{"id":374567,"date":"2025-08-26T09:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374567\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T09:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T09:21:13","slug":"france-coach-claims-they-need-more-playing-time-to-gel-after-italy-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374567\/","title":{"rendered":"France coach claims they need ‘more playing time to gel’ after Italy win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Job one done. The first item \u2013 beat Italy \u2013 can be ticked off on the French coaches\u2019 Great and Secret Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> List.<\/p>\n

Winning match one was the prime directive of the pool phase for France<\/a>. Six Nations<\/a> rivals Italy, ranked sixth in the world, were Les Bleues\u2019<\/a> most difficult Pool D opponents on paper.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s<\/a> next outing, on Sunday, 31st August, is against Brazil, ranked 25th in the world. A week later, they face fast-improving and physical South Africa, currently 12th in the standings, who beat Brazil 66-6 in their opening outing.<\/p>\n

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A first-up tournament win is always important for morale. For self-proclaimed Rugby World Cup<\/a> \u2018outsiders\u2019 France, plotting their route through to the later stages, it was vital.<\/p>\n

Tournament history weighs heavily on the French. They have reached the semi-finals eight times in nine previous tournaments, finishing third on seven occasions. But have never made it to the big show. Sure, they\u2019ve come close \u2013 they were one late penalty miss away from the final in New Zealand last time out. But close isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

The win in Exeter makes it more likely France<\/a> will top Pool D, and face the second-placed side in Pool C in the quarter-finals. That\u2019s most likely to be Ireland, unless Aoife Wafer<\/a> and her team-mates shock New Zealand in Brighton on 7th September. Whoever wins that, barring a rugby universe-shattering shock, earns a semi-final against England.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the maths of it for France. Behind it, one truth cuts deeper still. Les Bleues have not won a title of any kind since the Six Nations<\/a> Grand Slam of 2018. That hurts. As tighthead prop Assia Khalfaoui<\/a> highlighted in the lead-up to Saturday\u2019s match: \u201cWe need to win \u2026 if we want to make history, we have to win titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one in the France<\/a> camp is about to pretend that win means Les Bleues are suddenly a complete World Cup<\/a>-challenging article. There\u2019s too much still to do, too much scaffolding surrounding the squad for that.<\/p>\n

The 24-0 scoreline demonstrated their defence \u2013 too easily smashed and sliced open by England on 9th August in Mont-de-Marsan \u2013 had been solidified over the past couple of weeks. And their scrum had built in added potency. But this was far from a title-winning statement. Defence is only half the story. France\u2019s febrile attack was wasteful and nervy and impatient.<\/p>\n

The post-match comments of player-of-the-match Gabrielle Vernier<\/a>, after an impressive personal return to action in midfield alongside co-captain Marine M\u00e9nager, were honest and telling. \u201cThere are quite a few things to work on,\u201d she said. \u201cOffensively, we had a difficult time against an Italian defence that closed down the outside and put a lot of pressure on our cells. We didn\u2019t find the key.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first matches [of a tournament] are always complicated to manage, emotionally. We have worked very hard for two months for this so there is that little extra something. Now we are in competition and we have to move on to the next stage to build our World Cup as we go along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midfield partner and France co-captain Marine M\u00e9nager concurred, telling journalists in Exeter: \u201cThere are a lot of details to sort out because we wasted a lot of chances at the start of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The period M\u00e9nager had in mind is easy to pinpoint. Those early seven minutes when France were camped in Italy\u2019s 22, laying siege to the tryline; when a lack of precision and fluidity as much as aggressive defence kept them at bay; when France could, should have scored \u2013 and almost but not-quite managed it, as Vernier set M\u00e9nager herself crashing through a small gap a few metres out. A score seemed inevitable but the skipper was held up over the line.<\/p>\n

That could have been a sliding doors moment. Italy have caused France<\/a> plenty of problems in the past \u2013 most recently during this year\u2019s Six Nations\u2019 meeting in Parma when the home side led 21-12 at halftime \u2013 and Les Bleues\u2019 inability to turn extended pressure into points briefly seemed portentous. If they couldn\u2019t score after ramping the pressure up to 11, when would they?<\/p>\n

And, then, deja-vu kicked in. The opening rounds of this year\u2019s Six Nations<\/a>, when handling errors, impatience and a lack of precision threatened to cost them dearly before France almost snatched the Grand Slam from England. A dismal WXV1 run last autumn, when they lost two of their three outings to finish second from bottom. It all came nervily flooding back.<\/p>\n

Joanna Grisez\u2019s try just before the half-hour settled French nerves even as the crowd rallied behind Italy, while a Morgane Bourgeois\u2019 penalty extended their lead. But 10-0 at halftime, with a second try ruled out, was no reward for 40 minutes spent almost exclusively deep in Italian territory. At the same time, it was arguably more than France deserved, given the slapdash nature of their attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dominated the scrum and the lineout, but we couldn\u2019t score,\u201d joint head coach Ga\u00eblle Mignot acknowledged afterwards. \u201cWe had to focus on our approach to contact and clean rucks. When we have clean rucks, we can set up our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patience and precision were the obvious keywords for the half-time teamtalk. And they were heeded. Khalfaoui burst over five minutes after the restart, after calm and accurate build-up through the phases. A quarter of an hour later, Charlotte Escudero<\/a> \u2013 who can\u2019t have been far behind Vernier in the player-of-the-match discussions \u2013 scored France\u2019s third.<\/p>\n

14 unanswered second-half points with nearly a quarter of the match to go should, perhaps, have been the catalyst for more. But that was the last movement of the scoreboard. A win, no try-scoring bonus. No particular frills, but enough. The wait for a performance worthy of a World Cup challenge goes on.<\/p>\n

Almost ironically, co-coach David Ortiz appealed for patience afterwards. \u201cIn terms of attitude, solidarity, and heart in defence, it\u2019s clear [we] showed a completely different face compared to the one against England. But we know we still have more in the tank. We can still develop and improve. We still need more playing time to gel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work-in-progress France have their first points, and have partially cleared their path through to the knockout phase. The problems in attack, though apparently long-standing, should be fairly straightforward to address \u2013 let\u2019s be honest, there\u2019s no doubting the individual talents of Vernier, M\u00e9nager, Escudero, Grisez, Arbey and Arbez.<\/p>\n

A number of players are likely to be rested for next week\u2019s match against Brazil. But one player should be back and desperate for gametime: scrum-half Pauline Bourdon<\/a> Sansus will be available for selection again after serving a two-match ban for questioning refereeing standards in the French domestic Elite 1 league.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Women’s Rugby World Cup<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

France Women <\/p>\n

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Brazil Women <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pundit Marjorie Mayans<\/a> believes she is the gamechanger France needs. \u201c[Bourdon Sansus] has the ability to shake everyone up,\u201d Mayans wrote in her Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> column for Midi Olympique. \u201cShe knows how to read a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the rhythm slows and everyone gets a little tense because things aren\u2019t going as planned, she speeds up the game, takes a quick penalty and forces everyone to move forward again.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe takes attacking decisions that force everyone to follow her. It\u2019s something she imposes on others and that pushes the whole team. This is essential for the French team, where players sometimes have a tendency to stick too closely to their roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Italy, then, the foundations are in place for France\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> challenge \u2013 the necessary unseen work complete. At least, fans will hope so. Because France have two more pool matches to set everything in stone in time for the knockouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Job one done. The first item \u2013 beat Italy \u2013 can be ticked off on the French coaches\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-374567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115094335442032426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}