Wayne Smith on the 6Nations

Former New Zealand Coach

6 days ago

Following his review of England’s Six Nations Wayne Smith now looks at the progress, or regress, of France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Italy.

France

It is becoming the same old story with France. The national team is reflecting the rugby played by the Top 14. French club rugby has employed a safety first approach for some years now and so it is no surprise to see France play the same way.

The flair is being drained from their game. Maybe Marc Lievremont had more of an idealistic approach, but he had so little time with the players that he was unable to change the culture. Saint Andre is less adventurous than Lievremont. The conservative decision making engrained at the clubs, is evident in France’s Six Nations performance.

At times it was hard to fathom what Saint Andre’s philosophy really was. How does he select Clement Poitrenaud and Lionel Beauxis in the same team. They are total opposites. One is a free spirit, at times a little crazy, the other is a kicking automaton. I don’t see the game plan.

France needs a style of rugby that will motivate the players. They needs some joie de vivre back into the game. But how to achieve that without the alignment of the Top 14 coaches? It is difficult. France is being stifled by their club rugby and it is hard to see a way out.

Ireland

Declan Kidney had been able to transfer the drive and passion of Leinster, Munster and even Ulster into the national team. He coached Munster with a passion, but the national team is deteriorating. Players are ageing and Kidney is struggling to find the replacements. Ireland finished where they deserved to. Yes, they were without O’Driscoll throughout and O’Connell for the latter part of the Six Nations, but those two cannot be so far off retirement. What then?

Wales

Warren Gatland has a clear selection strategy based on size and speed. It is curious that several of these players have come through an unsuccessful under-20 team, but Gatland is obviously picking out the right ones. North, Cuthbert, Priestland, Davies and Halfpenny are going to be around for years. They are big players, physically and athletically. Now they need to start beating southern hemisphere sides on a regular basis.

Scotland and Italy

The style of Scotland’s game, particularly earlier on was outstanding. They are coached well. They have some great young players such as Denton, Gray, Hogg, but they have an issue scoring tries. They make simple tasks look difficult. By the time of the final match against Italy, Scotland had gone. Italy tried to expand their game early on, but you can’t invent players who don’t exist. Their old Roman virtues took them through in the end. But both teams have a long way to go before they compete regularly with the other four. Towards the end, Italy were whacked by a creaking Ireland team and Scotland, who had chances to knock over both France and England, looked dreadful in that final game. There is only so much coaches can do. 

He did nothing amazing at my club, Northampton, and in many ways he is responsible for some absolutely mawkish nonsense that still persists at the club. I have been around for a very long time and seen many Coaches come and go....he is far from the best that we have had at our club. Let's face it, if the RWC Final had been reffed ever so slightly differently, this set of Coaches would have lost yet again. Not so great after all !

Wales are overrated, but that is par for the course with them. Any success is greeted with rabid nationalism and no real sense of reason. Instead of being pleased with winning matches and hoping to achieve a great deal more of it, they act like they are the best thing since sliced bread and really set themselves up for a fall. They also ruin some decent players....the likes of Arwel Thomas/Mike Hall/Paul Thorburn and even Neil Jenkins spring to mind. These players have all been hailed as heroes and then treated dreadfully by the fans over the years. It's just silly really.  Not so long ago, they were 2 wins from 9 and even during the 6 Nations they could have been 3 from 5......certainly they should have had a loss against Ireland. That was a penalty from nowhere and Ireland could feel rightly aggrieved.

The point you also miss with France is that their club teams are so overrun with foreign players that a lot of the national side lack much game time these days. There is also a great deal of infighting within the union and clubs that does the game no good whatsoever.

They do train like other teams. The problem truly arose when their discipline got so poor that they had to spend an awful lot of time training to improve that. It was to the detriment of their attacking game ( something that has always been a little over hyped anyway. To read what everyone says about France, you would think that no-one else ever plays end to end Rugby ! ) and they don't seem to have found an answer or balance to that yet. They have also been through a very difficult phase and should really be rebuilding in the vein of England. And anyone who actually watches much Top 14 will see that a lot of the games are downright dull.....hardly a good advert for attacking flair or any form of cohesion whatsoever. They've always been the masters of the drop goal, that should surely tell us all something about the French mind set !