Upstream of the last test, the national coach Fabien Galkié put pressure on the arbitral body. Will it be yes or not heard?
What was your journey to build the team?
We have simply built the best team possible.
What is your gaze on Joshua Brennan, repositioned in third-line?
He is clearly a player in the making. We have been following him for a very long time. Josh, we want to have him play and we have built a team in which he can find his place. He has a bit of the profile of Pierre Bochaton or Cameron Woki; He can occupy the number 4 or flanker positions.
How did you find it in Wellington on Saturday evening?
He took a yellow card! (Laughs) But he understood that evening that the room for maneuver was different internationally. It frustrated him and he thinks he can do much better, since we have conceded fourteen points for his absence. It didn’t help us but all that is aware of it. […] Joshua, he is strong, has good hands and we want to see him again. He won his place in Toulouse. He was also a holder in the Top 14 final. This is anything but trivial.
What do you expect from your hinge on Saturday evening?
I don’t want to put too much weight on the hinge. I don’t want to empower them in the event of a defeat, for example. What I expect from the hinge is that she helps us make the right decisions. Sometimes there is time and space. Sometimes not. It must be able to move forward, in front of the defense or behind. She will also need Léo Barré to succeed in all this.
Léo Barré was very critical of himself, after Wellington’s defeat…
I find exemplary, this way of assuming responsibility. It is a form of honesty that we like a lot. It is rare that people feel responsible, in the field or elsewhere. While it is not responsible. In rugby, responsibility is always collective. I am sure that Léo will be very good in Hamilton this weekend.
You have obviously had many exchanges with the arbitral body this week. What subject?
I have a meeting with the referee (Angus Gardner), tonight. We need the fray and the balloons worn to be properly arbitrated. We need to be arbitrated as if we were playing on neutral terrain. I will cite two examples: in Wellington, last Saturday, there should have been penalty at an attempt when Barrett entered the side of the Maul. There should have been penalty at an attempt when Rieko Ioane intercepted Léo Barré’s pass, a little later. These are fourteen points, in the end. It counts, facing the All Blacks. And we will therefore discuss it.
Clear?
I would like us to be refereed as the French team, not as a little nation. Since the start of the tour, one has the impression that there is only one team which is observed, in attack as in defense.
Have you judged your wait-and-see team since the start of the tour?
You always have to look at who we are and who we face. Our French team is a team that has little collective experience, players who are not at the top of “ranking” (the players’ hierarchy, editor’s note). Saturday evening, it will be very difficult but I want us to hold our roadmap until the end. Be in the game until the end. There have been a lot of very good things in our rugby since the start of the tour. But you have to keep a standing on the basics: defense, foot game … If not, it will happen what happened in Wellington in the first half. […] We hear what he is saying about us in recent weeks but I can swear that the guys will be there on Saturday evening. Our determination is increased tenfold, intact. All the guys present want to do battle. […] After the first test, I was neither reassured nor proud because I knew that there were three weeks to cross. But we want to fully experience these difficult moments. For nothing in the world I would not leave my place and the players present would not leave their place, either. If it had been a final, I can tell you that the injured players would have even played in Hamilton. But there, at the end of the season, pushing the cursor was useless.
The All Blacks have run a lot for this last test. There are ten changes in their team composition …
Whatever you think, it’s their premium group. They will do the whole international season with this group and in my eyes, they are always the All Blacks Version 1. I am not sure that there is only one new cap in their major 15.
Corn damian mckenzie n’est pas beauded barrett …
McKenzie is not Barrett… (laughs) We have profiles like him who stayed in France. Thomas Ramos, for example, who can occupy the bottom of the land and the opener’s post. McKenzie, he is less regulatory (than Beauden Barrett) but he is more creative, more offensive. He has great qualities, be careful.
