Noves going back to the future with his French built for maximum thrust
THERE was a time when Toulouse ruled the European game and their chief Guy Noves was considered rugby’s master tactician. Scottish teams suffered plenty at his hands in a phenomenal 23-year spell as head coach during which he won nine French championships and four European titles, with teams renowned for their flair.
Today the former PE teacher and France winger takes the helm of Les Bleus for a first Parisian battle with Vern Cotter’s Scotland since replacing Philippe Saint-Andre after the 2015 World Cup and, judging by their performance against England last week, there is more than a little of Toulouse in the new style of French play.
Noves spent his first year making big changes, calling up no fewer than 20 uncapped players and suffering inevitable defeats — including to Scotland at Murrayfield — as he tried out different combinations.
To many, he has conjured an exciting return to the French of old and, after naming almost the same team as that pipped 19-16 by England at Twickenham, the Stade de France clash promises to be an open and entertaining one — and a meeting fraught with danger for Scotland.
But he is doing it with modern players typified by the immense talent of Louis Picamoles, the No8 now wowing fans at Northampton with his relentless steamrollering of opponents — he was top in the off-loading stats in the first round of Six Nations action.
Noves has made one change, bringing in flanker Loann Goujon for Damien Chouly. The 27-year-old La Rochelle flanker has a bit of the Johnnie Beattie style about him, a player who loves to break, step into gaps and flick passes, but with another stone or two that he puts to good use on would-be tacklers.
Typical of Noves’ players, comfortable across the back row, he will form a formidable back five with Kevin Gourdon, his almost carbon-copy La Rochelle teammate, and Picamoles, plus the bear-like locks Sebastien Vahaamahina and Yoann Maestri.
Should Cotter’s pack match France in the set-piece — the French are unsurprisingly planning to attack Scotland’s scrum after the Irish woes — they could begin to imagine a game in which the home attacking threat is stifled and the Scottish attack given space to stretch its legs.
In 1999, Scotland’s last win in Paris, Scott Murray worked out how to keep things simple in the lineout and move ball quickly, to avoid the French getting their hooks in.
There will be a similar test for the Scots young lineout caller Jonny Gray, and his brother Richie, and the pack as they seek to avoid an arm-wrestle and keep the big French pack on the move. But the challenge does not end there as France are expanding their game again to attack wider out and so the Scottish backs can expect a more ferocious defensive test than Ireland presented.
They know, too, that stray kicks to the French back three — potent running imports in the shape of South African-born full-back Scott Spedding and Fijian wings Noa Nakaitaci and Virimi Vakatawa — will only invite more pressure.
That trio can be caught going backwards but are lethal on the front foot, and underline the dichotomy in French rugby.
The Top 14 in France has been the richest league in world rugby for more than a decade, with Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter having apparently been rewarded with million-pound contracts.
Saint-Andre railed against clubs for forcing him to pick France talent rarely given game-time at their club due to foreign imports.
Noves is more sympathetic, having spent his career loyal to Toulouse. But as well as growing depth by capping another 20 players, he has won agreement for a new self-imposed five-year residency requirement before newcomers can qualify for France — a move World Rugby are under pressure to introduce to stop the ‘project-player’ phenomenon.
The flip side is that the players who do make it into the French XV have been schooled in a playground of world rugby’s ‘galacticos’.
The question being asked across the Channel this week is: ‘Do they yet know how to win?’
Noves acknowledged: ‘It’s true that against Australia we could have won but didn’t; against New Zealand we had a chance at the end and lost; against England we lost at the end. It’s annoying.
‘But Scotland also experienced that and showed last week they have learned. We will learn but this will be another difficult game.
‘The Scots had a tough year or two but now their work is starting to bear fruit. Physically and technically, they’re not the same Scotland of a few years ago.’
It should be a match that goes a long way to proving which of Cotter’s or Noves’ master plans is gaining most momentum.