have the blinkers on when it comes to certain players performances. I half expect the pink panther tune to play when they show shots of him walking into a room!
I've read people suggesting that the number of foreign players in the top 14 is one of the main reasons behind the poor form of the national team- Sorry, so are we saying that France just don't have the players? Look at the team- quality in every position, quality on the bench, quality not even making the squad! It's certainly not a lack of talent that is hindering France. The next reason suggested has been the number of games played in France- Hang on, they only play an extra 4 games compared to the Prem and they have no domestic cup competition like we do in England. So with the minimum of 4 LV Cup games the English and French actually play the same amount of games.
To me France just seem to have a poor coach who has no vision of how he wants his team to play, or maybe he does, but he doesn't select the right players in the right positions to execute his plans.
Posted 08:49 17th March 2013