Frustrations boil over as minnows Uruguay give France World Cup fright
Les Bleus despatched out a wholly new staff from the first-choice facet that brushed past New Zealand final Friday.
Boss Fabien Galthie wished to make an announcement of intent to drive different groups to sit down up and marvel at France’s power in depth. Instead, any of their rivals watching would have seen these wholesale modifications as a part of the explanation for such a niggly efficiency.
France’s gamers had been determined to placed on a present in opposition to their world No17 opponents, however a string of errors and a staccato rhythm left France pissed off, even bickering in breaks of play.
Uruguay pushed the hosts all the best way, even to inside one level — 13-12 — at one time. France’s designs on profitable this World Cup didn’t embody tight matches in opposition to minnows, however Pierre Bourgarit admitted Les Bleus had endured a troublesome night time.
“It was complicated, we had trouble getting our game going,” mentioned the hooker. “It was frustrating. We didn’t want to play the rugby we did last night.
“It generated frustration. We felt dominant in the scrum, but we weren’t always rewarded. Uruguay gave us a hard time in the rucks.
Doing their country proud: Uruguay produced a brilliant battling display against France
/ AP“It happens that we get into a spat, but it’s never too bad. It’s part of the sport.
“We’ve won our two pool matches. Our ambition is to finish top of the pool. We hope to give a better account of ourselves in seven days’ time.”
Nicolas Freitas crossed for a well-worked Uruguay attempt that shocked France by way of a sensible crossfield kick. Baltazar Amaya then dragged Uruguay to inside some extent of France, reducing France’s benefit after Antoine Hastoy’s try to two Melvyn Jaminet penalties.
Peato Mauvaka and Louis Bielle-Biarrey crossed late on to seal the win for France, who had been pleased with the consequence however not the efficiency.
“We struggled to make good use of our ruck,” added Bourgarit. “Obviously, without fast ball, it’s harder to set up your game, and Uruguay were excellent.
“They came here to put on a good show. It was their opening match. We should congratulate them, they knew how to make things difficult for us.
“Things didn’t work out as we would have liked and that led to frustration. We’re going to analyse what went wrong so we can be better in our next games.”
France can roll onto a Pool A conflict with Namibia that they need to win with one thing to spare, no matter their stage of efficiency.
Head coach Galthie was left impressed with Uruguay’s displaying, and admitted the game wants to assist lesser nations arrange extra matches in opposition to high groups.
“If we want rugby to develop, a team like Uruguay needs to play more matches against the best,” he mentioned. “This is a team that wants to take on the leading nations, but the only competition that allows that for them is the World Cup. They can be an emerging nation like Japan or Georgia, but they need to play the best teams more often for that to happen.”
France’s patchy efficiency finally means little within the wider event context, particularly having fielded a majority second-choice lineup.
“What’s important is winning, I told the players, ‘Let’s win the match’,” added Galthie. “We were hampered by Uruguay, who carried out their plan well, but in the end we won. We can be satisfied. If there’s any frustration, it’s more among the players. We want them to enjoy themselves, to be happy
“They’re probably frustrated, but we must respect our opponent and we are very glad to have won this match.
“A World Cup is a long-term adventure, each match is a challenge, and the group games are very important. A match like this strengthens the team, making it stronger and better for what is to come.”