Fabien Galthié in Twickenham, March 13, 2021. -

Daniel Murphy / Focus Images Ltd / S / SIPA

When hot, we might want to blame everything on the perfidious Andrew Brace, already tormenting our nights during the Fall Cup.

Already because that's only one more episode to tell the grandchildren later in the long series of "You know kid, to beat the English and the referee at the same time, you need ten points in advance before the last referral ”, then because the TV failed to dig up a bloody picture where we can clearly see Itoje flattening the ball.

But that would be to give in to the ease and laziness of reason, considering that the try is perhaps quite valid, and that the English have already given in this tournament questionable whistles, and on the part of a referee from home, what is more.

"A loss of control over the end"

Above all, the perforation of the Saracens golgoth, to hell or not, came to reward fifteen minutes of intense pressure in the tricolor camp, which we felt like a barbed wire to break for a while.

Since the English coaching, in fact, while the staff of the Blues chose to keep powder in the cartridge belt (Jelonch, Ntamack and Serin have not moved from the bench).

It is not a question of pushing this poor Galthié, even if it is tempting given his sanitary prowess of the moment, but the guy himself recognized "a loss of control in the second half, especially at the end, where they put us under pressure.

We held the line until Itoje scored, but they finished stronger.

Penalties made us back down and gave free balls to the English ”.

The replacement hinge did not come into play

No physical cracking in large widths, but a set of small faults from the 60th minute, which prevented the Blues from turning the clock and putting the pressure back in the opposite camp despite impeccable defensive attitudes.

“Some had not played for a month but we were able to respond physically., Defended Mathieu Jalibert.

We went to look for standards that we will not always seek in training.

We responded physically and rugbyly.

But in the second half, we lost track of the game a bit.

We made a lot of mistakes on our launches, there was indiscipline ”.

The Bordeaux opener is not directly concerned here, and we understand that the staff wanted to keep him until the end given his masterclass at Twickenham.

  • But why not take advantage of the experience of the number 1 opener Romain Ntamack by tilting Jalibert at the back instead of a Dulin at the breaker in view of one or two gross errors around the time of game (key not found in 22, daring and missed drop which brought the game back to 22 French meters in stride)?

  • Why persist in leaving Antoine Dupont until the end of the match, when the Toulouse scrum half did not deliver the best performance of his career, countered several times at the foot and author of an uncertain animation on a few strokes?

    It was also he who dropped the ball on the last attack, perhaps for lack of lucidity, when he was part of the wagon of players affected by the Covid three weeks ago.

  • Why not request the slaughter of Jelonch during the last English rush knowing that the best defender of the afternoon;

    Taofifenua, a formidable replacement at short notice for Le Roux, had to leave the battle because of his back?

"We had planned options but we decided to coach in relation to the match," was quickly justified Galthié, who rather pointed to certain key moments poorly managed, such as a ball carried at the end penalized two meters from the opposing line, which could have made it possible to turn with a larger lead just before the break.

“It's not the end of the match that bothers me”.

Galthié does not budge

However, this ric-rac management of a minimum pension could already have been expensive in Ireland, where Dupont, this time, had scratched the last ball of a heroic defense while the Greens were only waiting for a foul for us. plant the winning penalty in the back.

It's been twice that the little Asterix of French rugby has played the entire match, a rarity in rugby, and Baptiste Serin must be wondering what he is, when Eddie Jones, opposite, did not hesitate to take Young out for the money-time.

More generally, this usual management of liners - three players not used in Scotland in the autumn - calls out in the long term, for those who remember Galthié boring the media at the very start of his mandate so that they prefer the term "finishers To that of "substitutes".

Today, most of them are mostly spectators, banned from going out in Marcoussis and banned from entering on Saturdays.

Not sure they like it in the long run.

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