There’s a chill in the air. That of beautiful fears, great expectations, impatience too long contained. The sentence that will fall this Saturday evening will sound like music running towards infinity or the creaking of a return to a less flourishing reality. We tremble. We hope. We dream. The Blues may already be uncrowned kings, just waiting for their coronation. We will know after the passage of the men in green on the lawn of Saint-Denis.
These Tricolores, so exciting two and a half months ago against the All Blacks (40-25) in a boiling Stade de France, now know that they are capable of anything. It’s fortunate because the summit facing them today stands even higher than the black mountain.
They play the Tournament on this match
The Irish also dominated the New Zealanders last November (29-20) by giving them a lesson in rugby. They remain on nine successes in a row since their defeat in front of the men of Fabien Galthié, in Dublin, on February 14, 2021 (15-13), and have just outclassed the Welsh at the start of the Tournament (29-7). They are now in 3rd place in the world rankings, two places ahead of the Blues. These numbers are significant, but they don’t tell the whole story.
Because the players in the cloverleaf jersey, carried by their rugby both organized and springing, and by their constant approach to perfection, are undoubtedly the best that is being done today on the oval planet. Even the absence of Jonathan Sexton, their old grumbler who has become road captain (36 years old, 106 caps) does not seem likely to upset them. “We act as a group, insists their coach Andy Farrell. In all circumstances. »
The Blues will have to unite, even if they seem individually superior. Antoine Dupont, their captain crowned with his title of best player in the world, Romain Ntamack, Gabin Villière, Julien Marchand or Cyril Baille, and all the other uninhibited talents of this ambitious troop, will have to run together. They didn’t really know how to do it against Italy last Sunday (37-10), but it was just an appetizer, a start.
This time, they are playing nothing less than the Tournament on this match, the prospect of a Grand Slam (the last dates back to 2010, their last title in the competition), and the assurance of advancing quietly, like favorites sure of their strength, towards the 2023 World Cup, in France, their absolute quest. “Saturday, we will touch the summit, we will touch the sublime”, warned Fabien Galthié. Here we are. Even the sun, apparently, decided to take a look at kickoff (5:45 p.m.) just before it went to bed and gave way to the stars. And to the great explanation.