France national rugby union team

... that have gone wrong and, and, and what have you.

But look, I think they have to accept, though, that there's a bit of a cold war going on in, in refereeing at the moment behind the scenes, that, uh, World Rugby, and they've certainly got the backing of the French, and I think, uh, there might be one or two other countries, uh, they want the game refereed a certain way, and they have the balance of power.

They have the influence.

Super Rugby has gone, "We want a more entertaining, uh, spectacle.

Uh, if it's a similar time of the year to this, there's obviously NPC Rugby.

I'm just wondering what would th- be the best way.

Should we go the French way and start putting out sort of nat- you know, selecting 15s?

[laughs]

It's tricky because the rate of change is quite rapid and then the resulting trends, there is no period of adaptation for players or coaches because it's happening in real time in front of them and people are trying to work out complexity.

I think what struck me most last season was Ireland's game in Paris, first game of the Six Nations, which was a box kick fest at times and certainly something the Irish team embraced and brought into that game and got bitten for it with an incredibly fast and agile elusive French back three and there was huge pushback and there was you know there was why did we do this why did we kick but again in the lead up to that Six Nations I think there were trends emerging in club rugby around the high contestable kick and how players compete for it, the route to compete being not as blocked off anymore.

I think it is a really tricky part of adjustment at the top level under the spotlight because the rules are still changing.

And it's probably one of the only top professional sports where there seems to be tweaking.

They're, they're in the top table at the moment ability-wise, but do I think they'll make the World Cup final? Don't know.

You just never know with French, do you?

Who then? Argentina, England?

Well, that's-

Seeing, and I guess y- you always knew it, but seeing the South African fans' response to your Siya Kolisis and boys, particularly from the Cape area in that Cape Town test, like, you've never heard noise like it.

I mean, Cheslin Kolbe, you...

I, I'm telling you, you know what that French World Cup opener-

Yeah

And you could sense from Tommy, and I, I don't want to be speaking on his behalf, but you could sense from him that maybe they've gone too far into being overly structured and too far away from being able to express themselves.

And what I mean by that is the French way of, of keeping the ball alive, offloading, taking on your opposite number one-on-one.

Um, and that's not necessarily something that you're, you're pre-planning during the week and saying, "Oh, we'll get the ball to Garry Ringrose in this situation, and Garry, you just do your thing, and we'll run off you." Um, it's reacting to those opportunities when they're presented to you.

So I, I still expect Leinster to, to significantly adapt and develop their game going into this season, regardless of, um, Felipe potentially coming in.

And then underpinning everything, just the brute strength.

Like in tournament rugby, when this comes down to set piece, you know, come at us.

I, I d- I take your point about the French power as well.

We are looking at South Africa.

You are discovering about certain players, their ability to produce it or not produce it at test level.

And that's going to be really important going into the next group of matches in the Nations Championship, which, of course, for me, on November the 13th, when France hosts South Africa, is going to be the match that I am most looking forward to because there are enough big beasts operating the top 14 to to ensure that the scrum doesn't go backwards for the French.

And when you give the French a platform to play off, as you saw when they brought basically their second team down, they score tries from anywhere.

It's going to be an absolutely fantastic match and will have a major bearing on next year's World Cup.

So, you know, sit down in front of the box, 13th of November.

Well, we didn't dominate them.

The French, did we have any...

We didn't have any...

Well, I know the French, we didn't get their A guys, but...

Were there A guys in the...

We got big guys, man.

Oh, yeah.

He was pretty good.

And, and Fra- like if we talk a lot about the grind, which is way more, um, severe in the Top 14 compared to the Prem, much bigger league, longer season.

But look how many summers in recent memory some top French stars haven't toured.

Mm.

Yeah.

My mom, my dad, my brother, and one of my best friends from school, and his wife was at the, at the game when I made my debut.

My dad had his England shirt on.

My mom had my England shirt on that I played with in the French 15 game.

My brother had his England shirt on.

So they're both hard courts.

Then you've got clay for the French and you've got grass and wood.

I think the reason I was confused, I had the TV on and there was some clay.

They must be replaying the French one.

That's what it must have been, I think.

But thank you for clarifying that, David.

He's a bit, he's like-

In the French got rucked.

Oh.

Testie fell out.