french team for Tonga (and england?)

not that a lot of people care anymore but at least you cant deny ML of always coming with some surprises...so here we go France team for tonga is as follow :

Médard - Clerc, Rougerie, Mermoz, Palisson - Parra, Yachvili - Bonnaire, Lakafia, Dusautoir - Nallet, Papé - Ducalcon, Servat, Poux

subs: Barcella, Szarzewski, Pierre, Harinordoquy, Trinh-Duc, Estebanez, Heymans

so Lakafia back at 8, ducalcon still there despite being average and inexperienced (Mas still injured though), Medart goes FB and Palisson is back and last but not least Parra is still 10...
so a dodgy scrum and weak defense to be expected around the 10/IC channel as if NZ didnt expose us already, ML wants to have another go at his experiment and this team is meant to be the same team that will play England (bar unjuries and a possible Mas return).
worth mentionning that poor Doussain that left toulouse on a hurry is not even making the bench . Picamoles goes awol as well (his power will be missed against Tonga) and traille finally disapears from the teamsheet.

whocares wrote:not that a lot of people care anymore but at least you cant deny ML of always coming with some surprises...so here we go France team for tonga is as follow :

Médard - Clerc, Rougerie, Mermoz, Palisson - Parra, Yachvili - Bonnaire, Lakafia, Dusautoir - Nallet, Papé - Ducalcon, Servat, Poux

subs: Barcella, Szarzewski, Pierre, Harinordoquy, Trinh-Duc, Estebanez, Heymans

so Lakafia back at 8, ducalcon still there despite being average and inexperienced (Mas still injured though), Medart goes FB and Palisson is back and last but not least Parra is still 10...
so a dodgy scrum and weak defense to be expected around the 10/IC channel as if NZ didnt expose us already, ML wants to have another go at his experiment and this team is meant to be the same team that will play England (bar unjuries and a possible Mas return).
worth mentionning that poor Doussain that left toulouse on a hurry is not even making the bench . Picamoles goes awol as well (his power will be missed against Tonga) and traille finally disapears from the teamsheet.

Since you are living there what is the french take on what he is up to...read about his comments at a press conference when he said that a question gave him the sh!ts...what do French public make of him, why was he constructively sacked before RWC....seems almost sublime in it's stupidity

yeah when a journalist kept on asking him if he still thought france could be world champion, he told him to bugger off... he was properly annoyed...

the thing with ML is that he's a genuine nice guy and very loyal as well so 2 players moaned because they were replaced at HT against NZ (traille and picamoles) and they end up blacklisted. he's close to his players but not with the adequate distance. he lacks leadership, purpose, composure,communication skills and a bit of politics as well to make a good coach.
french people been calling him domenech of rugby recently and journalists are all around him like vultures which does not help.
one can try to summarise marc lievremont by one example: he brought Trinh-duc and Picamoles out of almost nowhere, giving them a lot of game time in 4 years to dump them in the middle of the world cup.
does it makes sense?
not to me, stopped trying to understand him fully although I am sure there must some logic...somewhre.

whocares wrote:yeah when a journalist kept on asking him if he still thought france could be world champion, he told him to bugger off... he was properly annoyed...

the thing with ML is that he's a genuine nice guy and very loyal as well so 2 players moaned because they were replaced at HT against NZ (traille and picamoles) and they end up blacklisted. he's close to his players but not with the adequate distance. he lacks leadership, purpose, composure,communication skills and a bit of politics as well to make a good coach.
french people been calling him domenech of rugby recently and journalists are all around him like vultures which does not help.
one can try to summarise marc lievremont by one example: he brought Trinh-duc and Picamoles out of almost nowhere, giving them a lot of game time in 4 years to dump them in the middle of the world cup.
does it makes sense?
not to me, stopped trying to understand him fully although I am sure there must some logic...somewhre.

interesting, specifically his replacement though, poorly managed just before RWC?

Why does he take out Picamoles, probably the one of the best French players in that AB match. Didn't understand why he put Harinordoquy on instead of him and not one of the flankers who played shocking at half time and I don't understand this decision either. Sigh.

Gatts wrote:
interesting, specifically his replacement though, poorly managed just before RWC?

well when he was asked if he would be up to renew his contract as french national coach, he said no (thanksfully). then its a question of timing for the replacement, either you wait after the worldcup but the choices are limited (more difficult to poach club managers) or you do it before. they went for the latter, not great because it still created controversy around the future french manager (noves didnt want the job, some club presidents were unhappy). maybe it should have been done 6 month before, maybe they should go for a foreigh manager and staff (SH one) at some point to change the rugby culture in depth as I dont think Saint-Andre will bring a lot as France coach anyway.