France will have targeted this match from the start

THE FRENCH are rarely dull or predictable, and invariably make a fascinating case study, not least when they are next in line six days later. Reviewing Sunday’s win over Scotland, they won far more handily than a nine-point margin suggests.

One struggles to believe that either of the top two in the betting, the favourites and the reigning champions, were consciously keeping their powder dry on the opening weekend, but perhaps, with a six-day turnaround, les bleus were as mindful of les verts as vice versa.

It’s particularly hard to fathom that any team wearing green and coached by Declan Kidney would deliberately not show their full hand and keep some of their energy for a game a week later. There appeared to be plenty of huffing and puffing in Ireland’s largely unrewarding second-half display, and the sense of frustration could be seen in the muted reaction and body language at the whistle.

Nevertheless, with rustiness palpable everywhere on the opening weekend, both the Irish and French wins somehow felt like warm-up games. Indeed, the French backs coach, Emile Ntamack, went so far as to admit: “we have better things to show against Ireland”.

Furthermore, when asked by one French journalist why they consistently launched an impressively physical Yannick Jauzion at the Scottish midfield rather than going wide, Ntamack said that they wanted a “secure” type of game and they didn’t want to show too much because they were playing Ireland next.

Ireland in Paris in round two is their big one, and there is always one game that focuses French minds, all the more so at home.

Their concentration doesn’t wander as much. It appeals to their national pride and fervour. With a 5.30pm (local) kick-off, plenty of red wine will have been consumed, and there’ll be a frisson of excitement in the ground – maybe even of cordite given the last time a France-Ireland encounter took place in that stadium. The French may have been largely apologetic in the immediate aftermath of Thierry’s Hand of God moment, but one ventures they’ll have overcome it by the time La Marseillaise is being played. Ireland, the reigning Grand Slam champions, are coming to town.

Be it a World Cup, a November window, a summer tour or a Six Nations, the French are usually inspired to target one game and produce one highly-charged performance drawing heavily on emotion, especially when their pride is on the line at home.

Borne a tad out of fear, they did it against the All Blacks in the last World Cup in their super-charged Cardiff quarter-final performance, to Wales at home in round three last year, in the first Test in New Zealand last summer (something Ireland have never done) and to the Springboks last autumn.

In each of those “tournaments”, the ensuing defeats to England (twice) and the All Blacks (twice) next time out showed that backing it up is often their difficulty. But that’s a problem for another day.

Another clear signal of intent is that Monsieur Tinkerman, aka Marc Lièvremont, has stopped tinkering. The swift retention of the 23-man squad on duty in Edinburgh underlines that. Come tomorrow morning’s team announcement in Marcoussis, it could be that a few changes will yet be forced on him. Aurelien Rougerie had to leave the fray inside five minutes after two shuddering but ultimately self-destructive hits on Kelly Brown and John Beattie, and his neck injury makes the Clermont wing very doubtful.

So too is the other wing, Benjamin Fall, as well as replacement prop Luc Ducalcon. Cedric Heymans and Maxime Medard are the wings in line for a recall, and Sylvain Marconnet is liable to be promoted from 23rd man to either a place on the bench or the starting line-up.

For their part, Ireland may well welcome back the younger and more dynamic Donncha O’Callaghan for this one, presuming he’s fit. And although they would welcome back Stephen Ferris, the soundings regarding his knee injury are not as good. In that case, retaining Kevin McLaughlin ahead of Seán O’Brien looks the likelier alternative.

And Jonathan Sexton’s chances of starting this one diminished with that slight tear in a quad last week, particularly in light of Ronan O’Gara’s polished display. Taking a dodgy hamstring to Paris is rarely advisable, and the concerns about Andrew Trimble may mean a recall for Keith Earls.

Like Ireland, the French will improve for their opening day outing. As it is, their scrum put an unmerciful squeeze on Ross Ford even if, to Lièvremont’s chagrin, Nigel Owens didn’t punish the Scots as he might have.

But Gert Smal will be a busy man again this week. Their maul and close-in support play and offloading, if they get over the gain line, is potent. Mathieu Bastareud is clearly their main gamebreaker and, if Ntamack’s comments are to be believed, they will probably go wide more often.

Yet such a policy might suit Ireland.

Like Ireland, the French also favour a shooter on the outside pushing up, and the Scots found it impossible to outflank them, but it didn’t look like a system that everybody was in sync with and there were gaps inside the shooter.

Just as significantly, the Scots, and Beattie especially, were able to locate mismatches with props who were at times left a little exposed in the line, and the French tally of 15 missed tackles (and 89 per cent tackle success rate) indicates Ireland can reap rewards from having a real go.

There’s also the encouragement that comes from Ireland having a more established team and more experienced coaching ticket.

Messrs Kidney, Gaffney, Smal and Kiss have been around the block, and have been head coach to many adult professional teams.

Messrs Lièvremont, Ntamack and forwards coach Didier Retiere haven’t one such entry on their collective CV.

Perhaps this lack of experience in part explains Lièvremont’s less than generous response to Ireland’s Grand Slam success a year ago. Describing it as “boring”, Lièvremont said Ireland showed “nothing new” and that their Grand Slam was a retrograde step for the game in general.

Merci, Monsieur. All grist to the mill.

- HATS OFFto Seapoint for clinching the Leinster League, Division 1A title with their 61-24 win at home to Tullamore on Sunday which, coupled with Boyne's 18-9 defeat at Cill Dara, also earned a tilt at the AIB League promotion round-robin play-offs later in the season.

An upwardly mobile, community-based club, they have won 11 and drawn one of their 12 games, and Sunday’s 22 featured 10 of the CBC Monkstown schools side of two years ago.