ENGLAND V FRANCE
Nick Cain previews today’s Nations Cup final at Twickenham
ENGLAND are oddson to collect their second trophy in two months by lifting the Autumn Nations Cup at Twickenham this afternoon, but in most respects the side that are currently second in the World Rugby rankings will be on a hiding to nothing.
If France had not fielded a second/third string team this Autumn Nations Cup final could have given the rankings system, and the international game as a whole, a much-needed lift.
A reborn French team with ambitions to win the World Cup for the first time when they host it in 2023, confronting an England outfit with the same desire, given that they are still bleeding from their mauling by South Africa in the 2019 final, would have been a contest worth waiting for.
However, with France fielding a shadow side following the French Federation’s agreement with Top 14 clubs that no player would play in more than three Tests this autumn, head coach Fabien Galthie’s young 23-man match selection is very inexperienced.
Compared to England’s whopping 813 caps – which is the most-capped starting fifteen in English history– the French have just 68 caps in total, with the La Rochelle full-back Brice Dulin accounting for almost half of them.
Yet, even with a reserve French side, there were two options on the table to give this match some pep. The first was for Eddie Jones to meet the French like-with-like, and select a largely experimental team based on squad men rather than starters.
Given that the England coach had shunted that option into the sidings before the tournament started, refusing to countenance doing so against tier two opponents Georgia in the opening round, the chances of him changing his mind against the French was a nonstarter.
It was therefore no surprise when Jones named his strongest team available on Friday, with the only change to his starting line-up the return of Anthony Watson to the right wing in place of the injured Jonathan Joseph, and Bristol loan duo Ben Earl and Max Malins restored to the bench.
However, what is surprising, given the high injury count in the modern pro game, is that Jones scorned the chance offered by the Autumn Nations Cup to blood more of his players.
It was a heaven-sent opportunity for the Red Rose coach to take a detailed look at his strength-indepth as he builds again for the challenges of the Six Nations, and tackles the preparatory stage of what could be his last attempt at winning a World Cup. It is a decision that could rebound on him down the track.
The second option is for England to do a number on this French outfit – and a very high number at that. It will require a much bigger try-count than they managed against Ireland or Wales over the last fortnight.
Jones has often held up the All Blacks as an example of best practice, and creating a template that everyone else is striving to match. Part of that template over the last two decades has been that when New Zealand are faced with weaker opposition they invariably put them to the sword.
It means that irrespective of who they are playing against, the All Black mindset is about focusing on their own highest standards, and offering no quarter. Jones has to see whether his England regulars can find the same beady-eyed intensity against the French – and deliver a result which posts a clear warning to their cross-Channel rivals never to arrive without their best line-up, or they will be sent packing.
What England can be sure of is that while the French reserves may be short of international exposure, and do not have the biggest backline, they will be primed to offer not only stonewall resistance, but also fired by the prospect of one of the great underdog victories over “Les Rosbifs”.
With two former French captains in charge of the national team, with manager Raphael Ibanez riding shotgun next to Galthie, and Shaun Edwards, one of the game’s great motivators, alongside them as defence coach, they will call on their young team to summon up the blood.
Their priceless prize will be to leave southwest London with their names writ large in Galthie’s 2023 World Cup plans by handing England one of their worst defeats on Twickenham turf.
Even if they fall short of the ambition of pulling off one of the biggest upsets in AngloFrench rugby history, a severe embarrassment – with England pegged back to a slender winning margin – would be a significant psychological victory for Galthie’s crew.
Jones made a point on Friday of saying how much late homework he has done on the French reserves, and that there was no danger of his team underestimating their opponents.
“They are a strong team,” Jones said. “We know the French are capable of great things, and that they have got great depth in their Top
14, and also won two of the last three World U20 Championships – so they are a dangerous animal.”
The England coach has made the right assessment, because, although there is not a single player from the French starting line-up when they won 24-17 in Paris at the start of the 2020 Six Nations, today’s team is stacked with their best young talent.
The two players who feature in both 23s are flanker Cameron Woki and hooker Peato Mauvaka. They were on the bench last time and
now Woki is part of a starting pack which stacks up well in terms of size and power despite its youth. It has all the signs of a scrum designed to disrupt the seasoned English front row, especially now that Mako Vunipola has been ruled out with an Achilles injury he collected against Wales.
