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France's bizarre campaign takes another twist as call-up is away on holiday
By Liam Heagney
France’s bizarre 2019 Six Nations campaign took another strange twist on Tuesday when they called a player into the squad to face England who is away on holiday and unavailable for training until Thursday.
Jacques Brunel would have learned on Sunday that the cruciate ligament rupture suffered by Julien Marchand in the opening round loss to Wales required an operation, ruling him out of the remainder of the tournament and the rest of his club season with Toulouse.
Marchand came on in the 58th minute to replace skipper Guilhem Guirado at hooker in the Six Nations opener they went on to lose 24-19 after squandering a 0-16 half-time lead. However, Marchand’s replacement Camille Chat, the Racing 92 No2, won’t be able to link up with the French squad at Marcoussis until Thursday as he is away on holiday.
Chat’s unavailability until three days before the round two game at Twickenham is the latest weird situation to emerge from a French camp suffering a crisis of confidence after losing nine of their outings since Brunel took charge following the December 2017 sacking of Guy Noves.
In the aftermath of their opening night defeat to Wales, second row Sebastien Vahaamahina revealed that it wasn’t until he was told by referee Waynes Barnes that he learned he had become his team’s on-pitch captain following Guirado’s substitution.
“I did not even know I was a captain,” Vahaamahina told Midi Olympique in the aftermath of a defeat that he contributed massively to as it was his ill-advised pass that gifted George North the interception for the winning try.
“It was the referee who came to see me on a penalty to ask me my choice. I told him to address the captain. He said it was me. The staff did not warn me.”
France’s inability to immediately summon a replacement for Marchand to training contrasts with the situation this week in some rival countries.
Ireland called in Billy Holland for training on Monday after Devin Toner picked up an ankle problem in their Saturday loss to England that has ruled him out of their round two game at Scotland.
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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