Brian O’Driscoll shocked by ‘badly coached’ France who would be ‘frightening’ under Andy Farrell

Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll was shocked at how poor France were during the opening match of the 2024 Six Nations.

Les Bleus were the favourites for the tournament but produced an abject display against Andy Farrell’s men, going down 38-17 in Marseille.

Although O’Driscoll was delighted with Ireland’s efforts, the great centre struggled to understand France’s rudderless performance with ball in hand.

Contrast between two sides

“I know we didn’t let them play but I couldn’t get over how badly coached a team they looked in attack comparatively to us,” he said on Off The Ball.

“There was a clarity around everything we were trying to do and when things broke down it didn’t take too long to rebuild.

“It just shows the reliance on Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, and their x-factor players to deliver something in the big moments. That’s not enough.”

Head coach Fabien Galthie is currently without key playmakers Dupont and Ntamack, who are absent for the entirety of the Six Nations.

The star scrum-half is particularly important to how they operate, with his stand-in, Maxime Lucu, receiving heavy criticism for his display last Friday.

O’Driscoll was asked whether Les Bleus have been too reliant on those individuals producing moments of off the cuff magic and his response was categorical.

“100 per cent, and I don’t think that’s changed. I did think at the Rugby World Cup that my preference would be to have them in a quarter-final,” he said.

“Yes, France were playing at home and they have all those superstars playing – apart from Ntamack – but what I had seen over the course of the tournament didn’t frighten me.”

Galthie has done a fine job revitalising French rugby, getting them back to the top of the world game, but he has come under fire from some observers since their Rugby World Cup exit.

He was then criticised further following their heavy defeat to Ireland and O’Driscoll believes that they have not fulfilled their potential.

The ex-Ireland centre insists that someone like Farrell could unlock their true talents, given his ability to implement effective structures.

“Frightening thought”

“I know they’ve had a very successful couple of years and not lost a lot of games, but a frightening thought would be if Andy Farrell got hold of that team; what he could do with them and putting some structures in place in attack,” he said.

“I know it’s not necessarily the French way as they do play off the cuff, loose and fast, but if you gave them a little bit of structure married in with that, with some of their athletes, they have the potential to be devastating.

“The flip side is when you don’t have Dupont controlling things, you don’t have Ntamack there, Jalibert has a poor game, they don’t give a platform, their kick game is off – all those factors working against them.

“I just thought, ‘what’s this multi-phase?’ What about deception around the change of direction, having multiple options at the line? There was none of that.

“It was one-out runners, bludgeon and when they ran out of ideas, they kicked it away and it kicked it poorly. I was so disappointed.

“In parts of what we saw in that quarter-final, there was some of the best rugby they’ve played over the course of the last couple of years, but if you break down the scores, a lot of them were about individual flair, rather than team created tries.”

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