A vision of attack for the captain

INTERVIEW: LIONEL NALLET:LIONEL NALLET and his second row partner Sebastien Chabal are good friends, dating back to their early days together with Bourgoin. Nallet is 32, Chabal 31, and each will win their 43rd cap at Croke Park on Saturday. Nallet is seemingly leaving Castres at the end of the season, while Chabal is seeing out his last few months at Sale Sharks, and they have a dream to see out their careers with the same club.

Montpellier had been rumoured to be their likeliest destination, but Nallet confirmed last week that this had fallen through. “I don’t know what will happen,” he said with a shrug, so the dream may not come to fruition.

Whatever happens though, it is clear that they have both outgrown Bourgoin. One has to have visited France to appreciate what an icon “the caveman” has become. Nallet is more low-key, a down-to-earth, straightforward rugby man, but then again, he is captain of Les Bleus.

He wears it well, and one senses he finds a certain relief in leading France into the 2009 RBS Six Nations after the difficulties with Castres this season. “Yes it’s been difficult because in truth it’s been a disaster. We have looked for a solution but we can’t find one really,” he says.

Nallet also has some unfinished business with Les Bleus, dating back to the anti-climax of the 2007 World Cup on home soil, the disappointment of which is something which he admits he still thinks about. He will be 35 at the next World Cup and would love to make it to New Zealand, but to that end he is being more careful with his body and will skip France’s summer tour.

Looking ahead to a daunting year for France, beginning with Croke Park and with Twickenham to come, before a summer tour to New Zealand and Australia, followed by November Tests against New Zealand and South Africa, Nallet admitted 2009 will be ‘tres compliquee’.

“But it is good, we need hard matches to write our story, our adventure. Defeats are part of it, but victories also help to write beautiful pages. Overall, in 2009, our objective is to continue to make progress, never to find ourselves in a situation of going backwards in relation to the previous outing.”

This has been the theme, he says, of the squad’s meetings in Marcoussis, to try and create “something strong”.

“Trying to win this tournament, for example, trying to make our mark, we must build. Sometimes that happens through defeats like the one against Australia in November. You learn a lot in defeat, but we also want some good victories.”

Acknowledging that the Six Nations will be as difficult as he’s ever known it, Nallet says he is not at all anxious about his team and senses a determination to win the tournament. The anti-climax of the World Cup on home soil is, he says, still in his mind and one way of atoning for that would be a Grand Chelem.

“Why not? Of course. One mustn’t be afraid of having high objectives, of having high ambitions and especially not being downhearted if we don’t attain them. One must always aim for the maximum in life.”

Nallet admits they could hardly have a tougher opener. “And, for us, it will again be very complicated. The last few matches have either been tight, with a breathtaking finale as in 2007 at Croke Park, or very loose, with a scenario in which we took control long before the end of the match.”

“It’s a team which has been together for several years,” the French captain adds of the Irish team, “which has consistently high standards, which never lets up. Their leaders, O’Connell and O’Driscoll, embody that state of mind.”

O’Connell, he believes, is Lions captaincy material. “Certainly – he is not just an icon for Irish rugby but for world rugby. He is one of the second row players we love to play against. He brings high levels of consistency to his game both for province and country. An amazing player.”

Whereas the French team of 2008 played all-out running rugby, in November they struggled to create openings, much less score tries, against Argentina and Australia. It clearly rankles, and Nallet reflects the desire to rediscover themselves in this championship. “It was the match against Australia which mainly posed us a problem. In November the coaches demanded we improve our organisation, but not to put the breaks on. Against Australia however, we didn’t dare to play. There were favourable situations where we didn’t try anything.

“We were a better team in the basics, in things like the scrum. We were also very good and very together in defence, but our attacking game against Australia was mediocre and by kicking the ball back to them too much in the second half we lost the match in the end. In this tournament we obviously want to improve our attack. The vision today, for the French team in this tournament, is to concentrate on attack.”

By this he means that they need to balance their control and their kicking game, “and not to be afraid of trying things no matter what area of the field we are in when there is support there.

“During the 2008 tournament there were matches when we almost played too much but in the end we almost never lost the ball.

“So we have to remember that and rediscover that adventurous spirit in 2009.”

Meanwhile, Rob Kearney remains a significant doubt for Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France at Croke Park on Saturday due to the ankle injury he picked up following an accidental collision in training at Tuesday morning’s training session in the University of Limerick.

The fullback was put on crutches for the remainder of the day, and received intensive physiotherapy yesterday in what was a ‘down day’ for the squad before they re-assembled last night.

A decision as to whether he will play may be deferred until tomorrow but although Declan Kidney was reasonably confident that Kearney would be fit to play it is understood that the player himself is not too confident. Geordan Murphy may be promoted from the bench if Kearney is ruled out, with Girvan Dempsey called up to the 22.

While “there’s an outside possibility” that Keith Earls will be available to play Italy next week, the prognosis for another Munster man, Ian Dowling, is bad.

Kidney said the left-winger has “done a right good job on his hamstring so it’s going to be a minimum of eight weeks I’m afraid.”