REACTION
For the first time in Rugby World Cup history, there will be no competition matches. Due to a typhoon that threatens Japan, the organizers have announced Thursday morning that New Zealand-Italy and especially the long-awaited France-England were simply canceled. Consequence: the Blues finish second in their pool, behind the English, more successful against the other opponents of the group. "It's still a problem, and it's a first," said Eric Blanc, rugby consultant for Europe 1. "Now, both teams were qualified, there were no other solutions. the best, "relativizes the former play of Racing.
"We continue or we go home"
There will, however, be consequences, of course. "It's going to be a problem for the staff of both teams, because they had spared some players not to play, to recover, and here we have to prepare for the quarter-finals," Eric Blanc explains. "It's complicated, but it's like that, we are in a country that is often hit by typhoons, cyclones at this time of year, and we were not going to refuse the World Cup either. the moment, everything is going very well, we will have to reorganize, prepare this team of France, and especially the players, in this quarterfinal ".
So that's the challenge for the staff of the Blues: to tip the players in the second phase of the competition, the knockout. "The pressure is going to fall, we will have to go back to training, get back to it right away, then it's not the end of the world," the former racingman said. "We have to set the goal quickly, and now it's elimination or not, we're going home or going in. The band is still focused on playing these well-known Welsh people. It's going to turn, we're going to get ready, now it's focus, focus, work, recovery and we're going back to 14. "