Many great captains have graced the hallowed grounds of the Six Nations in the past few years. Paul O’Connell and Rory Best led Ireland to Championship titles; Alun Wyn Jones has been a towering figure of leadership in the Welsh second row for years Sam Warburton led Wales to their last title in 2013. Dylan Hartley inspired England to a Grand Slam, and a subsequent Championship title in 2016 and 2017, Sergio Parisse spent a lot of years single-handedly dragging Italy through games. One man who does not get the plaudits of many of his compatriots, is the long-suffering France captain and hooker and Guilhem Guirado.
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The Toulon hooker is probably one of the most underappreciated players in rugby, purely for having the misfortune to be playing on probably the worst, most disorganised French team in history. Guirado is France’s most consistent player and a lot of the time, the only one who seems to care. He is the leader French rugby desperately needs and yet this was not enough for Jacques Brunel.
It has been reported that after France’s disastrous loss to England, Jacques Brunel and FFR vice-president Serge Simon attempted to strip the captaincy from Guirado and hand it over to Jefferson Poirot. The players spoke up against it, and the plan didn’t gain any traction. Proof if any more were needed, that Jacques Brunel needs to be sacked. What is the logic of it? Guirado is the one cog in the French rugby machine that is operating at full capacity, so naturally, the best idea is to get rid of him? There is a French saying “a touché le fond, mais creuse encore” which translates to something to the effect “hit rock bottom, but keep digging”, and it perfectly befits French rugby currently.
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The Montpellier bound man is potentially the best hooker in the world but gets lost because he’s part of a shambles of a French team. Malcolm Marx has such incredible ceilings but has inconsistencies, Dane Coles has had his injury trouble and needs to find form again, and Codie Taylor is very good but is also part of a winning All Blacks team. Guirado is a serious machine, with an endless engine who tackles, carries, clears out, and leads from the front. He is the most important player in this French team. Imagine the reaction if Joe Schmidt decided to drop Peter O’Mahony? Imagine Alun Wyn getting dropped by Warren Gatland? Guirado is probably the only international player you would feel sorry for. Imagine living out your boyhood dream, captaining your country in the Six Nations, but its with this French team. Then to make matters worse, having your moron of a coach rip that dream away from you for absolutely no good reason.
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This whole debacle, and France’s recent performances show that Brunel has no sense of player or people management. Even the very fact that his wanting to change the captaincy being was shot down by the players shows that he has lost the dressing room. The players clearly don’t respect the coach. Brunel has all of the hallmarks of a weak man who got the job based on his connections. He has systematically and categorically failed to bring anything even remotely approaching a cohesive game plan for his team, let alone trying to innovate tactically, utterly flailing around, blaming everyone but himself, and making progressively more erratic decisions in an attempt to preserve or justify keeping his job.
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Jacques Brunel belongs with the likes of Eddie O’Sullivan, or Clive Woodward; his time is past. He is a rugby dinosaur who has no business anywhere near an international team, and needs to be sacked. A coach like Ben Ryan would be perfect for France. The team culture he cultivated with the Fiji Sevens squad was incredible, and did great things for with no resources.
France travel to Rome on Super Saturday, and given the French tendency not to get off the plane when they go abroad, Conor O’Shea will be targeting this for his first win in the Six Nations. It may be the best thing for French rugby if they lose this game. Lose this game, and maybe more cracks begin to show in Brunel’s grasp on the team.
Guilhem Guirado is a warrior and will continue to put his body on the line for his country, and at the end of every game the camera will pan to him, and he will look into the distance, wondering why he bothers at all.
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A recent Twitter debate summed it up well. The question was asked “Which player from another Six Nations side would you take for your country?” to which one user replied “Guilhem Guirado; just so he doesn’t have to suffer through playing for France anymore”
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