Loose Pass: French youth, eccentric Eddie, brilliant Biggar

Colin Newboult
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This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the importance of old heads, the importance of calm heads, and the importance of an all-round playmaking head…

The finish missing from the French

24-0. And there were only 54 minutes gone. To the French around me in the Stade de France, all was light and happiness. And then one turned to me and said: “I wonder how we’ll **** it up from here?”

We didn’t have to wait long for the answer to start unfolding. Goodness only knows where Anthony Bouthier was when Jonny May got the ball and chipped, but he was nowhere to be seen. At 24-7, with England getting all niggly and goady – more on those words shortly – France were screaming out for a couple of old fellows to come on and calm it all down.

Instead, they got debutant Cameron Woki and a couple of others with caps in the single digits, all of whom did their best but found themselves facing England’s fieriest phase of the match. Jefferson Poirot was a virtual grandfather at 30-plus caps and did not quite cut it in the scrums. Gael Fickou is a great player, but not a leader. By the end, France were clinging on more than they should have been.

The young starters, and their inexperienced but somewhat older captain Charles Ollivon, were all revelatory for that first 55 minutes. But once Ellis Genge had clattered through Romain Ntamack and started throwing punches at a scrum, and once both Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Underhill had dived onto a prone Ollivon after the third try, sparking a good old bagarre generale, France badly needed a couple of experienced enforcers. Instead, England almost muscled their way back in.

Other, experienced, teams will have taken note. France have openers, but no closers. They have brilliant young talents, but no older heads reminding them that talent alone won’t get you over the line. It’s the only imbalance we can see in their side.

France should, on the basis of their opening 55 minutes, be favourites for this Six Nations now. On the basis of the last 25, however, you can also see them coming up short against Ireland and Wales. Assuming that happens, how the youngsters react to that will go a long way to determining how far this new generation might go.

Eccentric Eddie might have gone too far

There are no half-measures with Eddie Jones. The constant scouring of players, other sports and business spheres for innovation and learning. The psychological pressures he inflicts, the superlatives he aims for. The turnover in staff. It’s inspiring at times, but it’s draining at others. And this past couple of weeks has definitely been the latter.

It’s worth remembering that he took England to a World Cup final, and it’s worth bearing in mind that he had even predicted the dip in form in 2018 as far back as the summer of 2016. The long-term results he strives for add-up reasonably well, with enough short-term success along the way to make it worth the wait. But still the implosions, such as the one in the aforementioned final and this past Sunday, dog England too much.

Jones relies on permanent pressure on his teams, keeping the players constantly on their toes, never allowing them to relax. He does that to everybody actually, most of all himself.

But right now, he’s gone over the top. The weird words ahead of the French game. The early attempts at fostering unpleasantness ahead of Scotland. The odd ‘sink or swim’ experiment with Tom Curry at number eight. The outlandish determination to be the greatest of all time.

With all the Saracens stuff going on in the background, with the new staff settling in (again) and with a number of fresh players also bedding in, this should have been the time to focus introspectively and let the players quietly go about their business. Instead, we’ve had a fortnight of fire and brimstone. If the media exaggerates it, well, Jones has been around long enough to know that it would happen. Long enough to know how not to give them the opportunity.

And now, winding up the Scots, ahead of what is clearly Scotland’s perfect opportunity to right the few wrongs from their opening day and send Jones et al homeward. ‘Niggly’ was one adjective. ‘Goading’ another. Talk down to the opposition, heap pressure on the situation. It’s all becoming a bit negative. And such was the display of some of England’s best on Sunday, you got the sense that they, too, were tired and feeling negative. Has he gone too far this time? We’ll find out in Edinburgh.

One of Wales’ finest

Much has been written about Alun Wyn Jones over the past few months, and rightly so. But in the wake of the World Cup and the opening Six Nations weekend, Dan Biggar is every bit as important to Wales now as their captain.

Biggar suited the early days of ‘Warrenball’ with his siege gun boot and physical presence. He didn’t need to do much more. But as Wales began to shift the ball a bit more, so Biggar evolved, with his man-of-the-match display against England in the 2015 World Cup a marker of his progress over the years.

His move to Northampton, and especially the time spent under Chris Boyd, has added confidence and vision to his game now, to the extent that on Saturday, albeit against lesser opposition, he looked a complete fly-half. He kicks from tee and drops goals. He distributes well. He makes a larger than average number of good decisions. He talks well.

At 30, he should, if carefully managed, be able to push on to the next World Cup. With Jones surely unlikely to make it that far, Biggar could be Wales’ most important player for the next four years.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

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