French coach looks back on his first W6N

The challenges facing France at the start of this year??s Six Nations were almost identical to those faced by England. A completely new coaching team were faced with a squad that, post-World Cup, had lost of several key players through retirement, and in addition had to accept the unavailability of all of their most experienced backs due to the demands of sevens.

New French backs coach Philippe Laurent in particular had the challenge of building?˜his group almost from scratch after losing every first-choice player in the French World Cup team from numbers nine to fifteen. In addition he and his colleagues were faced with three away games, including both of the most important fixtures against Ireland and England (France are notoriously bad travellers).

Yet France very nearly pulled off a second Grand Slam.

As the dust settles French rugby website caught up with Philippe for an honest appraisal about what worked and what didn??t in his first season with the senior women??s team