Antoine Dupont's face appears on the screen of the auditorium where the post-match press conference of the XV of France is broadcast.
And even before the scrum-half promoted to captain of the Blues for this autumn tour opens his mouth, the large shell that surrounds his right eye sums up very well the idea of the 80 minutes lived on the lawn of the Stade de France for snatch this success (29-20) against Argentina: the castagne, the castagne, and again the castagne.
As the launch of their autumn tour, Fabien Galthié and his troop were treated to Argentines prepared around the slogan to disrupt the offensive intentions of the new duo Jalibert-Ntamack by fighting.
“We have sometimes been mistreated, admits Fabien Galthié.
They were very present, and imposed an intensity that prevented us from concluding our highlights.
"It was a very tough game," insists Anthony Jelonch, in the heart of the ground battle in the third row.
Read alsoDiscover the notes of the XV of France
The most complicated?
These first 40 minutes, where the Pumas imposed their physical power, while warming the spirits of the Blues, with two fights one minute apart, sequence concluded with a yellow card to the tricolor hooker Julien Marchand and the Argentine third line Marcos Kremer just to calm people down.
"We fell in their game"
“We were jostled in the first period, and we fell into their game of aggression, to talk, all that, annoys winger Gabin Villière.
We were prepared for that, it is an aggressive team in its game and verbally.
We had to stay calm and focused on our game. ”“ There was a lot of room, we responded to it.
We did not escape, ”says Anthony Jelonch, on the other hand.
🏉🇫🇷 Thibaud Flament's essay!
The Blues enter their second half perfectly with their first try of the match signed by Toulousain Thibaud Flament for his very first selection.
Follow the live ▶ https://t.co/GPPKuQGGzg pic.twitter.com/0nBqWxTjXt
- francetvsport (@francetvsport) November 6, 2021
And above all, adapt to the level of coaching. In the wake of the first tricolor test scored by Thibaud Flament, Fabien Galthié showed by his choices the turn he wanted to give to the match: exit the player option of the Jalibert-Ntamack duo to lead the attack, and place the massive Jonathan Danty to replace the Toulousain with limited influence in this trench combat. In parallel, the coach of the Blues brought in his big arms left in reserve (Demba Bamba, Romain Taofifenua and Grégory Alldritt) before the hour mark to go to break Argentines who were starting to fold.
"We coached by bringing in several players who brought their strength," said Fabien Galthié.
Today, we had to change organization during the match.
"And in the end, the Blues won this war of attrition, making the Argentinian shears less precise, as illustrated by the 79% of successful tackles by the Pumas, where the XV of France ended his match with a rate of 95%.
This time, France reacted in time.
But in a fortnight, New Zealand will perhaps not give time to correct the situation.
