Pardon his French.
Footage emerged from inside the dressing room at half-time of France’s Rugby World Cup clash against Romania of Saint-Andre giving a particularly heated half-time “pep” talk.
Les Bleus were winning 17-6, but they had been underperforming in the first half and their coach let loose. Saint-Andre has since explained exactly what he said to his players, as transcribed by ESPN.
“We didn’t get more than two phases together [in the first-half]. We knew Romania were a team who would have prepared for the last three months – they were physical in the contact area and we weren’t creating enough.”
#FRA coach @PSaintAndre channelling his inner Sir Alex Ferguson at half-time had its desired effect! #FRAvROMhttps://t.co/finqVozyYd
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 23, 2015
“I told them [France] if the ball carrier was having trouble or if the ball is not thrown properly then it’s difficult to play rugby so that’s what I was telling them. They had to be efficient in the cleaning out.”
“Of course we wanted to put more pace on the game but they were very clever and they didn’t want more than two or three phases so they were solid we had to wait 30 minutes until we could speed in the game and then we scored five tries. We did change 13 players, its always complicated with a four-day rest period.”
His speech clearly worked as France went on to dominate the match and earn a bonus-point victory at the Olympic Stadium.
