Noves hails players' intelligence after win over Ireland
By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) - France coach Guy Noves paid tribute to his team’s ferocious will and their intelligence after they snatched a 10-9 win over Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday.
France followed up their opening 23-21 win against Italy with a gritty performance against defending champions Ireland, prevailing thanks to Maxime Medard’s second-half try after they decided to opt for a lineout instead of going for three points had they taken the penalty.
A long spell of possession ended with referee Jaco Peyper requesting the assistance of his television match official but neither man could see whether Damien Chouly had grounded the ball. A succession of scrums, penalties and phases followed before Les Bleus scored their try.
“I think the players won, not the coaching. That’s down to (captain Guilhem) Guirado. He chose to take a lineout rather than a penalty and after successive scrums there was a wonderful try on the back of it,” Noves told a news conference.
France were buoyed up by an unusually loud Stade de France crowd after labouring through the opening half.
Noves changed his props early in the second half and they were the driving force behind fullback Medard’s try, wearing down the Irish forwards. “I don’t want to hear that changing the props was the winning strategy. It’s a victory for all of the coaching staff," Noves said. "We worked very well this week and we looked at a lot of things that we didn’t do very well last week.
“I salute the players’ ferocious will to impose their game and not let Ireland dictate play.”
After struggling in defence against Italy last Saturday, France were much tighter and Ireland barely threatened to score a try.
“There’s a lot of solidarity between the players. The players who were in difficulty last week in defence had a huge game. If you add what we did well last week with the attitude we showed today, I think we’re starting to get on the right track,” said Noves.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)