Be afraid... Bastareaud is warming up to life as a No.8
After a rocky start to his career as a forward, there is strong evidence that Matthieu Bastareaud is getting used to life as No.8. The 31-year-old made a try-scoring competitive return to Lyon colours against Racing 92, having returned from a stint in Major League Rugby in America which largely failed to live up to the hype.
Listed at 125kg on LOU website, Bastareaud brushed off defenders in a pre-rehearsed move in the 23rd minute. Standing in scrumhalf position at an attacking lineout, the former centre was popped the ball off the top before crashing over the line from short range.
Lyon head coach Pierre Mignoni seems to have settled on the 'Basta' as a No.8, despite the iconic Frenchman having all 54 of his French caps at centre. Before leaving for America in 2019, Lyon did run him on seven occasions as a forward and Mignoni did move him to centre later in the game, showing Basta is yet to completely give up on moonlighting as a back.
The media reports in France were unanimous - Bastareaud's return as a forward was a success.
It's a turnaround for Bastareaud, who had an up and down time as a forward in the MLR with RUNY, where he struggled to cope with a new position, new coaches and a new league. “He is your typical Frenchman,” former England fullback Ben Foden and RUNY teammate told RugbyPass earlier this year. “When things aren’t going well he moans a lot, he throws his arms a lot and things like that.”
“He moved to No.8 and we were starting to use him quite well. You could see in the last two or three games he had come on in leaps and bounds, because he was getting more and more involved in the game.
“Greg and Butch said they didn’t care what he was doing on the training field as long as he brought it on the weekend, which he had started to do.
“He had run-ins with Greg (McWilliams) our coach and Butch (Dylan Fawsitt) our captain. Bastareaud has played the game for a long time, he’s played at the highest level, gone to World Cups, captained France; obviously he has the calibre.
“So Butch sees this guy come in and thinks he’s going to reinvent the wheel, thinks he going to be a major force for us.
“Then in training he’s dropping the ball onto the foot, chipping it through, doing the typical French flair thing and Butch is like ‘What’s this guy doing? He’s meant to be a straight trucking 12 or 13’. They just clashed.”
European clubs have been put on notice. Bastareaud is a genuine threat again, albeit in the troisieme ligne.
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My ‘fantasy’ team V Ireland,
Including options from ABXV if needed, as V Mun better V Ireland better prep than England.
The most important aspect V Ireland is AB need ALL their loosies AND 'loosie capable locks' on ALL match [except IF(?) any tiring ie the aging & slowing eg Cane]. As follows,
{starting} bench (3rd choice)
1 {De Groot} / Tu’ungafasi (Williams)
2 { anyone that can throw!! }/ Aumua (Brodie McAlister)
Ryan! coach lineouts & Aumua to throw!
3 {Lomax}/ Tosi (Newell )
Tosi immense strength V England
4,5 Locks { P.Tuipulotu, S.Barrett }, Vaa’i, Darry
( Isaia Walker-Leawere)
Vaa’i off V Eng. Assumed due to leg injury(?)
6,7,8 Loose forwards { Sititi, A.Savea, Cane } Vaa’i, S.Barrettm, P.Tuipulotu back up (Devan Flanders, Du'Plessis Kirifi )
9 {Roigard } Ratima ( TJ )
10 {D.McK} Perofeta ( Plummer)
12 {J.Barrett } ALB ( Q.Tupaea )
13 {Proctor} Ioane ( AJ Lam )
Ioane (off V England ) but Irish experience (NO not Sexton!)
14 { Tele’a} Reece (bkup W.Jordan )
11 {C.Clarke} Narawa (K.Naholo)
15 {W.Jordan} Love (Stevenson)
Go to commentsI guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
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