Lièvremont: Wants polished French finish against the Irish
Coach Marc Lievremont says that France will have to finesse their killer instinct if they are to shatter Irish dreams of repeating their Six Nations Grand Slam feat of last year when they clash in Paris on Saturday.
The former international forward - who was part of the France team that reached the 1999 World Cup final - saw his side beat Scotland 18-9 in their opening match on Sunday.
But on Monday, Lièvremont was crystal clear he was disappointed that the margin had not been bigger due to facile mistakes when a try looked certain.
He said he would be seeking a big improvement on that during training this week.
"It is true that we were disappointed," said Lièvremont, referring to the final result.
"I believe we were in their (the Scots) half for 60-65 per cent of the match, and had 55 per cent possession.
"We failed to kill the match. It is imperative that we do better, especially as Ireland have more weapons than the Scots.
"We know that with the left foot of (Rob) Kearney, (Ronan) O'Gara's vision in directing play and similarly (Brian) O'Driscoll's, not to mention their superb scrum, they will pose us many problems."
Lièvremont also had a dig at Welsh referee Nigel Owens, claiming his team are the victims of unfair refereeing following their opening win last weekend. The 41-year-old coach feels Owens contributed in keeping the margin of victory down for France.
"I have to pay tribute to the courage of the Scots but the referee's leniency with them and his extreme severity with our team was one of the reasons why the score was not higher," he said.
Owens was in Lièvremont's bad books last year too, when the Welshman controlled Les Bleus' Six Nations game against Ireland - a match that France went on to lose 30-21 at Croke Park.
"I feel sad because it's a bit recurring," said Lièvremont.
"We can't forget that last year in Dublin, there were 13 penalties against us and two against Ireland.
"We are going to polish up our report to Paddy O'Brien (head of the IRB's referee commission). Refereeing is a factor of the game we can't control but we'll still try to solve the problem."
Lièvremont, who is seeking his first Six Nations title on his third try, said that with just six days as opposed to the seven that Ireland had - they beat Italy 29-11 on Saturday - he would give his troops a relatively light week in the physical sense.
"Yup, light training sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," said the former Dax coach, who was the surprise choice to replace Bernard Laporte after the 2007 World Cup.
"However, we will be doing a lot of gym work and also studying intensely videos of the Irish."
Lievremont, though, believes that having watched Ireland's match with Italy that they too are not the complete article. Declan Kidney - his Irish counterpart (and IRB Coach of the Year for 2009 after guiding them undefeated through 10 matches) - would concur after an ineffective second-half performance against a lacklustre and unimaginative Italian side.
"I didn't get the feeling having watched the Irish match that Ireland felt satisfied and fulfilled after the game," said Lièvremont.
"Not everything went perfectly for them either."
Comments
froggytwoshoes says...
I agree with this comment. We still have problems at fly-half while O'Gara, for all his critics (I am not one), can control a game if his pack can get close to parity.
Posted 18:36 09th February 2010
abrad says...
From last Saturday, France really needs to work on their kicking game.
Posted 16:03 09th February 2010