A lot of work to be done says Skrela

THEY wore a contented look, hardly ecstatic, well pleased and almost a little bored. In other words, they looked much like they've always looked on their last seven visits to the Lansdowne Road post match inspection. Very French.

For the team coach, Jean Claude Skrela, the victory, or the manner of it -showed why "the wish for the French team is to have a team spirit, to continue to play collectively. The most important thing for me is the team spirit and the fact that they had several balls they could use and play off. But there is still a lot of work to be done."

There had been relatively little sign of Pierre Villepreux's imprimatur, and the backs' coach also gave a balanced analysis of the French performance. "This match showed the capacity of the French team to face up to the difficulties posed by the Irish team. They did that well and with courage.

"The second point I would like to make is that they respected all the advice they were given, particularly to try and attack the narrow side when possible."

A relaxed Skrela, his chair tilted back against the wall, nodded in agreement, as he did when Villepreux added a more critical rider when observing: "When the French team had the ball and the space to attack unfortunately they were not always able to that all the time."

As regards the Irish display, the French were not especially forthcoming, Skrela, after a pause, singling out "le numero huit" (Eric Miller) as the most impressive home player but added: "I was more interested in what the French team was doing than the Irish team."

Thus, a more revealing observation of the Irish display was provided by Jean Michel Aguirre, the former French international who watched the game from the press box. "Ireland were lacking a star behind the pack who could inject some acceleration into the team to do some damage.

"From a French point of view we are a team trying to find ourselves. We are trying to find our style of play and as a result neglected some of the basics in the early stages. But we were very pleased to come out with the points after the first 60 minutes being like they were."

Ireland, he felt, were possibly a score away from winning the game at 15-12. "It's a pity for Ireland that they didn't score a try because there were phases in the game when they played a style of rugby that the French would have liked to have played and they deserved to finish with a try."