Robin McBryde: France scrummaging a lot more intelligently than they have been in the past

Despite obvious concerns for Rónan Kelleher, the Leinster assistant coach was pleased to see Dan Sheehan get such exposure to the French in Paris.

GIVEN IT WAS one of his main areas of expertise as both a player and a coach with the Welsh national side, it comes as little surprise that Robin McBryde was keeping a close eye on the scrum battle in Ireland’s defeat to France in the Six Nations on Saturday.

A Grand Slam-winning hooker under Mike Ruddock in 2005, he was subsequently part of Warren Gatland’s backroom team when Wales enjoyed clean sweeps of championship honours in 2008, 2012 and 2019.

During that period, McBryde came up against French forward packs of varying quality and has more recently examined the scrummaging techniques of Top 14 clubs in his capacity as a Leinster assistant coach. Based on what he saw of Les Bleus in their 30-24 second round success over Ireland, there is a stark contrast between the two.

“France are are a formidable force, aren’t they? They’re very big men. They won a couple of penalties. It was a lot cleaner. I think France are scrummaging a lot more intelligently than what they have been in the past; overall really, in all facets of play, as well as the scrum,” McBryde explained from a remote Leinster media conference on Monday.

“They are scrummaging intelligently, I don’t think they are forcing it. It’s very much a macho part of the game, especially over in France. When you watch the Top 14 invariably the scrum is a bit of a mess. I think internationally, William Servat is the coach and he has done a great job with them.”

The all-Leinster front-row of Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong certainly had their hands full during what was a difficult opening quarter for Andy Farrell’s men. While props Porter and Furlong lasted until the 73rd minute of the contest, Kelleher was forced off on 26 minutes with a shoulder injury that will be closely monitored by the IRFU’s medical team this week.

McBryde was obviously concerned to see the 24-year-old Dubliner departing the scenes so early on, but believes his provincial colleague Dan Sheehan will have taken a massive amount from the time he spent on the pitch as his replacement.

“He [Kelleher] has established himself very well as the number-one hooker and is playing really well, on top of his game. There is never an ideal time for an injury. Hopefully it’s not too serious and it won’t keep him out.

“In the same breath you’ve got to say that it provided Dan with a great opportunity on the international stage and there’s no better place to go and play, over in France in front of the crowd. They got behind their team early on. France had an early score and then just got the crowd going from minute one.

“It’s a very difficult place to go and play then because they have their backs up and you get the feeling that you are just chasing shadows, but the comeback that Ireland had in the second half was great. It really showed a lot of character so it was a great opportunity for Dan to have a taste of it.”

Despite the blow of losing Ciarán Frawley to a facial injury for a period of four to six weeks – arising from a first half incident with flanker Connor Boyle in their bonus point win over Edinburgh – Leinster will welcome back Ryan Baird, Cian Healy and Jordan Larmour from the Ireland camp for Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash with Ospreys at the RDS on Saturday (kick-off 5pm).

Having lost out so agonisingly to Cardiff on 29 January, Leinster will be eager to avoid a second straight reversal to Welsh opposition. Although the eastern province comfortably wrapped up maximum points against Edinburgh, McBryde felt it was a far from perfect display.

“Frustrating really, the first half. I didn’t think we were clinical enough. Some of our launches from our line-outs, in particular, we were just a little bit off. So that was frustrating,” he added.

“There was plenty of endeavour in the performance, we just lacked that little bit of accuracy, whether it was down to a short week after having a week off. It was [still] great to get a win. We were obviously pretty disappointed with the loss against Cardiff so it was good to get back to winning ways.”

Daire Walsh