"We're hunters, not outsiders" says France's Poirot ahead of Wales quarter-finals clash in Rugby World Cup
SHOWS:
OITA, JAPAN (OCTOBER 19, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
1. FRANCE RUGBY TEAM GETTING READY FOR TRAINING
2. FRANCE COACH JACQUES BRUNEL TALKING WITH FRENCH CAPTAIN GUILHEM GUIRADO
3. FRANCE PROP JEFFERSON POIROT STRETCHING
4. FRANCE TEAM ON PITCH
5. FRANCE BACKROW LOUIS PICAMOLES STRETCHING
6. PLAYERS YOANN HUGET AND MAXIME MEDARD
7. CAMERA WOMAN ON SIDE OF PITCH
8. VARIOUS OF TEAM RUNNING
9. RUGBY BALL
10. NEWS CONFERENCE STARTING WITH PICAMOLES, GUIRADO AND POIROT
11. PICAMOLES, GUIRADO AND POIROT AT NEWS CONFERENCE
12. NEWS CONFERENCE TAKING PLACE
13. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCE RUGBY PROP, JEFFERSON POIROT, SAYING:
"I'm not sure about us being outsiders, I like to use the word 'hunters'. During the pool phases we were the ones being hunted down, but today we're the hunters, I prefer that term. It's something we like to do, we're happy with that, we've seen that in the past, it's the France team's history. And even if we want to put this image we have behind us, I think that tomorrow we will enter the pitch with this image we've created ourselves, but I hope we'll do our maximum so that at the end of the game, we'll be able to write our own history."
14. VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE ONGOING
15. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCE RUGBY PROP, JEFFERSON POIROT, SAYING:
"We have the impression that they (Wales) are less flamboyant, less shiny but when you look at the footage you realise that this team has very few flaws, so we studied the game closely, we know what to do in order to disorganise them, we'll insist on that as much as possible. But we know that this side, even if in difficulty, always has the strength to come back and prevent the opponent scoring tries, their defence is very strong. And so that's why this team seems less threatening but look at the facts, it's a team that wins a lot."
16. REPORTER ASKING QUESTION
17. TRANSLATORS SPEAKING
18. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCE RUGBY PROP, JEFFERSON POIROT, SAYING:
"We've spent a lot of time going over our three first matches, we talked a lot about our incapacity to be constant and we've tried to work on a strategy that allows us, at difficult moments, the moments when you feel that physically and mentally you're loosing ground, we found a simple way to reorganise ourselves, gather lots of confidence much more quickly than what we've done in the three first games because we're well aware that in this game against Wales if we go through a bad patch it could put us in danger. So we have found a simple strategy which will allow us to get back onto track and continue with what we know to do best."
REPORTERS ASKING QUESTION OFF CAMERA: "It's a mental exercise?"
POIROT: "No it's on the physical side. No it's not on the mental side of things. It's putting things back into place. Do simple things on the pitch that everyone knows how to do, a sequence of play that everyone knows, so that when it gets complicated physically and mentally we be able to turn the pressure onto the opponent."
19. FRANCE TEAM HUDDLED UP
20. VARIOUS OF TEAM TRAINING WITH BALL
STORY: France were trained one last time on Saturday (October 19) before they take on Wales in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday (October 20).
France will have not played one game in two weeks because of the cancellation of their fourth encounter in the pool phases against England due to the typhoon which swept Japan.
France have won only one of the teams' last eight meetings since beating Wales in the semi-finals of the 2011 tournament. Fullback Maxime Medard is the only survivor from that match in New Zealand.
But France's Jefferson Poirot doesn't feel any inferiority complex despite the dire run of results. Poirot said he felt more like a 'hunter' than an outsider.
During those two weeks, France has trained in a way to keep some continuity. Mindful of how France started strongly in all three pool games but were then pegged back by Argentina, the United States and Tonga, Poirot admitted the importance of maintaining the intensity for 80 minutes on Sunday.
(Production: Lucien Libert)
