France mutiny grows with backlash after Six Nations battering by Wales

On Saturday France rather ingloriously let the Welsh purveyors of Warrenball do what Warrenball is all about. Instead of employing the blitz defence so very de nos jours, France shuffled, and Jamie Roberts and George North ran voraciously over the invisible but treasured advantage line. Beyond this point, says Warrenball, you will find gold.

There has been nothing so hesitant about France’s reaction. Bernard Laporte and Serge Simon, old playing mates at Bègles in the days when the Bordeaux club terrified the rugby world – and not exactly known now for being any more mollified in the media – launched a sort of blitz attack.

Philippe Saint-André had a pop right back, but not at the coach of the 2007 World Cup team or at the good doctor (as the once exceedingly, um, uncompromising prop now is) Simon. PSA, as he’s known across the board in his homeland, turned instead – and very much for the first time – on his own players, accusing them of not being prepared to put the very last gram of themselves on the line for the national team of France.

This is World Cup year and as Laporte found out in 2007, when his France lost twice to Argentina and a semi-final to England, it can be stormy. Marc Lièvremont, who succeeded Laporte and preceded Saint-André, was even more battered by 2011, when France lost to New Zealand twice and Tonga once, and yet somehow returned home as World Cup runners-up – and a bit hard done by in the final.

It is the official opening of World Cup proceedings when France rush headlong into a state of mutiny. That the 2015 RWC happens to start three-fifths of the way through the Six Nations simply goes to show how quickly the game moves nowadays.

France have a remaining pair of away games in the overlapped Six Nations. Given the severity of PSA’s view of his players and a whole history that suggests they in their turn will respond only badly to the criticism, the mood on the trips to Rome and Twickenham could be adorably surly. Or, the air might have been cleared. It is being suggested domestically sparks will fly when coach and team meet up again next week in Marcoussis, their space-age training centre outside Paris. For those of you who might have had a flutter on France for the World Cup, please do not be downcast. France in meltdown does not a crisis make.

Scotland’s response to a third Six Nations defeat seems sanguine. Vern Cotter, it is said, is not panicking. Well, apart from the fact the coach would appear to be the sort of New Zealander who would regard molten lava flowing into his kitchen as just another job to do about the house, there is not much point raging. The only people who might be summoned to explain themselves before senior management are those that tipped Scotland for a shot at the title. I admit, it does now looks a little far-fetched

Italy celebrated their win at Murrayfield as if they had won the World Cup. It shows how quickly a mood can swing from the mournful to the reinvigorated in the space of the few minutes it took Sergio Parisse’s pack to maintain their composure and drive one more time. What wouldn’t France give now for a little of that Italian togetherness?

Ireland have it in abundance, their adhesion made all the tighter by the very simplicity of their game. Praise is being heaped on Joe Schmidt but the coach is merely extrapolating the strengths that made Munster and Leinster five-times champions of the Heineken Cup: strip the game of errors, however hard the contact, however compressed the time and space. Ireland are above all accurate in extremis. Or is it a case of Jonathan Sexton being so meticulously accurate? For a side who play as if welded as one, are they a one-man team? His hamstring will provide a clue if it does not ease in time for the next game in Cardiff.

The results from round three have made Wales-Ireland the clash of round four. Wales are back in the fray, more efficient, more confident after 240 minutes than they were after 40. England did a real second-half number on them in their own backyard. Wales have pulled themselves together away from Cardiff, never ever an easy road to recovery. Warrenball lives.

Ireland have little time for it. They reckon they have its measure. Such disdain goes back to the sourness of the end-days of its designer, Warren Gatland, in Dublin. There has been an edge to the Wales-Ireland game ever since, all part of the rich tapestry of the championship.

And England? Somewhere between the abject disgust of France and the imperturbability of Cotter lies the disappointment of the World Cup host nation. They were well beaten by Sexton; they showed fortitude after the tormentor left. Does the defeat have any bearing on the big project? Well, they will know a lot more about themselves. Their debriefing may not be quite as volcanic as France’s but the debate about giving everything will be just as intense – and realistic.

No one has to be utterly and completely spent until the last day of October.

Table

1 Ireland 6pts

2 England 4pts

3 Wales 4pts

4 France 2pts

5 Italy 2pts

6 Scotland 0pts