Le Niggle!
Wales and France ready for bad-tempered battle
Never mind Le Crunch, this is Le
Niggle. It is hard to remember a build-up to a Six Nations encounter in Cardiff that has been so vitriolic, if not downright nasty. Certainly without Eddie Jones involved.
Inevitably, on the eve of the match at the Principality Stadium today, the opposing set-ups tried to row back on the rancour, although as ever in these wars of words, a few subtle potshots told the back story.
Alun Wyn Jones, the Wales captain who only ever seems to be described as “totemic”, shrugged his shoulders and reminded us he was not party to any of the fun and shames in which first Wyn Jones, the prop, accused the French scrum of being “cheats” and then France coach Fabien Galthie sounded almost like the don of the Six Nations, in berating the opposition for their “disrespect”.
However, Wales’s captain could not resist a dig at Raphael Ibanez after the French team manager went well below the belt in questioning whether Dan Biggar should have been selected after suffering three concussions in six months.
“I’m not a doctor,” Jones said. “But it’s interesting he [Ibanez] says that because Prav [Mathema, the Wales medical manager] was with Raphael for two years at Wasps, so I’m sure they’ll have a conversation regarding that after the game.”
For his part, Ibanez, the former hooking great, had changed his tune from 24 hours earlier when he accused Wales of “a childish attack”. “We are delighted to come back here to a beautiful stadium,” he said, looking as if beurre would not melt in his mouth. But still he pointed the finger to the red quadrant. “I can’t make any comments about what other coaching staff do. It is down to them, it belongs to them, not us,” he said. “Everyone is free to express what they want. We just focus on the game now.”
Ibanez went on to say he would enjoy a drink with Mathema after the match, and another Wasps old boy in Shaun Edwards, too. That should be an interesting threeball, whatever the result. France have not won a Six Nations tussle in the Welsh capital since 2010, and that has plenty to do with Edwards’s influence as Warren Gatland’s sergeant major in charge of defence.
Much has been said about Edwards returning to his adopted homeland of a dozen years and, as an individual who does not so much wear his heart on the sleeve as over his entire torso, it will likely be a torrid early evening for the France defence coach regardless. Indeed, Ibanez revealed that he was so concerned by a potential sentimental overload that he spoke to Edwards early this week.
“We talked and I just asked him what was the approach of the game, and if it was too much, maybe, emotionally,” Ibanez said. “Shaun is very professional, his reply was pretty clear.
He just said, ‘My only focus this week will be to do my best for the players’, and that is what he has done, day in, Crunch time: Wales fly-half Dan Biggar tackles France’s Virimi Vakatawa day out. It was proper Shaun Edwards.”
Wales would expect no less, but the question is whether Les Bleus’ defence will be “proper Shaun Edwards”. Wales have won eight of the past nine collisions between these sides, but they might, and probably should, have lost the past two, in which the French pulled clear each time, but Gatland’s resilient Dragons roared back.
Josh Adams, the wing, recognises such a collective collapse might be unlikely this time around, with Edwards in the French corner. “We didn’t start great in this match last year and it was similar in Japan [at the World Cup in October, when Wales won the quarter-final by a point],” he said. “We were chasing both games. I think it’s important we are at home this time and that this is France’s first away game of the campaign. “We need to start well and put them under pressure. Look, Shaun was a fantastic servant for Welsh rugby. But this is a new group and we’re raring to go. People have talked about the differential in caps and if the game goes to the wire, that the experience on our side will help. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to win it for us.”
There has never
before been such a huge margin in experience in the Six Nations. With 859 caps, Wales will set a new championship record, while France have 254.
It is the old grey-hairs versus the bum-fluff brigade and, as ridiculously talented as they are, it will take a remarkable uprising from les
enfants to deal with the occasion, under the roof, with the Grand Slam being mentioned.
Wales know they can throw the championship open with their 13th successive home Six Nations victory and Wayne Pivac is counting on the trip to England two weeks later with the narrative of a squad on track to retain their title.
Yet while they have cunningly attempted to pile on the pressure on their baby-faced rivals, there can be no doubt that the new reign is under increasing scrutiny.
“It is just a fact that they are much more experienced than us,” Ibanez said. “We can’t lie. The truth is we have very young players in the team, but we trust them. And we are very confident in their ability to cope with the atmosphere and this kind of game.”