France Stays Alive!

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http://blogs.mediazone.com/BrowniesRugbyBunker/

On Friday night in St. Denis Rugby World Cup 2007 remained relevant to the vast majority of the inhabitants of the host nation. France played just well enough to overcome a lackluster Ireland team that looks headed for an early exit.

If France had somehow managed to lose and get eliminated from the competition before the knockout stage even began, I’m guessing that there would have been a massive outpouring of indifference for the rest of the tourney by the large numbers of casual fans who are watching primarily to see their countrymen against the world’s best. 

There were a couple of moments of brilliance from the Tricolors – most notably Frederic Michalak’s banana kick that led to the first try – but overall the French have yet to display the sort of form that everyone knows they’re capable of producing on any given day.  Maybe they’re saving it for their now more likely than ever Cardiff quarterfinal against the All Blacks!

Part of it can be attributed to good defense by France but in general Ireland never looked even remotely dangerous with ball in hand.  Even their normally solid kicking for territory gameplan was seriously lacking in precision.  I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong with Ronan O’Gara but he certainly doesn’t appear to be his normal, steady – if more than somewhat one-dimensional – self.

The way they’re playing now I can’t see Ireland rebounding against Argentina next Sunday at Parc des Princes and it wouldn’t really matter anyway because all they can do now is play spoiler and determine whether the Pumas or Les Bleus win the pool.  That’s assuming, of course, that Argentina gets a bonus point against Namibia and France does the same against Georgia, both of which are fairly safe bets.  I wonder if the IRFU is trying to figure out a way to buy out the new four year deal they inked with Eddie O’Sullivan right before the start of the tourney!

If you haven’t yet checked out Brownie’s Rugby Bunker on World Cup Tour then be sure to watch the one titled FRA v IRE to see the interview I did with Irish rugby personality George Hook outside of Stade de France before the match.  Hook is the rare breed of commentator who pulls no punches and definitely wasn’t shy about highlighting the deficiencies in the Ireland team.

There are a bunch of good matches on tap this weekend but since I’m going to be traveling much of the time I’m going to miss England v Samoa and South Africa v Tonga.  Fortunately though, I’ve got a RWC Plus pass so when I get to Edinburgh I’ll just download them from www.rugbyworldcupvideo.com and check them out at my leisure. 

If you haven’t had a chance to sample the RWC matches yet from the site I suggest you do so at the earliest opportunity.  The quality is amazing and the chance to see games that you would otherwise miss because of time constraints is convenience at its best.

My next dispatch will be from Edinburgh where the All Blacks face a decidedly under strength Scotland.  I don’t blame Frank Hadden for throwing his second-stringers out against New Zealand – if I were the coach I’d do exactly the same thing – because there’s only one important match in this pool for Scotland and that’s the one against Italy next week!