You made six changes. Is it a sanction for some of the players who started last week?
GN: In my mind, there are no starting players or substitutes. In modern rugby, the term substitute is out of place. As a former track and field athlete, I compare this to a relay: the one who crosses the finish line is in all the pictures, but you can’t forget the one who ran before him. This is not a sanction, we are creating an atmosphere where everyone needs to be on their toes, and we want to see all the players that are part of this squad. If they don’t get a chance, we’ll never know what they are worth.
On the opposite, maintaining the same 9-10 combination is a strong message…
GN: Well, ideally, we would love to have guys who could play all year round with no injuries, no problems, a high level of performance… All positions are exposed, those ones more than others. Our main message is one of trust. We can’t judge a player on one single game. If you take for example Sébastien Bézy, he was 0 for 3 last week, 7 for 7 the week before, he didn’t turn into a bad player in between. Some of his passes were less fast than usual, but if you watch closely, you realise that he may not have had clean recycling all the time. He has the talent, but he needs to be put in good conditions by his teammates. We have chosen to trust them, we’re not going to change our minds just because of a couple of details.
We did you choose to replace Hugo Bonneval with Teddy Thomas?
GN: Teddy is a talented player, and we need to have a bigger pool of talented players to pick from. He will have an opportunity to show us that he can be part of our young group. He meets all the criteria to fit in. Let’s also not forget that he has been back from injury for only a few weeks, although it doesn’t mean that we are going to be more lenient with him. He’s been with us for two weeks, his implication is perfect, he’s working hard for his future. That being said, we are not questioning Hugo’s talent, but again, in case of injury, we need to know who we can count on.
What were your main axes of work during the week, and what did you think of Ireland’s performance against Wales?
GN: For the first time, we were able to base our work on a game performance. We saw that we were getting closer to our objectives in some areas, others where we were far from international standards, especially in defense collectively or individually. Therefore we focused on our defensive form in the beginning of the week, especially as we know what is coming on Saturday and Ireland’s ability to hold the ball for long periods of time. We made sure the boys were aware of that, although they didn’t need us to tell them. We also reviewed our systems and tried to find a couple of weaknesses in our next opponent’s. The Irish were pretty impressive against Wales, this is top level European rugby. They can switch styles of rugby at any time, they have accurate kicking game. This will be a tough game for us, let’s hope it will be tough for them as well.
Guilhem, did you use your last confrontation with Ireland to motivate your teammates?
GG: I’m not used to talking about the past, especially because we have a lot of different players, it wouldn’t make sense. We talked about what this game would ask from us, about the challenge at hands. we need to focus on ourselves, on our job. Like Guy said, we need to do better defensively, be stronger in the tackles and hold our line better.
When you reviewed the game, you said you thought your loose forwards combination was a bit light. Why did you choose to keep the same?
GN: Given the injuries, the cumulated experience of those boys, we want to if they can take on the Irish challenge. We want our loose forwards to be able to carry efficiently, but also to be able to sustain our attacking systems and bring their support to the backs. Yacouba will play his second international, will he be able to play at this level? We’ll only know if we give him a chance. If we change everyone every time there is a storm, we’ll never know. Those boys deserve to be seen opposite one of the best teams in Europe. And again, their performance will depend on the team’s performance. But it is up to us, the staff, to find the means to help them progress.
Guilhem, you said the you needed to keep playing a more attacking style of rugby. Can you do that against the Irish defense?
GG: We might need to get into contacts lower, because we know they will try to tackle high and block the ball. If we can do this, inject some pace, hold the ball and be efficient when cleaning and recycling, we might have a few interesting opportunities.
Are we to believe that Bézy will stay number one kicker on Saturday?
GN: They will go to Stade de France on Friday for a practice session, which they were not able to do last week. As usual, I will let the boys decide. If Jules is feeling good and want to keep kicking, he will. If Sébastien wants to take over, he will. We will accept their decision.
Does changing both props mean that you’re not considering any of them to be only impact players?
GN: Eddy and Rabah have proven their worth, and I sure hope being on the bench will annoy them a bit. But I also know they will face quality opposition as well, so let’s hope they can match it and wee what we can create from that platform. At the same time, a guy like Jefferson Poirot really met our expectations. Now we want to see him against an even stronger opponent, then we’ll know if we can count on him in the future. This is not a chance to start him, it is a choice.
Virimi Vakatawa produced a great performance last week. Are you expecting him to struggle more against Ireland and their kicking game?
GN: Like anyone, he might have a hard time, it happens. But he showed he was a quality player, if all 23 boys had played as good a game against Italy, we would have won it by far. Will he be able to do it again? I can’t be sure, but I do know that he will give it his best shot. At the moment, he is setting an example. If he does that again, the technical aspect will come easily. As far as I’m concerned and from what I have seen, he can handle himself under high ball.
