Young, gifted and bleu: France pin hopes on Jalibert
Teenage fly-half has the talent and temperament to become a huge name, says Charlie Morgan
He was pretty sharp, mate,” admits Craig Willis, smiling at the slice of understatement. “I was defending outside it and he’d obviously seen the space at the back of our line-out early … fair play to him!”
Matthieu Jalibert’s individual try for Union Bordeaux-begles against Newcastle Falcons in the European Challenge Cup in December resembled something out of a glitchy video game. The footwork that flummoxed a covering Sam Stuart, punctuating an electric 50-metre burst, left spectators awestruck.
Willis, Jalibert’s opposite number that day, scored a fine try of his own as the hosts won out 52-24 at Kingston Park. Even though Jalibert was replaced after the first period, Willis also remembers slick distribution skills and solid decision-making.
France’s penchant for fasttracking fledgling fly-halves may seem unremarkable by now, but their latest prospect does appear to be extraordinary. Jalibert, 19, learnt the game in New Caledonia’s capital city of Noumea while his father was stationed with the military in the South Pacific.
And while an ascension to international rugby has been accelerated by circumstance, there is a feeling that the promising playmaker would not have needed to wait too long for such recognition. “It’s been refreshing to see a French guy think slightly different to the others,” says Rory Teague, the former England skills coach who has taken over from Jacques Brunel as Jalibert’s director of rugby at his club.
“He’s a guy that is really, really hungry to get better every day. He’s constantly known what he needs to do to get better. He’s really into his analysis. [Australia and ex-queensland Reds scrumhalf ] Nick Frisby arrived at the club in the week before the Six Nations camp and Matthieu was into him: ‘What does Quade Cooper do? Why does he do it?’
“He’s always on to me about Owen Farrell and George Ford. He’s thinking: ‘If I want to be the best, I need to take other bits from what other people have done well’. He has a growth mindset. He’s not closed off. He’s happy to be wrong and he’s happy to fail. He knows that he’s going to fail sometimes and that will make him stronger.”
Promoted to the first-team squad during an impressive pre-season that complemented his exploits with France under-20 last summer, Jalibert filled out physically and was eased in with game time at full-back. Then, on his first Top 14 start in Toulouse, two days before his 19th birthday, he missed a penalty with the last kick of a manic game and UBB lost 38-37. Jalibert remained calm, reminding Teague of a young Farrell: “He knew exactly what he’d done wrong.”
Six weeks later, emboldened by beating the Maori All Blacks with a French Barbarians side, Jalibert landed 19 points as UBB won 29-19 against La Rochelle despite having a man sent off. Rumour has it that he delivered some stirring words to his colleagues during the second half. “With the French, you can charge them emotionally and get a response,” Teague adds. “He can do that, but he’s also very conscious of his standing in the group and his age. He’s not too outspoken, he has that self-awareness of where he is.”
Brunel’s time at UBB prior to joining the France set-up means he trusts Jalibert in the absence of the injured Camille Lopez. Last week, he made comparisons with Ford and Frederic Michalak, himself a Test debutant at 19. Along with the captain of Les Bleus, Guilhem Guirado, Brunel saluted Jalibert’s maturity, but tempered expectation by reiterating the credentials of 21-year-old Anthony Belleau – the only other fly-half in his squad.
Ireland’s head coach Joe Schmidt was less reserved. He stressed all three syllables of the adjective “prodigious” when describing France’s two number 10s.
And Schmidt is rarely wide of the mark.