PARIS // Six Nations champions France have no explanation for why they fell apart so dramatically in Saturday's 59-16 destruction at the hands of Australia, although the coach Marc Lievremont accepts responsibility for the second-half humiliation.
France lost their fifth straight Test to the Wallabies since Lievremont took charge three years ago, and his constant tinkering with the side backfired spectacularly at the Stade de France.
"It's obviously hard to find a rational explanation for this debacle, we played against an exceptional Australian team," Lievremont said. "I will take responsibility for this enormous defeat. I think I've got a quality squad that works hard and has a big margin for improvement. But it's beyond me to explain the unexplainable."
No 8 Sebastien Chabal says the players need immediate answers for their capitulation before next year's Six Nations campaign starts in February.
"We can't leave each other and come back in four months time with this dragging on," Chabal said.
Last year, when they had beaten Samoa and South Africa, France headed into their final Test against New Zealand in optimistic mood only to be easily beaten 39-12.
This time, Lievremont's team beat Fiji and Argentina and spoke confidently about dominating in the scrum and exposing weaknesses in the Australian defence that were apparent in the Wallabies' recent 35-18 defeat to England.
The French conceded seven tries in total despite being level 13-13 at half-time.
"It's pretty hard to understand how we can concede nearly fifty points in half an hour," Lievremont said.
Chabal points to how the French failed to rally together as a contributing factor.
"We conceded two tries in three minutes after the break and then we fell apart completely," he said. "There was no communication, we all withdrew into ourselves."
Lievremont's team selection may have contributed to the disintegration.
He pitted veteran winger Aurelien Rougerie at centre against one of world rugby's most talented midfields, while the veteran centre Damien Traille played fly-half in a total mis-match against Quade Cooper.
"We couldn't get any ball at all and we ran around after them," Chabal said. "It's more than a slap. I've taken a few of those in my career, (but) this was a total hammering."
With less than a year until two-time finalists France open their World Cup campaign against the hosts New Zealand, the French still appear to be intimidated by southern hemisphere opposition.
"It's a collective defeat, you could even say a resignation," Chabal said. "It's more than a slip up. It will call certain things into question, maybe the style of play we want to develop and our way of achieving it."
France opens their Six Nations defence against Scotland on February 5, but beating European opposition is of small comfort.
"We struggle to compete against the big teams. You could also say that this is a setback of French rugby," Chabal said. "But that wouldn't explain the (56) points we conceded. We can't hide behind that."
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
If you go
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
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Correspondents
By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
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3.5/5