Francois Cros hails ‘calm and collected’ Fin Smith as France fall to ‘self-inflicted loss’
Francois Cros reflects on France's performance while hailing England youngster Fin Smith.
Flanker Francois Cros rued France’s inaccuracies in what he believes was a “self-inflicted loss” to England in the Six Nations clash at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
A Louis Bielle-Biarrey try gave Les Bleus a six-point lead in the final five minutes of the match but Fabien Galthie’s men failed to maintain that buffer as England fly-half Fin Smith sent Elliot Daly cantering over the line to score the winner.
The defeat is a hammer blow to France’s Six Nations hopes as the Championship pauses for a week before returning for round three.
Wasteful France
Speaking to Planet Rugby after the match, Cros rued France’s inability to hold onto the ball and make the most of their opportunities in England’s half.
“We are disappointed tonight and this is very much a self-inflicted loss,” Cros said.
“We played well in that first half and created some chances that we didn’t take. We had a lot of opportunities to score the last ten minutes before the break but our execution was poor – passes went to the floor, not to hand and it wasn’t what we expect from ourselves.
“That last quarter wasn’t good for us. We failed to exit in the way we wanted and England kept putting pressure back on us. We missed too many opportunities to score tonight, to win a game and that is down to our control and precision.
“England had five visits, I think, in our 22, and they scored four tries – that’s not good for us and it’s way below the standards we expect.”
The 30-year-old Toulouse star reserved praise for England’s defensive shift and lauded the outings of his opposing loose forwards.
“The English team had a very good defensive performance tonight,” he admitted.
“They put a lot of pressure on us and their back-row was really abrasive – you expect that from players of the quality of Tom Curry and Ben Earl.
“The ball was slippery, so they knew they had to get up fast in our faces and they did exactly that. It’s difficult to execute well in those conditions, especially when there’s so much pressure on our breakdown, and England got a lot of territory from our transgressions.
“Two of those penalties in the second half and that allowed them to come in our 22 from the penalty and score far too easily. It’s something we need to look at and our discipline was less than we’d expect.”
Fin Smith’s game management
Fly-half Smith was named Player of the Match on his first start at ten, in his seventh appearance for England.
Cros admitted that Les Bleus had talked about him before the game and wanted to pressure him, but the youngster impressed the veteran back-rower.
“Fin Smith was very calm and collected. I think England managed more structure with his game management – he probably plays a little deeper than others and we failed to pressure him. We couldn’t get the momentum to squeeze his time and that disappointed me greatly as we’d talked about that before the match. He was impressive and I think we’ll see a lot more of him in Test matches,” Cros observed.
“But for us, the focus has to be to stop the errors we forced upon ourselves. Yes, England defended well and put us under pressure, but the lasting feeling we have is that our efficiency in finishing and the way we failed to exit from our own half in the last quarter just allowed England a foothold into the match and their efficiency in finishing was a big factor in the final score.”
READ MORE: Sir Clive Woodward hits out at French ‘arrogance’ at Twickenham after ‘wasteful’ performance
