France and USA shared a less than thrilling contest, in which France stuttered again having started well before pulling away in the final 10 minutes. USA themselves had some bright patches, in part shutting down the French attack in the middle 50 minutes of the game. But overall, despite being able to attack they never really threatened the French line.
France for their part didn’t expose much of their game plan remaining an enigma, a normal french characteristic. The majority of their tries coming in some way from a kick. However their first try, didn’t spark with a kick, yet ended with one instead the French profited on poor play from the Eagles.
Following a deep clearance from the US, France began the attack upon their own 10m. Looking to attack the fringes straight away the ball gets passed into the 5m channel. The disjointed nature in which the attack started with France allowing the ball to bounce.
This however does help to expose the US defence having to slow down and change direction, having slightly overdone his speed towards the contact. This happens while the others have slowed down. This means that there is a slight dog leg when France catch the ball. From this they try and attack the short side. With a simple pass Ramos in the wide channels can be used and pulls the US defence one way.
As you can see in the image above, it leaves a whole in the centre of the field. This enables france to immediately attack rather than have to rearrange and set to clear. It also means that the US can’t exert any pressure following a poor return initially from the kick.
USA to manage to cover the holes however and although they give up 20 metres or so, they do manage to stop the French attack. But the pressure and speed applied by France does lead to an odd defensive set up with 2 front rowers next to each other, while the openside wraps around. This allows France to target them with two french runners splitting their attention and Machenaud picking out Poirot who breaks the first tackle and then offloads to Le Roux. This forces the USA to fall back and commit three players to tackle.
Most importantly though it brings AJ Macginty to the US front line. This means that their is no one is in the back field. Despite this USA rush up, trying to avenge fro the ground lost. However this merely makes the whole larger for Lopez and the French are able to attack the space in behind.
This kicking game proved profitable all game. The US defence structure failing to adapt conceeding 2 tries as a direct result of a cross kick to Allerveti Raka. This weakness and inability to adapt,just shows where the US are and how they are going to need to adapt to win games. They have some wonderful players, Cam Dolan, Joe Taufete’e and AJ Macginty but will be unable to turn their quality to wins against Tier One regularly for the time being. The introduction of MLR will only help and could well grow them from strength to strength.
Overall, the US struggled to adapt and when they have possession in strong positions convert. However they seemed much more comfortable and able to progress than against England. So whilst it may be one World Cup cycle to early, they are becoming a threat. France yet again are showing flashes of brilliance but fell out of the game in parts. The US ability to restrain them for most of the game and force errors showed the French flairs weakness.
The Analysis Guy 