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Gregory Alldritt says France used Eddie Jones' pre-match words as motivation
By Online Editors
France number eight Gregory Alldritt declared that England paid the price for Eddie Jones’ pre-match promise of delivering “brutal physicality” in their Six Nations opener.
Jones’ words caused controversy in French rugby circles because of the connotation of violence and they duly backfired as Les Bleus claimed a 24-17 victory having raced into a 24-0 lead built on their own ferocious onslaught.
England were battered in the collisions and Alldritt revealed Jones’ posturing was used as motivation.
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“Eddie was saying that we couldn’t manage the brutality of the England team,” the man of the match said.
“But when you are a winner, a competitor, you just want to show him that you can manage that.
“Of course we read it. We were clearly going to put some fighting spirit out there.”
Alldritt paid tribute to Shaun Edwards, France’s new defence coach whose stamp was all over the home performance.
“Shaun is a tough guy and he always wants aggression from you, in every bit of work and in every tackle,” Edwards said.
“He wants big tackles. And speed in the tackle. He is bringing a lot of experience to us at international level and a lot of competence too.”
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So was I right to infer that you assumed a 1:1 correspondence between points and places?
If so why were you so evasive about admitting that?
I don't have much of an opinion about how it should be done. It isn't my preferred system as I think there should be a significant number of teams who qualify directly as a result of their performance in the previous year's CC. But I think 6/5/5 or 6/6/4 would probably make the most sense as splits if they ever did go over to the UEFA model.
Go to commentsStopping the drop off out of high school has to be of highest priority - there is a lot of rugby played at high school level, but the pathways once they leave are not there. Provincial unions need support here from Rugby Canada to prop up that space.
Concussion is also an issue that has seen sports like ultimate frisbee gain ground. All competitions and clubs should integrate touch rugby teams into their pathways. Whenever clubs play XVs games, they should also be taking 20mins to play a competitive touch rugby game too.
Then take rugby branding and move it away from the fringe game that only crazy people play and make it an exercise-first sport that caters to everyone including people who don't want contact.
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