Marc lievremont - evil genius?

dub_skav

The evil part is down to his new dick dastardly moustache, but could he deliver?
He said pre wc that they could only beat nz once, we all know they have 1 great game per world cup in them, with their full team on in the pool match (when servat and harinordiquay came on) they looked able to compete.
So, can the crazy one deliver?

astonaidan

Haha the moustache had me thinking the same thing, Dont think they have it in them but you never know with them

helimachoptor

I said to many people that it would be a france and nz final and that France would win, they laughed but I'm 50% right!

iroced

As much as I'd love to see us finally delivering one full great game of rugby I'm not very optimistic as we almost never (apart England 1st half) showed anything particularly good in this tournament. Unlike all previous WC. And most debates in France now are "are we going to get hammered?" "is it a shame that we did qualify?" (as in general we don't win when we play bad - there's also this typical French feeling of not accepting an ugly win, as I like to say we love magnificent losers and don't like ugly winners, for example, Platini's soccer generation is more idealized than Zidane's one -).

About Lievremont I think he's very lucky more than a genius. If IRB was fair to "small" team Tonga would have probably qualified instead of us. Then, we faced a pale English team that started to play after more than half an hour. And yesterday, well we played 1h 15 against 14 but most importantly Wales just couldn't get their kicking right. They had 3 great chances to take the lead and, the post, a few centimeters or some bad decisions - why they did not attempt the drop goal 30 m in front of our post at the very end ? - made us through.

To be honest I quite like Lievremont. He defends some good values (and all the people that compare him with Rayjoke Domenech are just ignorant). But he is an idealist. He'd like us to play constant "French Flair" rugby with the kind of behaviours that existed when he was playing. He regretted a lot during this WC the lack of team spirit outside the pitch (going out together, drinking together, talking together etc... basically building a real strong team spirit) especially after the Tonga game. But reality is, we don't have the team to play as he wishes we should. When we won the Grand Slam in 2010, we played "ugly" but strong on the basics. Strong defense, efficient and destructive tackles, good line-out, strong scrum etc...

Tefral

New Zealand are going to come out and blow them off the field.

I like the evil moustache gag though!!:D

ekevosu

It's an inspector cluseau moustache (Steve Martin version) to match his team management....clueless but bumbling through somehow successfully getting the job done.

Pink panther is too clever for the inspector though. Kiwis all the way.

stinkbomb

That lievremont is a crap coach goes without saying but I think there's a deeper malaise in French rugby that stems from the way the game has been played these last few years in the Top 14. It's become completely dominated , with the odd honourable exeption, with kicking, garryowens, penalties etc with an almost obsession with dropping goals. I think this has alot to do with the poor standard of refereeing and particularly the free for all that's allowed at the breakdown. At the national level the reign of Bernard Laporte completely changed the philosophy of the french team to a conservative kicking game. I think they thought at the time, mistakenly as it turned out, that this was the way to win the World Cup on home soil. It was a betrayal of the great french teams of the past that we all loved watching as we grew up but in reality France haven't played in their traditional style for the best part of a decade. The conservative Laporte legacy is affecting french rugby and very difficult to turn back and I don't see things getting much better with Saint-Andre next up. Anyone else agree or am I way off the mark?
As for the final I fear we're in for a repeat of the pool match with the ABs easing into a big first half lead and then taking their foot off the gas in a non-event of a second half. I hope for the sake of the tournament that I'm wrong and you never know. I'm just sad that the Welsh didn't make it because we could have had a cracker of a final.

pickarooney

Just for the hilarity of reading the French and Kiwi press afterwards, I really want Lièvremont to succeed. It could even surpass the hat-eating wrt Jacquet in '98.

[Jackass]

I feel bad for the guy.

It's a very public humiliation he's going through, and it's clear he has no respect from the French team or public, but the federation, for whatever reason, insist on keeping him in there.

He should walk away at the end of the world cup and maintain his dignity. He's not ready for this French job and should take a T14 role, but his reputation by losing his players has been greatly damaged.

The Steve Staunton of rugby coaches.

pickarooney

He was already replaced before the tournament started. Even if France win the final by scoring 11 tries he's out of a job the day after.

.ak

Seen in the paper he was bad mouthing the players to the press again for 'acting like spoiled brats'.

iroced

stinkbomb wrote: »

That lievremont is a crap coach goes without saying but I think there's a deeper malaise in French rugby that stems from the way the game has been played these last few years in the Top 14. It's become completely dominated , with the odd honourable exeption, with kicking, garryowens, penalties etc with an almost obsession with dropping goals. I think this has alot to do with the poor standard of refereeing and particularly the free for all that's allowed at the breakdown. At the national level the reign of Bernard Laporte completely changed the philosophy of the french team to a conservative kicking game. I think they thought at the time, mistakenly as it turned out, that this was the way to win the World Cup on home soil. It was a betrayal of the great french teams of the past that we all loved watching as we grew up but in reality France haven't played in their traditional style for the best part of a decade. The conservative Laporte legacy is affecting french rugby and very difficult to turn back and I don't see things getting much better with Saint-Andre next up. Anyone else agree or am I way off the mark?

I partially agree with you. Your assessment about the evolution of French rugby is undeniable. I guess the success of Laporte in the 6 Nations (4 wins including 2 GS in 8 years) just confirmed the Federation in their choice. As for Lievremont, I think he didn't have the support (players? federation?) for his ambitions. When he arrived he wanted to drastically change from the Laporte era (maybe too much too quickly) by putting the "French Flair" playing back into the game. Passing the ball, being in movement all the time, limited kicking, etc... And his 2 first games in the 6 Nations (win in Scotland and short defeat in Ireland) were probably our 2 best games in the perspective of nice old style French rugby. The problem with this kind of playing is that you need to be efficient because it's tiring. And we weren't efficient enough and clearly we're not as physical as the ABs. Or maybe our players are not THAT good and overrated...
So Lievremont tried to adapt his ambitions with the players he had/has and we kind of played in between the initial maximum offensive plan and Laporte style. And ironically we won (GS 2010) with Laporte style... I don't know what Saint Andre is gonna bring but I'd like him to continue what Lievremont wanted to start even though he didn't really succeed.
You mentioned the evolution of the TOP 14 towards Laporte style rugby but it's not entirely true. Last year revelation Montpellier (and being from there I'm well placed to talk about it) proposed the rugby that Lievremont wanted to adopt for the national team. Moreover, our coach Fabien Galthie was the media and people favourite to replace Lievremont but the Federation chose Saint Andre.

Fishooks12

[Jackass] wrote: »

I feel bad for the guy.

It's a very public humiliation he's going through, and it's clear he has no respect from the French team or public, but the federation, for whatever reason, insist on keeping him in there.

He should walk away at the end of the world cup and maintain his dignity. He's not ready for this French job and should take a T14 role, but his reputation by losing his players has been greatly damaged.

The Steve Staunton of rugby coaches.

He's leaving after the WC anyway and I doubt he's that embarrassed, he may be a ****e coach but his team are in a WC final

CatFromHue

According to wikipedia he got promotion with DAX to the top 14 as a coach so I don't think he is clueless. He is out of his depth at the moment though and is being far far too friendly with the media. He is a polar opposite of Kidney in that he tells them everything and it gets him no where.