6 Nations 2018 - Other teams

[paddyor]

Noves is gone as French coach. To be replaced By Brunel and some other T14 coaches. Damn.

[blockhead]

Personally, I would love to see the French national team return to the days of old. They used to be magnificent to watch. But that was a long time ago now.

[simonokeeffe]

Brunel probably wont pick players just because they play for Toulouse or if they dont have a club to play 15s for, so theres that. Possibly still an issue of establishing a 10.

His last season or two with Italy went very badly IIRC

[neiliog93]

I know the French teams of the '80s/'90s were famous for flair, but my rugby memory only goes back as far as 1999/2000ish, and I never remember them being nice to watch. Even the team with Clerc, Heymans etc, while effective, weren't particularly flairish. Maybe the flair was more cut out once Laporte took over as French head coach in '97?

[hugonaut]

Brunel is a very, very surprising choice. His five year stint in Italy saw them play a stodgy brand of rugby and regress in terms of results.

As importantly, he's of the same generation as Noves – in fact they were born only a month apart. Both guys have been very active as coaches in French and European international rugby for thirty years; they've got readily accessible track records.

Noves was enormously successful and could lay a very legitimate claim to being the best Northern Hemisphere coach of his generation [9 Boucliers and 4 Heineken Cups in 18 years puts everyone else in the shade]; Brunel was a decent/good coach but that just doesn't cut it in comparison to Noves' record.

It's not unreasonable to remove Noves from his post. There's a strong argument that elements of the game have passed him by and that his methods are no longer effective. But to replace him with a guy the same age, from the same background who is clearly not as good a coach as he is? That's madness.

[Dave Cahill]

Politics dear boy, politics!

[hugonaut]

Politics dear boy, politics!

Yeah, somebody explained it to me afterwards. Should have seen the angle.

[paddyor]

Laporte?

[hugonaut]

Laporte?

Exactly. Brunel was second-in-command to Laporte from 2001-07 when Laporte was head coach of France.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

They've already got injuries but it'll be interesting to see how much they improve. Saw most of their games in November and they were a proper shambles. At one stage against New Zealand they had a ruck near the middle of the pitch, with two runners off it on one side, and six forwards coming around the corner from the other, with a backline that seemed to consist of three players standing still with no shape and covering about three quarters of the width of the pitch. Hard to explain it without a photo but essentially they had 11/12 players working off one ruck near the middle of the pitch, it was as if they had never played rugby before.

[paddyor]

This is bad for us IMO. I can see there being a big emotional performance for the new coach and then just dragging us into a dog fight. Then they revert to type over the rest of the 6 nations.

[simonokeeffe]

This is bad for us IMO. I can see there being a big emotional performance for the new coach and then just dragging us into a dog fight. Then they revert to type over the rest of the 6 nations.

Getting them first up away could be tricky alright

Or theyre still disorganised/coach has had little time/theres unpopular selections/unfamiliar combinationd/lads are picked just because they play for Perpignan or other political reasons

[neiliog93]

I dunno, getting them first could be good as the new coach won't have had time to impose his ideas on them, or even bring back basic shape. Just think of Schmidt's Ireland vs. Australia in 2013.

No doubt they'll be up for it emotionally and have some good individuals, which in fairness is a large percentage of the task of creating a good rugby team. When you factor in their home advantage and effort to prove themselves to the new coach, even with our equally good individuals and better organisation, we'll probably only end up winning by a tight margin.

[IanD]

Has happened

France change head coach just weeks before Six Nations opener with Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2017/122 ... ce-brunel/

[Ruckedtobits]

Has happened

France change head coach just weeks before Six Nations opener with Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2017/122 ... ce-brunel/

Never one to shirk the prospect of a conspiracy, this may be an instance in which the exercise of the empirical power of the President of the FFR, M. Laporte, will backfire as he appoints a man who was once his Assistant Coach to the National Team and has behaved in that role ever since.

Already some of the rugby cognescendi en France are voicing their concern that M. Laporte really wants to grab the selection & coaching reins himself.

[leinsterforever]

Has happened

France change head coach just weeks before Six Nations opener with Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2017/122 ... ce-brunel/

Never one to shirk the prospect of a conspiracy, this may be an instance in which the exercise of the empirical power of the President of the FFR, M. Laporte, will backfire as he appoints a man who was once his Assistant Coach to the National Team and has behaved in that role ever since.

Already some of the rugby cognescendi en France are voicing their concern that M. Laporte really wants to grab the selection & coaching reins himself.

Looking at Toulon now versus where they were under Laporte, I'd have thought France would be a lot better off with Laporte as coach

[simonokeeffe]

not that French players would ever get stroppy but if Brunel is just a puppet he will lose respect and influence very quickly, with all the possibilities of mutinies and disharmony.

and if Laporte isn't on the training pitch how is he meant to see who is doing well and how motivated would the players be?

[Dave Cahill]

Noves is, according to my admittedly rusty french, suing the FFR because shambles

[hugonaut]

Noves is, according to my admittedly rusty french, suing the FFR because shambles

I read that the FFR are suing him [and his assistants].

[Ruckedtobits]

Eddie Jones has laid out his English Squad for 6N Training Camp:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/42511871

At a quick glance Bath players look like they are in demand but Exeter lads have suffered for double defeat by Leinster.