He who could not do more must be able to do less. It is from this angle, admittedly moderately exhilarating, that the XV of France approached the second of its three autumn stages, facing the nations of the southern hemisphere. Outclassed in almost all sectors, a week earlier at the Stade de France, by a South Africa that had been outnumbered for a long time (17-32), the Blues suddenly fell from the cloud on which a winter coronation in the Six Nations Tournament had placed them. However, what better way to refresh your spirits than to take the TGV and go spend the weekend in the provinces, warmed by the fervor of a public fond of rugby, facing a challenger who rarely celebrates against the international elite?
So head to the Atlantic stadium in Bordeaux, where Fiji was going to try, on the evening of Saturday, November 15, to resist a tricolor XV almost half overhauled, between injuries (Mickaël Guillard, Emmanuel Meafou, Baptiste Erdocio, etc.) and the choice of a coach impervious to sentimentalism (see the absence of Gaël Fickou, repudiated captain, while executives Gregory Alldritt and Charles Ollivon were heading in the opposite direction – for the greater relief for their teammates, as we will verify).
Defeated in advance, Fiji actually quickly took on water. To the point that at 21-0 in as many minutes, we imagined the players of the XV of France playing matadors the rest of the match, which, conversely, will lead to a messy copy. Feverish, approximate, the Blues saw the Fijians chipping away at the 21 points initially conceded, like Captain Haddock’s plaster, only the last quarter of an hour, without genius but serious – at least where we understood that we should not ask for the moon -, allowing them to emerge to the applause at 34-21.
As for the manner, which we were closely monitoring, we will therefore have to go back, and be satisfied with the fact that France stopped a series of four defeats (three of which, it is true, “scheduled”, during the summer tour in New Zealand, with a “tinkered” group). This is what coach Fabien Galthié implicitly acknowledged, recalling “What’s important is victory” ; while, at the microphone of TF1, the returning Charles Ollivon, at the party for his return to Blue (after a year of absence, following a new serious knee injury), did not deny feeling “relief” at the end of a match «difficile» where, in fact, his partners sometimes gave the feeling of shooting themselves in the foot.
Now there remains one last test match for France to – despite a list of cripples which grows every week – end the year on a positive note and above all try to provide these guarantees of seriousness and confidence too often vanished in Bordeaux. Luckily, one might guess, on Saturday November 22 at the Stade de France, the last challenge will be Australia. A host who has a series of disappointments, like his last three consecutive defeats, against England, Italy (!) and, at a time when France was extricating itself from the Gironde drizzle, Ireland (who, at 46-19, planted six tries). A trap match, will take care to warn the Blues during the preparation of the meeting; that they would do well to take advantage of to clean their game of the slag unworthy of the pretensions displayed.
