In the last few years, the French have built some pretty serious back-row depth. Recently it has been Cameron Woki’s athleticism and lineout work, Gregory Aldritt’s breakdown work and carrying, and the try-scoring exploits of then Captain Charles Ollivon that have caught the eye. While the likes of Anthony Jelonch, Francois Cros and Dylan Cretin have been excelling in the dark and often underappreciated areas of the game. The likes of Seckou Macalou, Ibrahima Diallo and Selevasio Tolofua have made decent impacts when given the opportunities on the test stage but have yet to fully prove themselves. Alexandre Fischer, Jordan Joseph, Alexandre Becognee and Patrick Sobela have yet to appear in the test arena but continue to plug away in the Top 14 and Champions Cup and have been impressive.
There are several defining features of the French back row is versatility, athleticism and a blurring of roles. Firstly versatility, with the exception of Joseph all the French back-row options can play multiple positions. Woki can play across the back-row and as a 4 lock, Aldritt can play 8 and 6, Ollivon, Crettin, Cros and Jelonch can all play across the back row and most remarkably Macalou can play across the back row and on the wing. However, it goes further than just the number on the players back all of those forwards can play multiple roles within the team, with the rise of more complex and well-executed pod structures we have started to see new sup-groups or hyper-specializations emerge in the forwards. There have been three main specializations, the first is your hard grafter or tight forwards, typically your props and second-rows fill that role and maybe a flanker or 8 man–it varies from team to team. The tight forwards are doing most of the horrible thankless carries “in tight” or close to the ruck. The second specialization you have is wing forwards, think Sam Simmonds, Dane Coles, Michale Hooper like those players it’s usually a hooker or back-rower. They are like the name suggests–typically in found out on the wings, they provide some extra power and ball security in the wide channels. The final one is the balancers, they can do a bit of both and fill in wherever they are required in open play, think Kwagga Smith, Tom Curry, Marcos Kremer or Ethan Blackkader, this is role is typically a back-rower. Now we can get back to the French back-rowers, all of them are capable of playing each role to a high level. So the versatility in the french back row is even more than just which numbers are on their back. It even extends to kick return it is a fairly established practice to drop a powerful back-rower into the backfield to generate momentum on the kick return. The French do this but regularly drop 5 different into the backfield to crash the ball up, in the game against Ireland, for example, they dropped both centers, Antonie Dupont, Aldritt and Ollivon. Most teams cannot do it because their players are not asked to do that regularly, do not have the skillsets, or do not have the requisite athleticism.
That brings us nicely to the second point the athleticism and height. The French-back row options have an average height of 6’4 and an average weight of 238 pounds. I wanted to know where that stacked up amongst other test teams, so I took the final four of the world cup and averaged the height and weight of the backrowers in their squad over the last two years. South Africa averaged 6’3 and 245 pounds, Wales 6’1 and 231 pounds, and England 6’2 and 244 pounds. France on average has the tallest back-row and the second lightest back-row of the four. That data speaks nicely to what France wants their back row to do in matches. Typically the flankers are wide forwards who are primary lineout options which explains the height. The 8 is usually a grafter or balancer who is the third or fourth lineout option which continues the trend of height and evens out the weight.
The last point is the blending of roles within the forwards. France has been using a scrummaging-focused lock like Paul Willemse, Romain Taofifénua, and Killian Geraci and a hard worker in the loose like Woki, Bernard le Roux, and Thibaud Flament. Traditionally the lineout has been the realm of the second row with the locks acting as the primary lineout options, with occasional help from the 8 or 6, maybe both. However, France has not been using their locks as primary lineout options preferring to use their flankers as the primary lineout options.
Here is the data from the French team from 13 matches which includes all of the last two Six Nations Championships, except for the game against Italy in 2020, and the 2021 fall internationals. In those matches, France had 199 lineouts, 133 offensive and 66 defensives. During offensive lineouts, France threw to their flankers 57.1% of the time and two their locks 33.6%. While defensively they used their flankers to contest 80.3% and their locks 19.7%. To give a control group I also charted Scotland’s lineouts for 13 games which include all of the 2021 fall internationals and all of the 2021 and 2020 Six Nations Championships except for the games against England and Italy in 2020, so to get to 13 games I used the 2019’s Six Nations game against Wales. In those matches Scotland had 228 lineouts, 155 of those were offensive and 73 were defensive.
Scotland is more of a traditional team lineout wise they threw to their locks 66.5% of the time and threw to their flankers 20.6% of the time. While defensively they used their locks as defensive jumpers 69.9% and their flankers 19.2% of the time. So as you can see France is very weird in terms of who they use at the lineout, once you get to total lineout involvements they get even weirder.
France throws to their flankers 68.6% and to their locks 30.9% of the time, while Scotland throws to their locks 69.9%, their flankers 19.2%, and their No.8 11.0% of the time. Scotland and France are basically exact opposites in terms of who they target at lineouts. France throws to their flankers as almost as much as Scotland throw to their locks and vice versa. France is able to do this because they have savvy lineout forwards, who happen to play flanker. Cameron Woki and Seckou Macalou have the height, catch radius, and brains to rival most premier second rows. Charles Ollivion is a shrewd operator at the lineout, while not as gifted physically as Woki, he is better with his movement and deception as seen by the number of uncontested lineouts he takes. The opposition cannot get someone in a position to contest the ball quickly enough. Dylan Cretin, Anthony Jelonch and Francois Cros are all capable if unremarkable operators at the lineout. Part of the reason for using flankers as lineout options is their weight flankers are usually lighter than locks so you can lift them more easily and get them to peak height faster. Scotland simply does not have the lineout skills in their back-row, they value carrying, breakdown ability and work rate before lineout skills. As you can see France has essentially blended the roles of their back five.
With the 2022 Six Nations approaching it will be interesting to watch how the French Back-Row continues to evolve. Ollivon is still out so the standout player is likely to be Woki for the third competition in a row. However, keep an eye out for Seckou Macalou who might be given a run in the 8 shirts to build depth at the position.
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