They may not have given their full potential over the last year but knowing the players it would not be any surprise if they did beat the All Blacks that is just how France are brilliant the one minute then mediocre the next, unpredictable i think the word is but then thats France, love them ot hate them!!!!!!
that's exactly right.
And
TommyGun:
what I'm saying is on paper we've got more potential than in recent years. We're a better team than we were in the RWC in 2011. And we still have a Top 3 scrum, what are you talking about ? It won't show because Domingo's out, but Domingo+Kayser+Mas with good experienced locks behind destroys man.
Anyways: France has never, ever been dominant a whole year. And we've been a relevant national side since the 1950's, so that's a lot of time and a ton of players and coaches and we've got that exact same pattern following us the whole way.
* The bad thing about France is: when we're playing great, it's no indication whatsoever of results to come, we may suck horribly. See Perfect 2012 November, and Wooden Spoon in March.
* The good thing is: when all signs are negative for France, and everything seems to crumble, we start winning again, and there's never a dead France side. We're like Phoenix (after all, only a mythological version of the French coq
) and from the ashes we're born again.
And to be fair, I'll repeat that our tour of NZ last summer was positive on many points.
The 30-0 second test was just a misfire, many, many sides would've beaten us that day, especially at home. We were utterly terrible, and the Blacks just exploited that, very well though, credit to them.
But the whole "they were rusty" - listen, the All-Blacks aren't ever rusty, for anyone, especially not at home hosting
France in particular. We almost got them on that first test despite problems in our scrum (if not for that shytty pass to Picamoles' feet 5m from the line all by himself...). And the third test, with an experimental lineup we managed to come within 10points, in NZ.
Not many teams can say they came within 10 points twice in N.Z. this year, and had a real chance of winning them. I mean we're talking about a team that just won by 11 in South Africa, and scored a comfortable try with 14 men at a point (Read).
And that's the last we've seen of France.
On paper, we're easily a Top 5 team in the world. If we can finally just channel all that potential...
