“Too soft, these blues”.
That's the take on the front page of Sud Ouest Dimanche today after France were brushed aside by Ireland in Dublin yesterday.
For the most part the French media is critical of their own team but there is also a lot of credit given to Ireland.
L'Equipe run an opinion piece by Frédéric Bernès praising the performance of Conor Murray who is quickly becoming the star of the show in a green jersey.
Bernès describes the try-scorer from yesterday as “a Rolls Royce” in the Ireland lineup.
Murray has the science of the game down to a tee, he writes, and his precision play with his feet serve to top him off as a complete number nine.
Also in the pages of L'Equipe, French coach Guy Noves says his team are stagnating.
“Stopped” is the headline on the front page and the common theme throughout the newspaper is that France need a boost of new energy.
The newspaper infamous for its player ratings was particularly impressed with Murray, who got an eight, and Johnny Sexton, CJ Stander and Tadhg Furlong who all got sevens.
That's a serious achievement in the notoriously hard to impress L'Equipe. For instance, Rob Kearney and Jack McGrath get fours.
In contrast, Gavin Cummiskey of The Irish Times gave McGrath an eight.
Your heart has to go out to Bernard Le Roux on the French team however. He managed to rack up a mark of just two. In The Irish Times he got a seven. You decide who is right.
Le Parisien speaks to Yoann Huget who says that questions must be asked after the defeat.
“We should have changed our plan when it started going against us but we didn’t,” Huget says.
Meanwhile the newspaper comments that the game was the first time French limitations had been on show in front of a major nation.
La Depeche continues on a similar vein, saying there are yet more questions for this French team.
“Blues rinsed in Dublin rain” is their match report headline while in the report they say that, when the chorus of the Fields of Athenry rings around the Aviva Stadium, there is no beating Ireland.
