Doing more with less puts the French in a solid position to win the 2010 Six Nations
Sat, Feb 13, 2010, Posted by Vic Drover 
Yannick Jauzion powered over for France's second try. © Getty Image.
We said that Round 2 would be the deciding match in the 2010 Six Nations Championship, but the 33-10 thrashing of Ireland at the hands of the French was a disappointing result following weeks of hype by the media and grandstanding by players on both squads.
Unlike all the predictions of a close match, France had good control over this match early on. After defending an early attack by the Irish on their own 5 meter line, Les Bleus responded not only with their blitz-style defense, but also with heavy tackles and creative offense.
Much will be made of the ‘clinical’ nature of the French performance and the errors made by the Irish, but looking at the match statistics, it seems pretty clear.
The French did more with less.
For example, both teams gained about 350 meters running with the ball, but France gained twice the distance per run. France made 50% as many passes as Ireland, and only won two-thirds of their own line-outs.
The only areas where France out-performed Ireland by any significant margin was the scrum success rate (92 vs 80%), penalties conceded (7 vs. 10) and number of tackles (134 vs. 77). This last stat is perhaps the most telling as the numerous tackles early phase play prevented Ireland from really getting gathering much momentum. This led to frustration, penalties and one (nearly two) yellow card.
Perhaps we should not be that surprised that France managed such a large margin on the scoreboard. Last week, the 18-9 win over Scotland was seen by some as an inability of France to ‘seal the deal’. However, in light of the fact that Scotland led Wales this morning for 79 minutes, the France victory over Scotland seems a lot more impressive. Perhaps Scotland has a lot more wind in their sails then most give them credit for.
At the end of the day, France now looks forward to a Welsh team with a 1-1-0 record and a lot to fight for. Wales will look to improve their standings in the Six Nations table on their home turf, while France will be thinking about their Grand Slam chances as strong favorites in this match.
However, an upset by the Welsh and a loss by England (to Ireland) would make things very interesting with a four-way tie for first place. France however is set for a win in Round 3. A loss by England in this round would very likely hand France the championship.
England has yet to play their Round 2 match against Italy, but with chances for an Azzurri victory low, I’m already hungry for Round 3.
Tags: France, Ireland, Six Nations
To quote Mark Twain, “There are lies, damned lies, and
statistics.” Throw out all that statistical nonsense. France were
better at every aspect of the game except for the lineout, all
numbers aside. Looking at the stats, you’d think the match would
have been closer. When you make that many mistakes and incritical
territory no less, you will lose, I don’t care who’s playing who.
“France were better at every aspect of the game except for the lineout, all numbers aside. ” That’s what i said!
But to be fair, I do believe Twain was talking about real statistics, not the basic math that make up the ‘match stats’.
You put out all these statistics which I don’t think were
indicative of the match. The Irish and French scrum were a mile
apart. Either way, France destroyed Ireland. The score may as well
have been 100-10.