France meets expectations to deliver Grand Slam via IrishTimesSport
and his team-mates peered upwards to enjoy the spectacle. The song playing over the speakers was Freed From Desire, and after 12 long years France have finally been freed from theirs.
It was brutal and draining and perhaps we should have expected nothing less. France’s grand slam was not just a victory for the 23 men in blue, or even for the nation they represent, a nation that has shed its thick cloak of scepticism and indifference and learned to love this team again. In many ways it was a victory for modern rugby itself, for valour and entertainment, for the idea that a team can be both art and science, discipline and invention, structure and chaos, past and future.
Yet the real gift of this side have been to escape the burden that has weighed down so many of their predecessors: the noise, comparisons, chain mail of nostalgia. It was not a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination. It was downright scruffy in parts, pock-marked by errors and missed opportunities. But through it all France never really seemed to relinquish control or their composure.
They slowed and quickened the game to their own liking. There was no better example of this than their crucial try just before half-time, when they pounced on anside already going through the motions with lightning shift of pace. On ITV at half-time, England’s star-studded alumni tried to analyse the game from an English point of view, when in fact there was cherishably little to analyse. Aside from a few choice segments, England were barely allowed to play.
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