The Neutral Weekly: New waves ready to rise in Irish and French rugby

Lately the eyes of the sporting world have been on Irish sportsmen creating history in USA. As if Ireland’s maiden win over the All Blacks was not enough, the emerald island’s biggest star – yes now Conor McGregor is even bigger than Bono and Liam Neeson – stunned the fighting world by doing what he said he would do since day one; take over the fighting game. He is the first champ ever in two weight classes simultaneously in the UFC.

While I was watching McGregor’s fight – an incredible, dominant performance where he humiliated his opponent Eddie Alvarez in the same clinical way the All Blacks humiliated the Springboks in Durban – and post-fight interviews I could not help starting to think how fundamentally Ireland and the Irish – and their rugby – has changed during my lifetime.

My first impressions of Ireland were very dark and sad. In the early 80s Swedish TV news reported every week about The Troubles. It was so hard to take in from our little socialistic safe heaven where all forms of political terror were non-existent (until our Prime minister Olof Palme got murdered a cold Friday night in Stockholm 1986).

My middle school teacher had been to Ireland several times and he shared his memories at many lessons. He told stories about street kids living like criminals to survive, being woken up in middle of the night by serious uniformed men with automatic weapons, 50 shades of grey (we are not talking dirty stuff here we are talking about the Dublin and Belfast) and people with no hope but with a lot of fear.

It was not until I became a fan of U2 in my early teens that I got any sort of deeper understanding. Bono played no small part in informing me – and the world – what the hell was going on. When he – in the movie version of Rattle and Hum – blew the pipes and let years of steam out he changed my view on Ireland and the Irish forever:

“And let me tell you somethin’. I’ve had enough of Irish Americans who haven’t been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home… and the glory of the revolution… and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don’t talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What’s the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where’s the glory in that? Where’s the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day. Where’s the glory in that? To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble of a revolution that the majority of the people in my country don’t want. No more.”

Ten years later – after more grief and murder – a peace process was in place against all odds. The politicians and IRA like to think they were the main reason for solving the Gordian knot. It was neither. It was the millions of ordinary people – that felt just like Bono – that had enough and pushed through changes at a grass roots level (solid proof that if the people unite and says no more, things can really change).

I visited Ireland myself many times in the mid 90s. It was strange place back then. People were on their watch (especially when a naive young Swede walked into the pub and wanted to talk about IRA). No one wanted to be seen or heard too much. Everyone made excuses for their own existence. The Irish identity was still a drunken looser with lots of spirit but with a broken heart and low self-esteem. That affected everything in Ireland, including rugby.

The raw talent and passion has always been there but the Irish lack of belief that they actually could win hindered them from any kind of repetitive success. Comfortably numb in their identity as the happy losers that everyone loved (except the English) but no one feared (including the English).

When I visited Ireland again in 2003 the air felt different. The economy grew and the peace had survived. The militants and the warmongers were marginalised (the demand for old war stories was at an all time low). People dared to dream, believe, succeed and move on. They wanted new Irish stars to look up to and take inspiration from. It really felt like a new beginning. Both for the country and for Irish rugby.

On my last visit to Ireland 2009 things had really changed. Ireland had finally embraced the professional era. Munster and Leinster had won European titles, the national team had won a Grand Slam for the first time since 1948. And the eternal conflict between rugby and GAA had been solved, leading to Ireland being able to play rugby at Croke Park while renovating Lansdowne Road (something that carried huge symbolic weight and had been impossible even theory just a few years earlier).

And in some small dirty little gym in a less fancy part of Dublin – without me knowing so – Conor McGregor and his head coach John Kavanagh had started to make plans and dreamed about world domination.

Both before and after McGregor’s fight at Madison Square Garden I watched two long interviews with Kavanagh on The MMA Hour hosted by the brilliant Ariel Helwani (how I wish the rugby world had a journalist like him). They talked a lot about history and this new Irish identity of belief and confidence that McGregor – and several other successful Irish persons – has been a vital part of creating (the next generation of Irish sportsmen will be a very different package with no ties at all to the old happy loser attitude).

In the interviews Kavanagh speaks about rugby also. It is the only sport he follows outside MMA – he is huge All Blacks fan except when they play the Irish of course – and he could see the connections between the maiden win in Chicago and McGregor’s rise to the top with the new Irish identity and self-belief. They would never have dared to even think they could beat the All Blacks or dominate the fight game ten years ago.

Now they dare. Now they do.

Kavanagh also said that McGregor is a very private person outside the “showbiz” and it was highly unlikely that he would participate in any form of victory parade or similar in Dublin this weekend (he will be in the gym grinding and jabbing). That is too bad methinks. I would have love to see him at Aviva Stadium this weekend with both his belts accepting the love from crowd and players before kick off.

I have no doubt whatsoever that even the All Blacks players are in awe of him also because he is a very special athlete. And there are connections. If one breaks down McGregor’s attitude towards training and competing – take away all the showbiz part that he does to sell fights – he is very similar to the All Blacks. They have exactly the same ethos. He – and his coach – constantly strives for perfection. Being humble students of the game. The fights/Tests are important and the titles are job well done receipts, but everything is secondary to the process of always improving.

