To win is one thing; to do so in such circumstances makes victory especially sweet. Philippe Saint-André admitted that his team had "mismanaged" much of the match, were too timid, a little lacklustre at the lineout, had missed too many tackles and too many kicks. He listed all those flaws but he was still sporting a wry little smile as he spoke.
Before Saturday France had won only eight of their 21 matches under Saint-André and only two of 11 in the last 12 months. A caveat is attached – four of those were against the All Blacks and they did not get within seven points of winning in any of those. Given such a schedule, Saint-André must have felt he had earned the luck that, as he happily conceded, had played such a large part in his team's early lead.
On Saturday night Saint-André was asked if beating England was the highlight of his career as an international coach. The truth is there is not much else to compare it with – a convincing win against Australia in the autumn of 2012, a couple against Scotland, a couple more against Argentina and one apiece against Samoa, Tonga and Italy. The France fans tend to have a short supply of sympathy at the best of times. Had they lost to England after taking a 16-3 lead in the first quarter, the store might have been altogether exhausted. They, like Saint-André, know that, even though Thierry Dusautoir is out injured for the duration of the tournament, everything else is stacked in their side's favour.
France have won the championship in the year after each Lions tour of the professional era, with Grand Slams in 1998, 2002 and 2010 and a single defeat by Scotland in 2006. In the season after a Lions tour their best players are inevitably a little fresher, and a little fitter, than those in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. This year France have the benefit of a schedule that sees them play England, Italy and Ireland at home and Wales and Scotland away. And more important still, the Fédération Française de Rugby has finally persuaded the Top 14 clubs to agree to release their French players from duty for the fortnight before the tournament. In previous years they had been playing for the clubs the weekend before the first round.
Saint-André had been fighting to secure such control over his players since he first took charge. He has won the argument and the cost is that he has no more excuses. So he was quick and keen to pick out the new arrangement as the single most important reason for the victory, thanking the clubs for their co-operation and insisting that "without it we would not have won this game".
Saint-André was not so naive as to claim that the match had unfolded according to his grand design but he had clearly studied England's defeat against the All Blacks, when they recovered from 17-3 down to lead 22-20, only to lose 30-22. He says he and his players knew the English would be vulnerable in the final quarter. "Because of all the efforts they put into fighting back, the English became less physical and aggressive as the match went on," Saint-André said. "So we knew we would be able to find openings in the final 15 minutes." England's back line, already unsettled by the inclusion of two debutants, was in a degree of disarray by the final few minutes, with Luther Burrell out on the wing and Owen Farrell hobbling around midfield, riven with cramp.
England talk a lot about improving through "marginal gains", an idea they have borrowed from Dave Brailsford, who has led the British cycling team with such success. But this match was lost through the accumulation of small mistakes, with a number of turnovers given up, 23 tackles missed and 10 penalties conceded. Ireland and Wales are unlikely to be as generous. England were a little too sloppy throughout and, as they tired, they were stretched out of shape. That slackness was exploited by Gaël Fickou, who turned Alex Goode inside out with a step and a dummy, finishing off the move begun by Yannick Nyanga over on the right wing and carried on by Dimitri Szwarzeski.
If Saint-André took most satisfaction in the more prosaic qualities of the performance, such as the fitness of his team in the final minutes, the French press and public preferred to praise the eye-catching contribution of Fickou. The 19-year-old centre, whose photo was splashed across the front pages of Sunday's papers, has even been blessed with a new nickname, "blue lightning". The highlights reel of Fickou's performances at youth level make it easy to understand why the coach has invested such faith in him and why the fans are so excited about his potential. Some wonder whether Fickou will inspire a revival of the old French flair. Saint-André is not so rash as to be drawn on that. After the start he has had he is just concerned about the scorelines, not the style in which they are achieved.
