Allan Massie: There's method in Lievremont's madness – look at France now

Published on Friday 5 March 2010 22:33

ANDY Robinson may be excused if he ever looks enviously across the Channel, and not only because his French counterpart Marc Lievremont has put together a side which looks capable of winning a Grand Slam and will indeed do so if they beat Italy and then England in Paris. It is, however, the depth of talent at Lievremont's disposal which must have the Scotland coach a bit green-eyed.

• Marc Lievremont, whose side are in Grand Slam contention, has fielded almost three complete XVs in three seasons. Picture: Getty

Consider this back division: Maxim Medard; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Florian Fritz, Cedric Heymans; Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Dimitri Yachvili. Pretty good, eh? Yet, for one reason or another none of them played against Wales last week. Between them they have scored more than 70 international tries, more than three times as many as the Scottish back division that took the field in Rome.

Since becoming French coach after the 2007 World Cup, Lievremont has shuffled his team energetically, selecting almost three complete XVs in three seasons. Some people, even in France, thought this a bit crazy, but, if it was madness, it now appears that there was method in it. There will still be changes between now and the 2011 World Cup, but they are likely to be made on form rather than as an experiment in progress. He has evidently been working towards a settled team, and the results are showing.

Two things have been remarkable: the side's composure in defence and its discipline. Discipline has not been a characteristic of French teams in the past, but Lievremont's have given away very few penalties, especially in their own half. At the same time the traditional French flair, which his predecessor, Bernard Laporte, seemed to have stifled, has been returning. A combination of composure and flair makes for good rugby and a winning team.

Something else might arouse Andy Robinson's envy: Lievremont's ability to bring in young players who seem almost immediately at home on the international stage. The side he picked against Wales had only two backs older than 23 – Yannick Jauzion and Clement Poitrenaud. However, Benjamin Fall (21 only this week) dropped out and was replaced by Julien Malzieu. So the remaining kids were Mathieu Bastereaud (21), Alexis Palisson (22) Francois Trinh-Duc (23) and Morgan Parra (21).

Lievremont first picked Parra when he was only 19, Palisson at 20. Palisson's first match was against Australia at the ANZ stadium. Almost the first time he got the ball he skinned the great Lote Tuqiri on the outside. He had then played only ten or so matches for Brive in the Top 14. With only slight exaggeration a French journalist greeted his selection with the observation that "le lutin" (the imp) was "known only to his mother and Olivier Magne", the Brive coach.

Trusting in youth is, for sad, if obvious, reasons out of fashion here in Scotland. In contrast, by having thrown Trinh-Duc and Parra into the deep end when they were 21 and 19 respectively, Lievremont, two years later, has the best half-back pairing in the Six Nations. It helped of course that he had previously coached both at age-group level, but it still took courage to select Parra ahead of Elissalde, Mignoni and Yachvili, Trinh-Duc ahead of Lionel Beauxis and David Skrela – not to mention Freddie Michalak.

We used to be more ready to do this ourselves. Craig Chalmers was only just 21 when he won his first cap, Gregor Townsend only 19, Roger Baird, David Johnston and Alan Tait each only 20 or 21. But of course things were different then. In the amateur days we had sometimes ten, sometimes 12, clubs in the top division, and of course four Districts in the old Districts championship. So talented players were almost all performing at the highest available level when they were still in their teens or barely out of them. This doesn't often happen today. Consequently development is slower and the likelihood of someone of that age winning an international cap is now slim. Last season's Under-20 Scotland captain Richie Gray is a rare exception.

How do you bring young players on at a good rate if you have only two professional teams? There is no satisfactory answer to this question. Perhaps Andy Robinson might pick a player like Palisson after only ten Magners League matches, but what are the chances of a 20-year-old getting even that much experience? Even if Ruaridh Jackson had not been out injured for the first half of this season, Sean Lineen would, I suppose, have preferred to start regularly with Dan Parks, as the fly-half more capable of controlling a game and so securing league points.

But, if we had three or, even better, four pro teams rather than two, Jackson would have been matched against Parks and Phil Godman – as well as coming up against the likes of Ronan O'Gara and Stephen Jones. He might then have learned more quickly than he is able to do now. Yet he is already older than some of Lievremont's backs, older than Trinh-Duc was when Lievremont first picked him.

What of some of the most promising members of this year's Under-20 side, such as Alex Dunbar, Alex Blair and Stuart McInally? Where will they be a year from now? How much professional rugby will they have had? The chances are that the answer is "precious little". With only two teams there is a log-jam. So players like Jim Thompson are regarded as "promising" – at the age of 25! Shouldn't he have made faster progress? Of course he should, but circumstances have been against him.

Consider France again. Lievremont, from the day of his appointment, looked beyond the big clubs which dominate the Top 14: Toulouse, Stade Francais, Clermont-Auvergne, Perpignan. Parra moved to Clermont this season, but he was first capped out of Bourgoin. Trinh-Duc and Fulgence Ouedraogo (20 caps, still aged only 23) both play for Montpellier, Palisson for Brive, Benjamin Fall for Bayonne. All five have been able to make quick progress because with 14 clubs in the top division, there is no log-jam arresting the development of talented players.

Who can blame Andy Robinson if, looking across the Channel, he mutters: "I should be so lucky."