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There is a French rugby idiom that comes into play when the national side plays at home: ‘l’esprit de clocher‘.
The passion behind the idiom provided the heart of a splendid 29-26 victory at Paris for an embattled French side against Michael Cheika’s Wallabies.
Translated literally ‘l’esprit de clocher’ means ‘the spirit of the church bells’. In the rugby milieu this spirit translates into the fury and effectiveness of French rugby teams playing at home and expecting to win, compared with playing away from home, away from the sounds of their local church bells, and expecting to lose.
France at Paris on a slick field and in front of a passionate crowd were a different side from the bewildered and hesitant team that conceded the series in Australia against the Wallabies three Tests to nil.
Ironically, given the way the Test unfolded for the first hour or so, the Wallabies had a terrific chance to score virtually from the kick off. A French clearing kick under pressure was belted straight into the hands of Rob Simmons. If he had caught the ball it was try-time for the Wallabies.
France responded with a storming attack that saw their impressive halfback Sebastien Tillous-Borde scuttle across for a try.
I enjoyed the commentary of Rod Kafer and George Gregan, who gave some insights into the problems the Wallabies were facing in trying to make their ball-in-hand game work.
First, France put 14 defenders in their front-line defensive wall. This meant that it was virtually impossible for the Wallabies to outflank the defence.
Second, France applied enormous pressure at every ruck and maul and succeeded in slowing down the delivery of the Wallabies’ ball, which in turn allowed the French defensive line to re-set to quell each ensuing attack.
At one stage in the Test Nick Phipps could be heard complaining to Welsh referee Nigel Owens about how difficult it was to clear the ball as French arms and legs seemed everywhere, smothering the ball and making it difficult for him to get his hands on it.
Owens seemed oblivious to Phipps’ point.
And here I must make an intrusion into the discussion of the Wallabies’ problems to make the observation that Owens and the Frenchman Romain Poite during the Scotland versus New Zealand Test both seemingly allowed the northern hemisphere sides to flop over the ball and stop their opponents from quick recycling of the ball.
Both the Wallabies and the All Blacks rely on quick ruck-ball to make their ball-in-hand game an effective attacking force. The slow ruck ball negates this.
Owens and Poite should look at Steve Walsh and Craig Joubert for a system that allows enterprising rugby to flourish. Both these referees penalise tacklers who deliberately or even inadvertently place their bodies between the ball and the opposition halfback.
During the England versus South Africa Test for instance, Walsh could he heard yelling out “Move!” when a tackler was looking to block the recycling of the ball. Joubert, too, is insistent on tacklers moving away after the tackle. But I can’t recall Owens using this call against France, even though they were flopping over the ball throughout the Test.
Third, the Wallabies allowed the French tacklers to gang up on Israel Folau. The star fullback was well-contained and it was only at the end of the Test that he managed to make a telling break.
Fourth, the Wallabies kept on recycling the ball even though with 14 men in the defensive line France had exposed huge amounts of territory that was there to be exploited with clever kicking and some slick passing.
The slick passing came at the end of the Test when Quade Cooper came on and played a lovely cameo role along the lines of what Kurtley Beale did for the Waratahs.
Beale’s unexpected recall to the Wallabies could reflect Cheika’s thinking that Bernard Foley’s flat attacking style is best complemented by a slick-passing inside centre. Cooper did well in this role against France in the little time he had on the field.
My guess is that Beale will be brought in as a reserve to play the same sort of role for the Wallabies in the final match of the tour against England. Next week, though, it wouldn’t surprise me if Matt Toomua started at inside centre and Cooper came on earlier than he did against France to provide the variety of passes he has in his bag of tricks to open up gaps for his runners.
I would expect, too, that whoever plays at flyhalf or inside centre would have the little kick over-the-top with enough elevation to be re-gathered on the full by a second runner in their box of tricks.
The Springboks exposed the tight England defensive line with a terrific play from Patrick Lambie who kicked over the top for Willie le Roux to gather on the full. Le Roux raced away and put the flying Cobus Reinach into the clear and it was try time, and game, set and match for the Springboks at Twickenham.
Just a little diversion here too, to make the point that Reinach provided real speed in his delivery and running for the Springboks. This energy gave an impetus to the traditional Springboks attritional game and the victory over England showed just how hard the Springboks are to beat when their speedsters – and they have several in the back line – get a chance to make break-outs.
There are a couple of aspects about the French approach to international rugby that deserve a cautionary comment.
The French TV producers were quick to show replays of a Sean McMahon tackle that was made after a French infringement and deemed by Owens to be dangerous. The penalty kicked following this incident gave France the three points that was the margin of their victory.
Would this decision have been made if the French producers had refrained from re-showing the incident? I doubt it.
But Kafer had pointed to some French deviousness early on in the Test when a discussion between the TMO and Owens was not broadcast for viewers to hear, as it was supposed to. Then we had the McMahon intervention.
But later, when there was a French indiscretion that warranted possibly a sending off, surprise, surprise! There was only one sequence of the incident somehow available for Owens and the TMO to scrutinise.
This is not good enough. The television producers at Paris and at Twickenham last week in the England versus New Zealand match played a role of being a 16th player for the home side. The IRB must start imposing big fines on producers who do this and bans on individual offenders.
We can’t have the partisan use of TV replays affecting the outcomes of matches. This is really cheating on the part of the production teams, and unacceptable behaviour.
The Wallabies have now reached the really hard part of their tour. The first three matches – the Barbarians, Wales and France – were expected to end in Wallaby victories. Two of these match did. But talk of an ‘unbeaten European tour’ was always a nonsense given the fact that only Greg Smith’s Wallabies have achieved this in the professional era.
The defeat to France means that the Wallabies must defeat either Ireland or England in the next couple of weeks to come out of the tour with any credit.
Two wins would be a great result. Two defeats, though, and the criticisms will start to mount.
There is a lot of credibility for Cheika and his ‘hybrid’ Wallabies style – a combination of the Waratahs’ game plan with the best of the other Australian Super Rugby sides – riding on the outcome of the Ireland and England Tests.
The referee for the Ireland versus Australia Test in Dublin is New Zealander Glen Jackson. Hopefully he will be vigilant about ensuring both sides get quick ball out of the tackle area as Craig Joubert was in the Wales versus Australia Test.
Teams that deliberately kill the opposition’s ruck ball, as Wales did, deserve to be penalised out of the game.
Wales scored more tries than the Wallabies but their infringements at the rucks gave Foley the opportunity to kick the Wallabies to a well-deserved victory.
If Ireland are allowed to do to the Wallabies in the tackled-ball area what they did to the Springboks under the passive refereeing of Romain Poite, then a win at Dublin, hard enough right now with an impressive Ireland side, will be extremely difficult.
Next week then is going to tell us a lot about the resilience of the Wallabies under Cheika and whether Ireland, the reigning Six Nations champions, are as good as most of us believe they are.