HOW WALES CAN BEAT FRANCE:
IT’S hard to imagine there has been a more agonising game in his history of Welsh rugby – so close and yet so far for Warren Gatland’s team when they lost to France 9-8 in the World Cup semifinal of 2011.
They played for 62 minutes with 14 men after Sam Warburton had been sent off, and yet they came so near to victory, inspired by the likes of Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips and the extraordinary Taulupe Faletau, who played the game of his career, tackling, carrying and driving Wales forward.
Are there lessons from that evening in Auckland that echo down the years for the class of 2019 as they prepare to play the French again in the quarterfinals in Oita?
MARK ORDERS thinks there are at least three...
1. KEEP YOUR DISCIPLINE
Of course. The obvious one.
The former England and Bath hooker Graham Dawe once told, tongue perhaps in cheek, a tale of how he and his team-mates had been motivated to bursting point for a particular game.
“We were so fired up, when the referee ran onto the pitch, three of us tackled him,” said Dawe.
Discipline is one of the key building blocks for a successful performance on a rugby pitch. Everyone knows it, but rugby is a sport where players walk tightropes every time they take the field. One misjudged tackle, a split-second late or a fraction too high, and it can be the rest of a match on the sidelines with potentially huge consequences for the team.
No-one understands that truth better than Sam Warburton.
Inspirational in leading Wales eight years ago, he received his marching orders for a dangerous tackle on Vincent Clerc in the 2011 World Cup semi-final at Eden Park.
His side gamely battled on without him, but the handicap of playing for more than an hour with only 14 men ultimately proved too much.
The debate about whether Warburton deserved his fate has been done. The man himself, after watching footage of the incident, said afterwards: “I have seen it played back, the tackle is a lot uglier than I thought it was at the time.
“At the end of the day the IRB said if you lift up a player and drop him it’s a red card, and that’s exactly what I did.
“I can’t complain.’’ Warburton is a gent and a sportsman, but he probably still feels the pain of that moment eight years ago.
More recently, in his book, he insists it was never a red card and it was the one moment of his rugby career he wishes he could change more than any other.
It’s a fine balance for a team. When Wales played Ireland in a pool stage shoot-out in 1995, they barely offered an argument early on, while the Irish steamed into them. The following year’s Rugby Annual for Wales called it “one of the most deplorable Welsh performances of all time”.
It is all about controlled aggression.
In the modern game, played out before the all-seeing eye of the fourth official and with referees acting firmly in the event of high tackles, discipline becomes even more important.
Wales gave away just three penalties when beating England in February, yet played with a ferocity that the opposition struggled to contend with.
That needs to be their template for Sunday’s game and beyond at this tournament.
2. KICK YOUR GOALS
“Leigh Halfpenny kicking to put Wales in the Cup final” – so declared a voice in the Auckland press box as the full-back addressed a long-range shot at goal with four minutes to play in the game with France in 2011.
Thwack! He caught the ball well enough, and off it headed towards its target, carrying with it the hopes of a nation. It would be a cliche to say time seemed to stand still, because, in truth, anti-climax intruded all too quickly for those of a Welsh persuasion.
Usually, if a long-range kick is successful there are triumphant anticipatory calls from those behind the posts, but this time there weren’t. Nor did Halfpenny’s body language suggest a positive outcome. It had looked a difficult kick, and it had gone as expected.
The ball didn’t quite have the propulsion, dipping in the final moments and falling just short of the cross bar.
Goal-kicking – it is something a side has to get right in knockout rugby.
It was hardly Halfpenny’s fault that evening at Eden Park, with his kick being the most difficult of the lot.
But collectively Wales’ marksmen didn’t get it right.
Between them James Hook, Stephen Jones and Halfpenny had thousands of points in professional rugby. The mind’s eye recalls Hook nervelessly slotting a conversion attempt from near the touchline deep in injury time to pretty much keep the Ospreys in the Heineken Cup back in the day, while he and Jones had played in Grand Slam teams for Wales.
But a World Cup knockout game is a whole new world of pressure.
That night in Auckland, Morgan Parra stayed calm as he bisected the posts with the only three goal-kicking opportunities Wales gave him.
For him, then, a 100 per cent return. The Wales kickers succeeded with one out of five attempts between them, a 20 per cent return. Ultimately, it proved decisive. Wales have three kickers in their ranks who boast a success rate of 80 per cent or better at this tournament. Dan Biggar (80 per cent), Halfpenny (83 per cent) and
Rhys Patchell (86 per cent) are individuals who usually deliver.
But pressure can be a vandal. Every team in the World Cup knockout stages will be looking to bring fire to the table. But those doing the kicking always need to stay ice cool. You wonder why they take the job in the first place. Who would want to endure all that extra tension and responsibility, after all?
But succeed and they can be elevated to the status of idols.
Anyone in the Wales camp for that status this weekend? Gatland will hope the answer to that one is in the affirmative.
3. IGNORE SUGGESTIONS THE FRENCH CAN’T WIN BECAUSE OF OFF-PITCH TURMOIL
France were in disarray in 2011, we were told. They had lost to Tonga during the pool stage and there was talk of mutiny in the camp.
Later, the head coach Marc Lievremont was to describe the players as “undisciplined, spoiled brats, disobedient, selfish, always complaining, always whining, and they’ve been at me for four years”.
In between, though, the French disposed of England in the last eight and Wales in the semi-finals. And they almost defeated New Zealand in the final. They are a side who have shown over and over again they can play their way out of turmoil.
So, Wales would be advised not to read too much into reports that the French class of 2019 are “on the cusp of chaos”.
This time, the suggestion was there had been a major split over skipper Guilhem Guirado ahead of the game with England, which didn’t actually take place because of Typhoon Hagibis. There were reports that Jefferson Poirot might replace him as captain, even though the squad continued to see Guirado as “the players’ captain”.
Not exactly calming matters, Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal chipped in with his two euros worth, saying: “Take control guys, take the power, because there are coaches all over the place.”
Then there was full-back Maxime Medard commenting ahead of the conclusion of Pool D: “Wales or Australia, it won’t change a thing. They are each better than us.”
Here’s the thing: Wales didn’t lose to them in 2011 because they underestimated them, but the French at that point were seemingly happy to be in a state of disorder. It sometimes seems to weirdly raise their performance level.
Off-field turbulence doesn’t always translate to on-pitch failure, especially with France.
The trick is to assume they will be ultra-dangerous and prepare accordingly.
But let’s take a punt and assume Gatland has worked that one out already.