Former France hooker Benjamin Kayser believes that Les Bleus will use the perceived injustice of the Garry Ringrose ban as added motivation for Saturday’s clash.
Fabien Galthie’s men take on Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in what is the likely Six Nations title decider.
They will have Romain Ntamack available but only after the fly-half missed the matches against England and Italy after a two-week ban.
That was one more Six Nations encounter than Ringrose will serve as the centre was allowed to have a URC clash added to the list of games he will miss.
Although the midfield maestro will be absent for this weekend’s contest, it has caused uproar in France.
Ireland retirements
It will certainly be an emotional driver for the visitors and, although the hosts have one of their own with the Test retirements of Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy and Conor Murray, Kayser reckons the Ringrose controversy will help Galthie’s side.
“We will be up and ready. The worst possible news is the retirement of those Ireland legends, the best possible news is Ringrose not being suspended and Ntamack being suspended because they counted the URC games and didn’t count the Top 14 ones,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“That is the best news I’ve heard because they will be fuming about that.”
Former England captain Mike Tindall, who was on the show alongside Kayser, then chimed in: “Hopefully they’ve sacked their legal guy.”
It was reported that the IRFU provided concrete information that Ringrose would be available for Leinster’s game with Cardiff if not suspended while the FFR were unable to do the same for Ntamack and Toulouse’s Top 14 matches.
However, there is still a huge feeling of injustice across the Channel, which saw them go to the very top to air their grievances.
“They’ve reached out and they’ve made an official complaint to World Rugby to challenge the decision and get an explanation as to why two similar scenarios have different outcomes,” Kayser said.
Tindall kept on chipping away about France’s inability to state their case better, saying: “It sounded like it was just a legal one wasn’t it? And the [Ireland] legal guy did a better job,” to which Kayser joked: “Probably, it’s just that ours was away for lunch!”
Defining match of the Six Nations
Despite the controversy during the fallow week, it is building nicely for the massive clash on Saturday.
Kayser believes that heading to Dublin now represents one of the toughest challenges in rugby and has compared them to facing the All Blacks.
“They [France] will be up for it, they will be ready, there’s been a few changes also. Ntamack was suspended but Meafou was also missing and Tinds is right, in Italy they handled it beautifully.
“Playing Ireland at the moment is the revelatory of where you really are. You used to wait an entire year until November when the All Blacks came around and go, ‘Let’s see what England are really about, let’s see what France are about, let’s see what Ireland are about’.
“Now the standard, at least in Europe and the northern hemisphere, is definitely Ireland. We want to see how we challenge ourselves in front of the best.
“It will be an incredible game. I can’t wait for it.
“I hope we have all the ingredients for no excuses. Let’s really see, head-to-head for 80 minutes, no decision of the ref and no injuries from now, and let’s have a fantastic game of rugby.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ex-france-star-claims-garry-ringrose-controversy-the-best-possible-news-for-fuming-les-bleus
