There is an exchange in Rob Reiner’s seminal comedy classic The Princess Bride that came to mind while watching France rugby’s dismantling of Ireland rugby. Peering out from behind a door, Billy Crystal’s Miracle Max is trying to turn away Inigo Montoya and the hulking Fezzik, played memorably by Andre the Giant.
“Beat it or I'll call the Brute Squad,” Max snaps, before Fezzik replies: “I'm on the Brute Squad.”
“You ARE the Brute Squad!” Max yelps, eyes widening as he fully appreciates the sheer stature.
For Fezzik, read lock Emmanuel Meafou; for the Brute Squad, see the bench of behemoths that Fabien Galthie was able to field on Saturday afternoon. The arrival of France rugby’s magnificent seven forward replacements at the Aviva Stadium proved a match-turning moment, with the mighty Meafou an individual star of a collective effort that ranks among Les Bleus’ best in this grand old championship.
What impact the brutish lock, and his colossal comrades, made. It had been a bold selection call from Galthie, sacrificing backline cover to again favour the beefiest of benches after first deploying the tactic against Italy in round three. Caelan Doris admitted that their arrival helped swing a contest against a strangely ill-disciplined Ireland rugby.
“We started well and thought we could go on to do it,” the Ireland skipper explained. “But that 25-minute period in the middle of the second half was where we just weren't good enough - our collisions, our discipline.
"They can create something from nothing with go forward ball, and that's what happened two or three times in a row."
It could easily have been a day where Galthie’s bold call backfired, given how fate seemed to be conspiring against France. The anguished cry let out by Antoine Dupont after he sustained a knee injury feared serious at a ruck half-an-hour in was the stuff of nightmares for the France coach – and any lover of the glorious scrum half. Dupont was one of the versatile figures that enabled the forward-heavy bench split; his removal forced the introduction of Maxime Lucu, the lone back riding the pine, far sooner than Galthie would have liked.
When Pierre-Louis Barassi’s head made contact with Calvin Nash in a high tackle, the visiting boss was out of options, forced to deploy back row Oscar Jegou in the centres for half an hour. It could have proved a decisive moment in a trademark Irish second half surge; instead, France seemed to strengthen with a ninth forward on the park. It was not a blood and thunder, set-piece-led bludgeoning either, with the replacements’ arrival instead creating space for Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey to run amok.
The forward septet is most closely associated with South Africa and Rassie Erasmus, given their use of an enlarged ‘Bomb Squad’ in the World Cup final. The Springboks are pioneers in many ways but were, in fact, beaten to the powerful punch on this front by Canada’s women, who named seven forwards on the bench in their narrow World Cup semi-final defeat to the Red Roses in 2022. Used effectively, the strategy can have huge impact, as France showed in Dublin and South Africa, spectacularly, in their pre-World Cup demolition job of New Zealand at Twickenham in 2023.
“We are not doing things to upset people and be known as a creative team,” Erasmus explained of the tactic last week. “We want to win.
“It is about what is best for South Africa within the laws so that we can win matches. For me, it makes sense for the French to pick a seven/one, because they have a backline player there that can cover every single position. I’m pretty sure that’s why the French did it. I’m pretty sure that’s why teams go six/two. They realise that you very seldom use your third backline player. You always keep him on the bench for if there is another injury.”
Some degree of utility and adaptability is required to use the tactic. Erasmus himself recalled when France’s Sekou Macalou, a flanker blessed with a sprinter’s speed, played for 68 minutes on the wing against the Springboks in a thrilling encounter in Marseille.
The reinvented Jegou, playing a sort of hybrid centre/flanker role, made 11 tackles after his introduction, shutting down the space available to Ireland while still finding time for a deliciously deft grubber. Even Meafou, peculiarly, found himself guarding the extreme right defensive edge at one point as Shaun Edwards’s system faltered – yet the lock showed incredible athleticism to lasso Robbie Henshaw with a superb try-saving tackle. It was the sort of adaptability that Ireland have shown throughout their time as the Six Nations’ champion side – beat Scotland, and France will take that title.
Yet beyond this championship, a squabble is brewing. A number of leading coaches and other stakeholders gathered in Teddington during the second fallow week to discuss the shape of the game. Insiders insist that this current crop of coaches has a greater spirit of collaboration and co-operation than past iterations, but battle lines are perhaps being drawn.
While changes were not on the table given a desire to avoid tedious tweaking to the law book, it is thought that Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend voiced his concerns about the seven/one bench. Others, privately or publicly, have indicated opposition to the selection gambit. Nations like South Africa and France – those with sizeable player pools and forward megafauna – are understandably keen to keep the tactic; elsewhere, there are prominent figures who question whether the weaponizing of the bench in such a way is true to the spirt of rugby.
There are no rules, currently, on how a side must structure their bench at the elite level beyond ensuring that it includes three qualified front-rowers able to cover the two prop and hooker positions. Six/two splits have become increasingly common in recent years – a higher attrition rate and greater frequency of involvements makes forward replacements, generally, more valuable.
There are those who ask if the introduction of seven fresh forwards could cause safety concerns. But the available injury data does not back that up, as Erasmus explained this week. “I can show you papers from [leading sports scientist] Ross Tucker, who works for World Rugby, that there has never been shown that any fresh player who comes onto the field makes the game more dangerous.
“There’s a whole paper on that: the more fresh players that are on the pitch, forwards or backs, the safer it is. If any of that criticism is valid, and I’m thinking somebody is in danger here, then I would listen. The criticism on that I would only take to heart if it is real and there are some stats and facts behind it.”
But the noise around the seven/one will continue to grow given World Rugby’s twin aims of creating a safer and more exciting game. Erasmus is understood to have concerns over a perceived depowering of the scrum and maul, with some South African rugby figures suggesting that the double World Cup winners are being directly targeted.
Yet France’s introduction of mass en masse was captivating in its own way. No-one watching a title fight that delivered on its billing would have felt it diminished by the knockout blow delivered by the heavyweights. In a sport that can sometimes be slow to tactical innovation, some of the world’s best sides are trying new things to earn an extra edge – and reaping the rewards.