Ellis Genge comes in to play alongside Jamie George and Kyle Sinckler against the French front row of loosehead Hassan Kolingar (Racing), who looked solid in Racing’s recent European Cup campaign, feisty hooker Pierre Bougarit (La Rochelle), and tighthead Dorian Aldegheri (Toulouse). The potential ambush element is that they will be spelled by a massive bench trio of Rodrigue Neti (Toulouse), Mauvaka (Toulouse), who are both very big units (19st 7lb/124kg), and Uini Atonio, the massive 33-cap veteran tighthead (23st 9lb/152kg). From there the French switch to a back five which is more athletic than breeze-block. In the second row the redhaired double junior world champion Killian Geraci (Lyon) is a throwback to the running-handling, scrapping locks of the 1970s like the Spanghero brothers – a French wrecker at the lineout and maul – while his partner Baptiste Pesenti (Pau) brings more othodox attributes.
A back row reshuffle after last weekend’s win over Italy sees the 6ft 5ins Woki (Bordeaux), who has great mobility and a highly effective all-court game, stay on the flank, with Anthony Jelonch (Castres) another tall all-rounder moving to the flank from No.8, where he hands over the shirt to the shorter, chunkier Selevasio Tolofua (Toulouse).
It is a back row with a good balance to it, and also the prospect of the lithe, rugged Sekou Macalou (Stade Francais) coming off the bench to keep the intensity high.
There are also high hopes for the half-back pairing of scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud (Lyon) and quicksilver fly-half Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux).
Jones said he has identified that France are picking No.9s with very similar attributes, with new captain Couilloud – and the player he replaces, Baptiste Serin – in a similar mould to Antoine Dupont, their star scrum-half. He noted that Couilloud sniped round the fringes, and also kicked long.
Jalibert is a rakish, attacking 10 with plenty of pace, who is seen as a serious challenger to Romain Ntamack. He also has the benefit of consistently playing at fly-half for his club, whereas Ntamack has flitted between 10 and 12 for Toulouse.
The other fly-half challenger is Louis Carbonel, Toulon’s Jonny Wilkinson-clone and double junior world champion U20 hero.
Carbonel is on the bench for this one, but if a goal-kicker – or tactical kicker – is required to close this game out, then it could be France’s answer to Wilko who is asked to do it.
The most heavy-duty French back is inside centre Jonathan Danty (Stade Francais), who weighs in at 17st 4lbs/109kg, which also just happens to be Manu Tuilagi’s fighting weight.
For a couple of seasons Danty has been very impressive for Stade, with the gold-dust attribute of being strong enough to punch over the gain-line and stay on his feet longer than most.
Danty’s power was showcased by his try in the win over Italy last weekend when his leg-drive saw him piggyback a couple of Azzurri tacklers over the line. If he sees enough ball George Ford and Owen Farrell could be on the receiving end with a Tuilagi-like carrier coming at them.
Meanwhile, Danty’s centre partner, Yoram Moefana (Bordeaux), who became the first millennial to be capped by France when he came on against Italy, has the benefit of playing his club rugby alongside Jalibert.
Which brings us to the French back three, and a Fijian-born wing that England skipper Farrell and his Saracens teammates in the Red Rose line-up are already wellacquainted with.
This time three years ago Alivereti Raka scored a blistering hat-trick of tries for Clermont in an unheard of 46-14 hammering of the then European champions at Allianz Park.
It was a day when the renowned
Saracens defence failed to function, and England can rest assured that if they fall off tackles, then Raka (Clermont), Dulin (La Rochelle), who is a dangerous counter-attacking full-back, and former France Sevens wing, Gabin Villiere (Toulon), have got the speed and the moves to make them pay.
Galthie and Ibanez showed a similar attacking mentality when they picked-up on UK headlines about the Autumn Nations Cup final having been reduced to a farce by France fielding a reserve side.
“I can tell you that our players are worthy of the cap they’re earning,” Ibanez said. Galthie struck the same note when he said: “We will be ready – I can assure you that we will be ready.”
This does not feel like misplaced confidence, or false bravado. It may be a French reserve side, but it is well thought-through and selected – and, while England may win as expected, the margin of victory might not make the statement Eddie Jones wants.
Another consolation for Galthie and Ibanez as they head back home is that they will also have found out much more about the strength-in-depth of their squad than the England head coach has about his.