Why Slimani is the perfect prop forward
France’s tighthead is a mountainous obstacle in England’s path today, writes Daniel Schofield
The first thing to note is that Philip Keithroach is a slave to the art of scrummaging. If scrummaging were a religion then he would be its chief disciple, worshipping all its shades, both light and dark.
The second thing to note is that England’s 2003 World Cup scrum coach adores Rabah Slimani, the French tighthead who is aiming to splinter Les Rosbifs’ front row today, with a burning passion.
He speaks of Slimani’s neck strength and binding technique like a certain breed of middle-aged man discusses the horsepower and steering of a Ferrari 458 Spider.
“Prop was invented as a term in rugby because of pit props in coal mines,” Keith-roach said. “The idea was that a prop could hold the scrum up off the ground, literally propping it up, and that’s what Slimani does. You virtually never see him on the ground or coming out of the top of the scrum.
“He is quite an unusual build. He is about 5ft 10in and 17st. Such is his size and height and strength and balance that he virtually never loses his feet. His technique is so good that other people find it hard to push him up, they find it hard to push him down and it’s near impossible to push him back. He keeps his feet under his body and he can move forward against almost anybody like a tank on caterpillar tracks.”
Keith-roach is far from alone in this assessment.
Speaking to The
Daily Telegraph last year, Andrew Sheridan, the great English loosehead, rated Slimani as the best prop in the current business. “He is a strong, strong boy,” Sheridan said. “Sometimes he gets you where you feel you are in a good position and he slips off you, so you are overextended and you end on the floor thinking, ‘How the hell did that just happen?’”
In one regard, Slimani fits in the rich tradition of strong, foreboding French tightheads featuring Nicolas Mas, Christian Califano and Jean-pierre Garuet-lempirou. Yet whereas such oaks of men were bred in the rugby heartlands of the south, Slimani, who is of Algerian descent, comes from Sarcelles, an immigrant heavy banlieue in the north of Paris at which none of the commuter trains stop.
Like many of his contemporaries growing up, Slimani was obsessed with football. He told Midi Olympique: “I mainly went to rugby for snacks”.
Slimani enjoys his food. Nearly everyone who knows him talks of his unfailing politeness, with one exception. “If you had the misfortune to touch his plate, his character became explosive,” his little brother Cherif told the Liberation newspaper.
Still, that considerable bulk led to him being spotted by Stade Francais, who quickly converted him from a No8 into a prop. It was at Stade that he was first spotted by Keith-roach, who had been appointed scrum consultant at the Top 14 club in 2012. Stade had quite the roll-call of internationals, but his attention was instantly drawn to the young, quiet prop who was equally destructive on both sides of the scrum. “My eyes lit up as soon as I saw him in a scrum because no one could trouble him,” Keith-roach said.
“He has this massive back strength and would be lifting tightheads clean out of the scrum. We never wanted him to play loosehead because he had a greater value as a tighthead, but he could have been world class there as well. That is very, very rare.”
Asked who else, in his 30-odd year career as a scrum coach, fulfilled that criteria and Keithroach can think of one example: Federico Mendez, the great Argentine.
Slimani is probably the only France player who would merit selection for a World XV, which explains why Clermont-auvergne made him one of the planet’s best-paid players in 2017.
Yet the presence of Slimani does not always translate into French superiority up front. As Keithroach explained, his power is not always matched on the other side of the scrum.
“A lot of the times you will see Slimani moving forward, but the French loosehead, who has the easier job, is not at the same calibre,” Keith-roach said. “They do not move their side of the scrum to balance Slimani’s movement so the scrum ends up turning and then it depends on how the referee adjudicates it.”
Hence if English tighthead Dan Cole stops French loosehead Jefferson Poirot dead in his tracks that will neutralise Slimani. As a result, Slimani has developed a second, slightly underhand method to ensure his dominance is rewarded, by changing his bind and forcing the loosehead to the floor. “He is so strong that he can pull another exceptionally strong human on the ground beneath him while staying on his feet,” Keithroach said. “Cian Healy [the Ireland prop], who is an excellent prop, was so nervous about Slimani pulling him down that he packed with his head virtually outside the scrum.”
Referees have been getting wise to this tactic and started penalising the 28-year-old. “It is such a shame, he has to do that,” Keith-roach said. “But that shows that the scrum is about more than one person, no matter how good he is.”