When I re-watched McGregor’s fight and the brilliant victory speech my mind started to wander, what if someone with his wit and personality was captain for the All Blacks. Imagine if Richie McCaw after the World Cup final 2015 had talked and acted like McGregor did at Madison Square Garden:

“As the All Blacks captain I wanna take this opportunity to apologise to absolutely effin no one. We are the double World Champs and we can do whatever we effin want. If anyone wants to play us again they better pay up big dollars. We don’t need anyone, everyone needs us.”

What can you say about Australia’s performance?

“Well, they are tough and they try hard, but honestly they don’t deserve to be on the same field as us. We are on a completely different level and they provide nothing of importance to us or the sport. If they or anyone else wanna try to beat us they better bring something special to the table, otherwise it is just a waste of time.”

I know it is very childish but I can’t stop laughing when I am thinking about it.

Who will laugh when the fat lady sings this weekend? That is a very tricky question. The All Blacks will be a different beast than in Chicago two weeks ago. This time they will not cut any corners while preparing and they will do everything within their power to bring their A-game. Once upon a time that was more than enough to ensure a guaranteed victory for them against Ireland. But is it enough now?

That depends on how the Irish react. Skill wise they are close enough to compete and beat the All Blacks (again). But are they too satisfied deep inside with just getting the monkey off their back? If so Maestro Schmidt can come up with any game plan he wants, they will lose regardless.

Or are they truly embracing the chance for a series victory that would rearrange the pecking order in the rugby world (and have another red panties night)? A series victory would erase any doubts that the Irish are happy losers and put an exclamation mark – instead of a question mark – behind the statement that Ireland and Irish rugby has forever changed.

A rugby nation with huge questions marks is France. For as long as I can remember French rugby has been very confusing. They are a great rugby nation – with three World Cup finals, multiple Six Nations titles and they have beaten everyone both home and away multiple times – still I know so little about French rugby. Sometimes I almost forget about them. That is very dangerous.

Anyone who has dared to disregarded and underestimate them put themselves at risk being served huge portions of humble pie. On the other hand, they have more shock losses than any other Tier 1 nation. So what the heck to make of them?

I guess if I was fluent in French and could read L’Equipe every day I would be better informed, but I am not. I have scanned the Internet for years to find someone with a sharp English pen and serious knowledge about French rugby. So far my efforts have been in vain. I am standing on the outside trying to look in and understand what is going on without any real context. So take my take on French rugby with a pinch of salt.

The last odd ten years the consensus – among rugby pundits and experts around the world who relie on Google Translate and hear-saying – has been that French rugby is falling fast and the Légion Étrangère in Top 14 is to blame for it.

Too many Kiwis, Aussies, Saffas, Pacific Islanders and giant Georgian forwards means emerging French talents are deprived of a chance to play top level rugby on a regular basis. That argument is usually built up with a lazy comparison to the English Premier League (football) and the poor results of the English national team. But I am not buying it.

Let us start with putting the record straight about the English national team. When the Premier League was called the First Division – and players born outside the British Isles were as common as hot blondes sunbathing topless in Saudi Arabia – the English national team was very poor. Yes they won a World Cup 1966 on home soil, but that is arguably the most undeserving World Cup winning team ever.

Everyone knows about the goal in the final against Germany that was not a goal. Far fewer know about the controversy that surrounded their quarter-final win against Argentina (this was the game that started the fierce football rivalry between England and Argentina, not the Falklands). The referee in that game was Rudolf Kreitlein from Germany and the advantages he gave the English were ogf the scale (in South America this match is referred to as “El robo del siglo” meaning the robbery of the century).

The climax was when the Argentinian captain Antonio Ratin was sent off because the referee claimed he had been verbally insulted by him. Problem is that the captain did not speak one single word of German and the referee did not speak one single word of Spanish. Neither of them knew a word of English. Ratin has never ever been known as a short-tempered thug or cheater, he is actually known as one of the few real gentlemen in Argentinian football. In the end, England won with 1-0 after Geoff Hurst scored a late goal that never should have been allowed (he was miles offside).

The English head coach Sir Alf Ramsey was in on the act and went public after the game defending the referee and said that the Argentinian players behaved like animals. I have re-watched the full game and it is a complete lie. Yes, the Argentinians got frustrated when their captain was sent off and it was getting obvious that they were being robbed and not allowed to win the match, but the animal talk is nonsense.

So what was in it for the referee and the Germans? They are not exactly known for being friendly to the English, at least not in football terms. Well Germany – obviously – played a quarter-final in that World Cup, against Uruguay. And they also got huge favours from the referee, a bloke named Jim Finney. Uruguay got two players sent off for minor offenses and the German players were allowed to kick the living daylights out the Uruguayan players without any worries about being cautioned or sent off. The referee nationality was – as you probably have figured out by now – English, selbstverständlich.

