Days before Rugby World Cup starts France enveloped in racism controversy

For the best part of four years, it seemed as if nothing could unhinge Les Bleus.

Not the court cases and convictions involving former FFR president Bernard Laporte and his friend/business partner Mohed Altrad which forced the former to step down as FFR president.

Nor the allegations of loosely-patrolled lockdown restrictions under their head coach Fabien Galthié which led to the postponement of France’s 2021 Six Nations game against Scotland during the pandemic. Nor Galthié's threat to resign if Laporte was compelled to do so at the insistence of the minister of sport.

There’s no doubt, as the former French head coach Philippe Saint-André has asserted angrily, that the timing of the controversy involving his Montpellier lock is curious

Now, a mere four days before what should have been a celebratory night as France welcomes the rugby world to its domain, the host team have been enveloped in a controversy involving their selection of 31-year-old lock Bastien Chalureau as a replacement for the injured Paul Willemse.

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There’s no doubt, as the former French head coach Philippe Saint-André has asserted angrily, that the timing of the controversy involving his Montpellier lock is curious. After all, Chalureau has played six times for France since receiving a six-month suspended sentence for an allegedly racially motivated assault on two former players during his time with Toulouse, which he has appealed.

Yet it is also damaging, not least when such a calm, measured and popular figure as the former French captain Thierry Dusautoir questioned Chalureau’s selection.

All of that mightn’t have been so bad had yesterday’s conversation between Galthié and President Emmanuel Macron not been overheard, with the latter insisting there must be no controversy around Chalereau’s selection and Galthié suggesting the lock would shed tears if necessary at his ensuing press conference.

And sure enough, the tears came to pass.

Imagine, if you can for a moment, Leo Varadkar visiting the Irish squad and Andy Farrell being overheard telling the Taoiseach that one of the players will assuage the controversy over his selection by shedding tears if necessary.

This is, somehow, much more of a typically French story than, say, an Irish one. French websites were awash with developments throughout the day, as will be the case with Tuesday’s papers. Perhaps, in keeping with more typically French stories, the storm will quickly blow over. Come opening night and the France-New Zealand game, the rugby and the World Cup will take over.

What increases the potential for this to unhinge Les Bleus is that French rugby, no less than Irish rugby and others, has had its historical issues with racism

One senses that for Galthié and company, the game cannot come quickly enough now.

What increases the potential for this to unhinge Les Bleus is that French rugby, no less than Irish rugby and others, has had its historical issues with racism when one thinks of how the close rugby-playing links with South Africa were maintained during that disgusting apartheid era.

Furthermore, France is a profoundly divided nation which, like all countries that previously had empires, has its divisions along often racial lines as well. The exchange between Galthié and President Macron also has to be viewed in the prism of the latter’s deep unpopularity. French people regard him as elitist, but the only viable alternative is an extreme right-winger from a party with fascist foundations.

At the very least, the episode will hardly endear Les Bleus to their rugby support base, much less the wider French public of 67 million. And imagine, for a moment, how black squad members like Jonathan Danty and Cameron Woki might be feeling.

It also adds to a less-than-ideal build-up. The defeat with a second-string team away to Scotland wasn’t as damaging as the ensuing 30-27 win over the same opponents in Saint Etienne when Roman Ntamack’s World Cup was ended before it started.

Cyril Baille has also been ruled out of the opening match, Willemse is a loss and Danty also seemed set to miss the All Blacks game, but was reported to have trained yesterday (something which was rather overshadowed in the day that was in it). Admittedly this also has to be set against the All Blacks’ woes and that thrashing by the Springboks.

Next Friday’s opening game looks like having serious implications for Ireland should they escape from a tougher Pool B involving South Africa, Scotland, Tonga and Romania, and make the quarter-finals. That’s because Pool A appears to be easily the most clear-cut, given France (ranked third in the world) and New Zealand (fourth) should progress to the knockout stages ahead of Italy (13th), Uruguay (17th) and Namibia (21st).

Hence, if Ireland reach the quarter-finals as Pool B winners or runner-up, there’s almost no avoiding Les Bleus or the All Blacks.

Leaving aside the hypothetical Irish (and South African/Scottish) pub debate doing the rounds — namely whether France or New Zealand would be preferable in the quarter-finals — from an Irish perspective this all has uncannily uncomfortable echoes of both 2015 and 2019.

In 2015, New Zealand beat Argentina in a high-quality match on the opening weekend, after which each went into cruise control in a pool containing Georgia, Tonga and Nambia.

The All Blacks won and topped their group, and their 46-14 win over an out-of-sorts Ireland suggested Joe Schmidt’s team had drawn the short straw

Indeed, a week before playing Ireland in the quarter-finals, los Pumas rested several frontliners in beating Namibia 64-19. By contrast, as we know, Ireland topped their pool, but in an extremely costly round four shoot-out victory over France.

Similarly, in 2019, were Ireland to reach the quarter-finals, they were destined to face either the All Blacks or the Springboks, who also met on the opening weekend before cruising through a group also containing Italy, Namibia and Canada, while priming themselves for the quarter-finals.

The All Blacks won and topped their group, and their 46-14 win over an out-of-sorts Ireland suggested Joe Schmidt’s team had drawn the short straw. But then again the Springboks went on to win the tournament, so who knows?

A rendezvous with Joe and the All Blacks, or a run-in with the hosts? Even if you felt Ireland (or had the same thoughts in South Africa or Scotland) might, unfathomably, have a better chance against the All Blacks, against that, whatever chance a team has of beating the home country in the quarter-finals, they’ve even less in the final. Think of the Stade de France nighttime crowd, la Marseillaise, refereeing decisions, the media build-up, maybe even the use of replays on the big screen, not to mention Antoine Dupont et al.

Like all pub debates, by late Friday night, it may remain just an unresolved, idle bit of a run. But then again, for many the debate may well be swayed by the events in the Stade de France.

gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com