Expert Witness: Thomas Lombard previews Le Crunch

Adam Kyriacou

The Six Nations Championship kicks off this weekend, and on Sunday, England visit the much fancied France, attempting to build upon their good showing at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Our first guest on this year’s Expert Witness is former French international three-quarter Thomas Lombard, now the Directeur Général at Stade Francais, a man relishing the incarnation of Le Crunch.

Change

As a regular guest on Expert Witness, Lombard has been a vocal critic of the structural issues within French rugby but now, ironically, has made the leap from Canal+ Sport pundit to full-time administration as the General Director of Stade Francais.

“Yes, this is definitely a case of poacher turned gamekeeper,” he smiled.

“For 12 years I had great fun working for Canal+ Sport, but the offer to manage a club I spent eight happy playing years at was too good to refuse.

“The role is very hands on and I want to advance the club to the levels they once were within a very competitive league. It also gives me the opportunity to fix some of the issues I’ve been vocal about as a pundit – I want to see players playing the same style of game both domestically and internationally; to create a club inertia and player education programme that delivers excellence to all parts of Stade.

“When we spoke last time for Planet Rugby, I mentioned that connectivity between club and country that England have developed and said France need to achieve something similar and it’s great to be in a position to finally be able to influence that,” explained the former French winger.

“Of course, the change you refer to has also taken place within the French coaching setup and I’m really excited at the management and coaching structure that’s been put in place.

“It’s a very balanced structure; Fabien Galthie and general manager Raphael Ibanez ultimately have great credibility both as players and as coaches and they, like I, want to see the connectivity between club style and the national side improved. Galthie will extend the players physically and mentally, allowing them to learn. Players become stale without that learning challenge and it’s key for success that their experiences with the national side enhance them as players through personal learning and development.

“Other key recruits include my old pals William Servat and Laurent Labit as specialist contact and attack coaches respectively, who bring years of playing and leadership experience to the group, but the icing on the cake was the appointment of Shaun Edwards to lead the D coaching, who really seems to have embraced both France and the French players.

“I know from his work with Wales that Shaun demands a no-bull, no excuse approach to rugby. He’s a strong man that will expect the best and will stand for no form of concession. He’s able to inspire via both personal example and personal record and in short, I think he’s precisely the hard-nosed operator France need to bring their professionalism up to the levels of other nations,” observed Lombard.

Le Crunch

With France crashing out of the World Cup, partly due to a moment of stupidity from their forwards, and England perhaps just achieving par for their year, but suffering a chastening experience in the final, France and England are at different development levels. Eddie Jones is honing his side, fine tuning aspects and looking to introduce youth to a pre-existing team of excellence, whilst France are working hard to harness the amazing raw talent they have in their country and develop that into a consistently winning team and culture.

Lombard believes it will be a titanic game on Sunday, between two very evenly matched sides.

“Let’s take England first,” he began.

“I don’t always buy the notion that Eddie Jones has ‘turned England around’. I consider he built upon a real platform of developed youth and strong age group work that was the legacy of Stuart Lancaster. The guys like Owen Farrell, the Vunipola brothers – all immense players of character – they were in place before and what Eddie has done is gotten the best out of them.

“He has a very deliberately disruptive style; one based on short, sharp meaningful training that somehow finds context in a match situation.

“However, his biggest challenge is one of emotion. What do you say in the pre-match when you’re facing the Alps to a side that’s already come close (but failed) in conquering Everest? What words does he find? How can he create that motivation to further improve when the big prize is now another four years away again?

“His team worked hard and were superb in parts, but somehow you feel they didn’t exceed expectations, which is a harsh but accurate statement.

“Without unpacking the history of the World Cup, England were destroyed physically in that final and now Jones needs to react selectorially and tactically to improve England’s power in the set-piece and contact, but retain the attacking ambition and handling that we saw against New Zealand.

“They have the players to do this; notably Owen Farrell who needs to adopt a more settled role in the side. Although he has his critics, I am a huge admirer of Elliot Daly, a man who empowers so many good things around him for others yet rarely makes a bad decision in attack.

“England will look to inject real pace into the game but with structure; they’ll look to play high tempo early on and then back fitness as the game progresses.

“For France, it’s a long time since we had so much talent converge into the team at one time. In our backs, the pace and skill level has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years and I want to single out the performances of Gael Fickou, still only 25, who went from a fringe choice into a world class centre during the World Cup.

“Charles Ollivon, a man almost lost to rugby two years ago, is a clever and well-educated guy; in short, real leadership material, and his two-year absence allows him a perspective others lack. His carrying and breakdown work are perfect attributes for a modern flanker and I believe he’ll add some real focus in skippering the team,” commented Lombard.

The key match-up

“Many players believe the back-row battle, or as we would say ‘le combat de la troisième ligne’, is one for the purist. England, shorn of Billy Vunipola’s power, will re-jig their arrangement. They’ve a couple of options and it’ll be interesting to see whether they simply swap Ben Earl in at eight, or put a lock on the flank to bring Tom Curry into the centre of the back-row.

“Where England have pace and low centres of gravity, France are sure to field a taller and bigger combination, with Alexandre Fischer, Ollivon and Grégory Alldritt as the starting unit, using the incredible talent of Sekou Macalou as the impact finisher.

“The style of both back-rows is different; England will be pacy, low to ground in defence and contact, with the ability to get wide and support the attacking backs. France have superior lineout options, with all three able to act as primary jumpers. The contrast is great and I really believe the game will be settled by back-row superiority,” noted Lombard.

“It’s an incredibly tough match to call and it will hinge on the ability to win the big moments and own the scoreboard in a pragmatic manner, but I think that home advantage in the opening game of the year is always a telling factor, so I call France to win by seven points.”

That is it for this week’s Expert Witness; we thank Thomas for his time away from Stade Francais and we will return next week with another former international to examine the fortunes of Round One of the 2020 Six Nations.

Thomas Lombard was a gifted runner in the colours of France, Racing, Stade Francais, Worcester Warriors and Racing 92, gaining 16 caps. As a commentator on the game with Canal+ Infosport, his rounded views and rugby intellect always inspires debate and respect. He recently took up the post as Directeur Général of Stade Francais.

by James While