The 6 Nations 2024

Sounds like the manager is going to get sacked

Galthie strikes me as an arrogant type. Even if they lose the rest of their games I wouldn’t sack him. But it’s possible he could end up in an Eddie Jones type situation in that a lot of people assumed England under Jones weren’t that bothered with winning the Six Nations and were experimenting before dramatically upping it again for the World Cup. It wasn’t the case and Jones’s arrogance was poisoning the whole set up. France 2025 will be much more interesting. You’d expect they’ll be on it next year. If they’re not it could be time to change.

There’ll be no Andy Farrell next year either which should weaken Ireland. We still have the French and English at home though so we could pull a “Wales 2013” championship out of the hat when Gatty was seconded to the Lions.

I wonder could o gara get the French job

Always presumed arrogance and French scrum half came hand in hand.

Actually arrogance and France really.

Shur I suppose O Gara could get the French job. So could I. Anything could happen really.

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Not sure O’Gara is too popular with the authorities over there after all the bans he has picked up.

Era I dunno would that come into it. He’s surely a standout candidate. Hired Shaun edwards too which was big for them.

Hiring Edwards was part of their plan to go all out to win the RWC, they’ve pumped a huge amount of money and resources into this team and the setup in general. It hasn’t exactly worked out for them.

France were beaten by one point by the team who went on to win the World Cup in possibly the highest standard game ever seen. They should have won the game but were punished by a highly experienced champion team who were utterly clinical in taking their chances. The margins are infinitesimal, you’d need a Vernier calipers to even see them.

It’s not as if France were far away.

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Both Ireland and France were very unlucky.

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I agree the both QFs were very close. I was at our one and watched the France one in the Paris Rugby Village and the whole atmosphere dropped as soon as the game ended. It was a bit of a disaster for the hosts to be out at the QF stage.

The Olympics is a big deal for French society and French sport. It’s the next big thing for them to focus on, even if in rugby it’s only 7s and football is a bit of a makey up competition. You have Mbappe demanding not to go to Real Madrid until the Olympics is over.

Three of the four Six Nations tournaments in the four cycle tend to suffer to varying extents.

The year after a World Cup suffers because of a World Cup hangover.
The year after a Lions tour can suffer with player hangovers.
The year of a World Cup can suffer because teams might want to keeps their cards close to their chest a bit.

The tournament leading up to a British Lions tour, which is 2025, tends to be the one where everybody is firing at their fullest with no excuses available.

I’d wager France will be back to their best next year and then 2027 will be in their sights. French rugby is booming and that isn’t going to stop just because they lost to South Africa. The World Cup is the holy grail, they’ve never won it and they want it.

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France were as far away as they ever were. Unlike their footballers they don’t have a winning mentality. One could say they got some bad breaks throughout and before the tournament (their captain having his cheek broken by a Namibian ffs). But South Africa won the final having played almost the entire game without a specialist hooker. France will always find a way to lose.

France meekly bowed out of the 2015 tournament without firing a shot. They were light years removed from that in October.

French football found ways to lose for decades. Then suddenly they started finding ways to win, and are now Europe’s biggest football power. French rugby will find a way to win as well.

Dublin found ways to lose for years. Limerick found ways to lose. No longer. The old order was swept aside by forces with which it could no longer contend. The same will happen in rugby.

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Time will be the judge of that, thankfully.

Tellingly we’ve struggled in this year apart from 2009.

2021: Disappointing enough until the final game when we hammered England. The Andy Farrell era kind of blossomed from here.

2017: 3 wins from 5. Again finished on a high versus England (H).

2013: Great start v Wales but capitulated then to such an extent that we lost to Scotland and Italy.

2009: Grand Slam: Culmination of a decades work.

2005: A very disappointing 3/5 campaign. We lost the final two games against France and Wales. Some French winger called Baby sent us home with our tae in a mug at the old Lansdowne.

2001: A solid 4/5 campaign under Gatty. The one defeat to Scotland randomly started a debate here years later about Gatland’s use of Peter Stringer during that period.

I’ve had it relayed that this is the most boring 4.5.5 nations in a long time? France have no interest I’ve been told?

It’s been terrific.

To the casual supporter it always is i suppose.

I was talking to a proper rubby man today who said it was very poor standard.

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Only a dolt would say otherwise.