English Le Crunched

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Yesterday saw France take on England in their Six Nations opener in Paris.This was a game I has been looking forward to as this is the new French team with a new coaching staff and a host of youngsters playing their first game. Something special is happening in French rugby and it is going to be great to see it unfold.
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The stadium was filled to capacity as much is expected of this new French team now. They are rebuilding for the 2023 World Cup.

England who announced during the week that they wanted to emulate the dynamic style of Liverpool and catch the public's imagination. Eddie Jones the English coach is very ambitious thinking he can improve the English rugby team taking them to World domination. These remarks though are putting a massive target on himself and the English team. The team is scarred after their World Cup humiliation and rather keep quiet until the team is back on track.
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We all saw how South Africa dismantled them bit by bit in the World Cup final last year and the French needed to do something similar.The French had nothing to lose as most of the youngsters playing their first game are used to winning having won the Junior World Cup on the last two occasions. Eddie Jones fired them up saying they should expect a brutal physical introduction to International rugby.
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The new star of French rugby Captain Charles Ollivon who scored two tries yesterday.

The stadium was full expecting a French victory and they were not disappointed as the French were 24 nil up after 55 minutes and already had moved into cruise mode. Normally when a team gets to around 18 points difference you can call the game over already.England were outplayed and out thought forcing them into errors. The French defence like the Springboks did a few months ago kept the English at bay.
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The first try to get the stadium rocking.

The French coach Fabien Galthié rung the changes bringing on 4 replacements with 20 minutes to go and this allowed England to get a foot hold into the game. England scored two tries bringing the score to 24 -14 with 15 minutes left. The French scrum that had done so well up until then came under immense pressure. The replacements the French had bought on did not have the weight and physicality to cope with the power of the English.
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DuPont was fantastic and is one of the youngsters to keep an eye on.

In the end the French had done enough to claim the victory and derail any England plans of dominating World rugby. The truth is the French should have only made the replacement changes much later and done it with one or two at a time and not 4 at once. Fabien Galthié will learn from this and needs to work on the scrum with his substitutes this week.
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Two games sold out and expect even the Italian game will be sold out after this performance now.

England need to go back to the drawing board and need to stop being so arrogant. They have no reason to be like this as you have to be world class to get away with this type of behavior. From what I have seen they are going to struggle as they need to learn humility first and they certainly haven't done that yet.


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A happy dressing room.
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The difference is this team is a proper team now and will be hard to beat.

What happened to England yesterday was a similar experience to what they had at the World Cup. The French did not take a backward step to the English bully boy tactics which demoralized the English even more. The English team is ripe for the picking now and the other teams must now be looking forward to playing them over the coming weeks. They just look one dimensional and from being a great team have gone backwards.



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Is this separate from the World Cup that they just played? Seems like a short off-season. I didn't realize Rugby had started back up again.

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Separate from the World Cup. Northern hemisphere season has been ongoing since the World Cup and Southern Hemisphere season started this weekend as well. The Six Nations is a regional event with countries in the top tier in Europe. Scotland,Ireland France ,England , Wales and Italy.

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