Except for one day the count was round. When lining up on the lawn, a meter away, health protocol in the weather of Covid-19 requires, to listen to the hymns resound in the empty walls of Twickenham, Saturday, March 13 in London, nearly a month will have elapsed between this England-France and the previous match of the Blues in the Six Nations Tournament.
On February 14, a dashing French XV had put an end to ten years of scarcity in Ireland (15-13), and chained a second success after that, convincing, in Italy (50-10). And then, nothing more. Since his return from the green Erin, the French men’s rugby team has fallen into a health nightmare – sixteen Covid-19 contaminations, including the coach, Fabien Galthié, and the captain, Charles Ollivon – with its share of controversies on the origin of these contaminations. The Blues were deprived of land.
This week, Fabien Galthié tried to close the chapter on the first crisis encountered by his group since taking office at the end of 2019, taking refuge behind the conclusions of the internal investigation conducted by the French Rugby Federation (FFR) , which clears the group of any breach in the sanitary protocol.
But after a month of forced break, many questions exist as to the state of form of the Blues at the time of facing the English revenge after a failed start to the Tournament (two defeats in three games). Returning Sunday to Marcoussis (Essonne), the French had only five days to re-engage the machine.
Before this week their last “High intensity training” dated back to February 24. It only concerned those who were not in isolation because of their contamination, or for safety. Then, the Blues had been reduced to the strict minimum: a few individual sessions, and “Gear at home to continue training and stay in shape”, during the quarantine imposed on the group, as explained to the back Anthony Bouthier.
A season punctuated by randomness
Since their arrival at the head of a XV of France hardly in legs, the tandem Raphaël Ibañez-Fabien Galthié has focused on the physical form of the players, preliminary, according to the two men, to the “Performance culture”. “We know that this high intensity training is a difficult time to go through during the week, but that it will do us good in matches at the weekend”, explained Antoine Dupont before the start of the Tournament. For a year the results have been convincing.
Far from the field, the Blues were forced to adapt. “These are things that you cannot control, you endure like everyone else. We offered the players training sessions they can do away from home ”, detailed this week Thibault Giroud, the performance director, at Dauphiné released.
For the physical trainer, who follows all the performances of the players thanks to the sharing of data with the clubs, “The Covid episode”, as it is now called in the France group, is not the first obstacle on the road for the French this year. In club also, the internationals were confronted with the randomness of a season under the sign of the coronavirus: matches postponed, quarantines, contaminations … have punctuated the daily life of the teams. With the consequence of a state of form at the very least heterogeneous.
“Thanks to the data that we exchange directly with the clubs, we quickly realized that there would be a really disparate group, admitted Thibault Giroud. This is the first time since our arrival [à la direction de l’équipe] that the situation was complicated, so we had to take more risks in the preparation. ”
“Like the recoveries of injuries”
Before the cluster hits the Blues, the latter had focused on intense physical preparation able to make them go the distance. So many efforts taken off by a forced stop? If the players who spoke at the press conference this week were careful not to complain about the situation, playing at a club last weekend was for some a salutary bubble.
“They were really happy to play, because what they lived, it is not simple, confined, you play, you do not play, you take again, the apprehension of the tests [PCR]… It was a bad time, they found it very long, moreover ”, insisted Christophe Urios, manager of Union Bordeaux-Bègles.
The latter, who has lined up five of his six internationals against Pau in the Top 14, noted their lack of form: “It’s like re-injury. For Matthew [Jalibert] and Cameron [Woki], there was I do not know how long they had not played a match! “It was important to play again after five weeks without playing”, corroborated the player Anthony Bouthier, Tuesday, who had not entered the field in Ireland, but played a match with Montpellier.
In Top 14, this season, the teams affected by a significant outbreak of Covid-19 have all encountered difficulties in completing the matches, once the hour of play has passed. This leaves fear a “lack of cash” Saturday to complete the match. “No, we took over the group since Sunday evening, assured the coach of the back lines, Laurent Labit, Wednesday. We felt the players were very involved, concerned, the work was of very good quality. We know our mission and what awaits us on Saturday. “There is no doubt, we will all be in good shape”, confirmed, the day before, the third-line Dylan Cretin.
From the captain, Charles Ollivon, to the scrum half Antoine Dupont, through the entire first line (Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand and Mohamed Haouas), the vast majority of players hit by the virus will tread the lawn of Twickenham from the kick off. sending. Enough to restart the rise of the XV of France? Answer Saturday, after a very uncertain crunch.
