“More than defending our title, we want to win it back” – Sport.fr

“If there are matches where you have to tie up a winger to win…” In the midst of the controversy surrounding ‘stripping and redeeming’, France XV coach Laurent Labette wanted above all to be pragmatic as an ardent advocate of “alternation” Thursday at a press conference during the Capreton Course.

A year into the World Cup, should we hide our game?
“In the beginning, we wanted to win matches and competitions, and that’s what matters to us. We’re going into a competition that we won last season, and more than defending our title, we want to win that title back. It’s the championship game that matters to us. We’ll look at the World Cup match and what happens next. Today, we are ‘focusing’ on this tournament with the big events for us, including three trips. We won in Ireland two years ago in a stadium behind closed doors. We played in England once with 500 people. The contexts will be different, our condition has changed too It would also be good to see how we act in these moments.”

Having spoken of dispossession, we now speak of ‘possession’…
“It’s still our principle and the principle of modern rugby. New Zealanders play like that. It was a team that played for a long time on foot and took advantage of weaker opponents, situations under pressure or ups and downs. We thought when we got to the best rugby for us, what’s the acid Our nuclear and what are also the requirements of international rugby.We started from the principle that we are good when the game is disorganized, when we re-possess the ball, when the opposing team is disorganized when turning, the balls the opponent loses and counter-attacks, where we excel.How do you build this game? There are two main segments: kicking, but when you’re a decision-maker, not when you have to kick. It’s a big difference. From the moment Sean (Edwards, defense specialist, editor’s note) arrived, we’ve got world-class defense. We get balls back either after collision and contact, or When “contesting” and scratching, or because we put the opponent under pressure and force us to play with the feet and give us the balls to reuse them on the counter-attack. »

Will we see you attempt more shots than falls?
“We’re rotating. We’ve taken stock of November, we know why we’re asking players to do this, but what matters to us above all is winning, that’s the priority and that won’t change for us. If there are games where we have to limit the winger, we’ll continue to do that.” But then, obviously, the players have to adapt. They’ve felt it, and seen it against the Australians, whose defence, whose defence has troubled us. It’s a team that barely plays on foot and there, in Paris, it’s been more than ten years since they’ve played so much on foot in a game “It was said that they didn’t cover the bottom of the field but there, they were three systematically. The playmakers made us aware, showed, discussed and started working. This is what we have to improve and see what the opposing team has to offer. Our goal in attack is to look for spaces.” “If the space is at the back of the field, we’ll go and get it from the bottom of the field with our feet. Otherwise, the space will be at the level of the first curtain and there it’s better to use the ball. We have to be able to adapt, the players felt that after November and came back in that direction.”