What do you think of the Tournoi des Bleus, who finished second behind Ireland?
They had a great tournament, in the end, we don’t have much to blame them for. Admittedly, they lose in Ireland but against the world number one and a big team. The two selections are at a very high level and represent a new rivalry in the Six Nations. The Blues did the job and signed a historic victory at Twickenham (53-10). For having taken a few spankings there, it made me happy to see that in front of the TV (laughs)! They climbed crescendo on this tournament by showing many beautiful things.
How do you justify it?
There is a big emulation in this group. When a player leaves on coaching or injury, the one who enters is at the same level. For example, Woki was injured and Flament had an exceptional tournament, Aldegheri was huge against England while Atonio was not there. We have long envied other nations their reservoir and today we have it. Now it’s up to us not to play dumb and win this World Cup!
We would have liked to have the same framework
When you see their performances and this victory in England, do you regret being five years too old?
No no not at all. We discussed it with Guilhem (Guirado, former hooker and captain of the RCT and the XV of France). We would not like to be part of their group because it belongs to them, but we would have liked, without offending anyone, to have the same supervision. We feel that around them there is a virtuous circle that we did not have. It was complicated for us because there was no continuity. I do not remember that even fifteen has chained two games. You had no room for error. You had a bad match, even an average match, you went out. We didn’t have that positive pressure. You can’t build something when you change teams all the time. Today, the staff makes changes either on injury, misshapen or because a UFO arrives. Stability brings serenity. We have never evolved in serenity. As a player, I didn’t feel protected by the people around us. If we had a bad game, we were attacked and nobody defended us. The only answer was to get us off the team.
Jonathan Danty is more complete than I have been
How do you view the performance of Jonathan Danty, who has long been called “little Basta”?
People made simplistic shortcuts because we were both centers and blacks. Today, Jonathan is a reference both in the Top 14 and in the world. There are very few players who manage to do what he does. He puts a big impact in the midfield, in attack as in defense and scratching. There is hardly any other player in the world who does that in this position. He has hands, feet, he is much more complete than I was in the France team. I think and I have already told him that his game in front of the defense is better than mine at the time. Me, I worked on it later, he already had it.
It took a long time to really hatch. Did you think he was capable of going so high?
He was less consistent because he had a lot of physical problems, but surprised, no. I think he can still go higher. We feel that it has taken on another dimension, already leaving Paris. He left his cocoon and questioned himself in La Rochelle. He’s someone who needs confidence and whether it’s Ronan O’Gara at club level or Fabien Galthié at national level, they gave him that. And Jonathan in confidence, it gives what we have seen for two, three years.