Anyway, after that the only time England has been even close to reaching a World Cup final – let alone winning one – was in 1990 when they reached the semis and got knocked out by the Germans (the English got that non-goal 1966 but the Germans have made them pay for it with usury ever since). Apart from that England has either missed qualifying or gone home early days – without exceptions – in every World Cup before the Premier League was founded 1992.

After an early blip in 1994 (missed to qualify again) the English national team has performed on a much more consistent high level despite tons of foreign players and the insane money influx. Their win-loss ratio is much better after 1992 than before. They have achieved that despite the fact that international football today is much more competitive compared to what is was before 1992 (more strong Tier 1 and 2 nations). So let us put this lazy argument that the Premier League have made the national team weaker to sleep for good and let us get back to France and Top 14.

Yes, more foreign players do mean fewer chances for emerging French players, but it also means that young emerging French players get the opportunity to test themselves against great players every day at training. The French players – about 35 per cent on average – who get selected to start games in the Top 14 get to play top level rugby on a much higher level than if the league was closed for foreign players (France also have a very functioning league pyramid with competitive second and third divisions with lots of French players).

Every week at least 75 French players play from start in Top 14 and that is more or less the same amount of players that New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have starting in a Super Rugby round.

The way I see it, French rugby’s biggest problem is the different agendas of the French union and the Top 14 clubs. So far the French union has failed to convince the Top 14 clubs that a strong national team is good for French rugby overall. To this day French players get the absolute minimum of days to prepare for national team duty (they even are required to return back to their clubs during the Six Nations bye weeks). There have been several attempts to find a solution, but both parties are stuck in their own sandbox.

The clubs have large crowds and a nice TV-deal in place. They don’t want to risk their paymasters’ wrath by not having some of their best players available for large chunks of the season. They have invested big money and have a business model that works and they don’t want to help someone else without being compensated.

The French union sells out every Test they host and make serious money. They don’t want to share that money with the clubs in return for extended use of their players. They want them for free because they still live in the amateur area and they are saving money so they can build a French national rugby stadium ala Twickenham and start to make as much money as the English union does.

The second biggest problem is that the French union in many ways has been disconnected from the players and demands of pro era Test rugby, leading to appointments of coaches that no one liked (Marc Lièvremont) or coaches that have been away from coaching for too long (Philippe Saint-André).

Apart from that French rugby has everything in place. They have tradition, players, academies, money and popularity. French players also have fierce national pride and are ready to bleed to for the national jersey. But not without some conditions.

If they somewhat feel used, overlooked or fooled they will throw national pride out of the window in two red seconds. Because most French people put their own personal pride high above national pride (and in a weird way they that is ultimate proof that they are vraiment français). But if they believe they are treated fairly and the fight ahead is just and glorious, they are ready to go all the way for the cause.

The habit of hiring national team coaches that does not suit the bill seems to be over also. There is no secret that Guy Novès – the coach behind Toulouse’s rise to the top in European rugby with four Heineken Cup titles on his CV – has been the smart and popular choice for a very long time (for different reasons it did not materialise until early this year).

The start under Novès reign was pretty slow with some weak results in the Six Nations but those results should be viewed with the notion that he blooded many players and implemented new systems and structures with the aim to revive flair and pace into the national team again after many years of unimaginative Belgian blue rugger.

He continued to blood even more players during the two Test series against Argentina in June (to this date Novès has blooded almost 20 players during 2016). Throughout that tour we might have seen the new year zero in French rugby also. They lost the first Test but the second one they won emphatically with 27-0 after some great rugby (that took me and several Roarers by surprise). And last week it appeared that this new wave is continuing to gain momentum.

That they beat Samoa was no big surprise – they have never lost to Samoa and Samoa looked just as under cooked as the Welsh did against Wallabies – but the manner they did it in gave clues that their convincing win in Argentina was no one off.

The French back row and centers looked on fire for the whole Test. The forwards led by the relentless Louis Picamoles provided excellent protection for the halves and mixed it with grit and niggle that defused any Samoan attempts to intimidate.

The only real weak link I saw against Samoa was the Fijian born Virimi Vakatawa (who scored a hattrick). Great one on one play and lethal finishing but poor positional awareness, sloppy hands and almost useless in defence (he will get away with that against Samoa, but stronger teams will expose him for sure).

Wallabies fans who expect an easy win in Paris are most likely in for a brutal wake-up call. Let’s not forget that Wallabies wins in France were a rare thing even when the French came to the table unzipped, like they did 2012 and 2014. Mind, France are not Scotland or Wales. They are not afraid to go for the kill and they don’t have a minority complex towards teams from the Southern Hemisphere (the Wallabies’ overall record in France is eight wins in 23 Tests).

I have a feeling that this Test the Wallabies can lose without causing the usual uproar down under also. The focus on this tour seems to be to continue to build depth and to win a Grand Slam. A loss against France will quickly be forgotten (I can hear the excuses already now – everyone knows that if the French are up for it and yada yada yada and we are still in with a shot at the Grand Slam).

This kind of thing should not affect Cheika’s selections or the players’ attitude, but I think it does to some degree. And a Wallabies team that is not ready for war will not win at Stade de France this weekend, especially not against a French team that looks reborn and filled with intentions again.

Over and out.