Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills, rugby defence | Tags: France, France v All Blacks June 2009, flair rugby, rugby basics, preserving space
Sometimes you can be quietly pleased with yourself. Since I wrote my blog about French flair on Friday and their seemingly frustrating inconsistency, they have followed my predictions.
Actually, until I saw the game, I was quite worried about my assertion about flair. I had said that many teams play with flair and not just the French. Had the French thrown caution (and some speculative miss passes) to the wind and beaten the All Blacks with dare-doing and risk? In one sense, not. Spectacular in defence not attack.
The French did the simple things well. They ran hard and straight. Maintained possession, preserved space, pressurised the All Blacks. From the highlights you can see that the New Zealand tries came from deep positions and they were the ones playing with “flair”. Pity about their tackling.
Does that mean that there is no place for flair in the game? Far from it, but not at the expense of the basics.
