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'A lot of people were bullied... he was a real Jekyll and Hyde of coaching'

Johnnie Beattie, Fabien Galthie (Photos by Getty Images)

Ex-Scotland international Johnnie Beattie has described Fabien Galthie as the Jekyll and Hyde of coaching.

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The 34-year-old back row called time in his playing career in January having played for Glasgow Warriors, Montpellier and Castres forward finished with a three-year stint at Bayonne.

Along the way, he earned 38 caps for Scotland and his country’s latest outing in the Guinness Six Nations has had him reminiscing about France coach Galthie who signed him for Montpellier in 2012.

“He’s the best technical coach I worked with,” said Beattie in a BBC interview leading up to Sunday’s match at Murrayfield where the Grand Slam-chasing French are chasing their fourth successive win of the 2020 campaign. 

“He was absolutely fantastic, ahead of the curve, but he struggled with player management. He struggled with being a decent human you want to buy into and work for. People bought into the fantastic rugby we played, not the culture or environment he would provide.

(Continue reading below…)

Jim Hamilton previews the Scotland-France clash at Murrayfield

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“Even back then, I was with guys like (All Black) Rene Ranger, (France fly-half) Francois Trinh-Duc and (ex-Georgia captain) Mamuka Gorgodze and we all said this guy would be absolutely amazing in an international environment where he is not with players week in, week out. And it’s pretty evident that he is leading that resurgence with the French national team.”

Beattie suggests that life at Montpellier under Galthie was “survival of the fittest” as plenty of players cracked due to the savage set-up.

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“I remember (assistant coach) Mario Ledesma screaming at a tight-head prop in a scrummaging session to try and work his way through the scrum to get the cheeseburger at the other side of it because he’s a fat pig. I laugh now, but when you’re in the environment, it was complete humiliation.

“Some people crumbled and didn’t stay very long – a few capped internationals came and went within two or three months. A lot of people had their confidence destroyed, needed to get out, or were bullied.

He was a real Jekyll and Hyde of coaching in that he was absolutely wonderful in technical stuff but also very capable of burning personal relationships and burning a club environment. I struggled to stomach how he was with other people.”

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N
NH 35 minutes ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 50 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

68 Go to comments
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LONG READ Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us