Former France hooker Benjamin Kayser produced a brilliant metaphor to describe the pain of exiting the Rugby World Cup.
It was particularly tough for Les Bleus, who had high hopes going into the tournament before their dreams were dashed at the quarter-final stage.
The French succumbed to South Africa 29-28 in the last-eight and it seemed like Kayser had gone through the various stages of grief during the remainder of the competition.
Like a break-up
“Since the quarter-final, it really has felt like I had a break-up. On the Monday, I felt empty, alone, couldn’t text anybody,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“It came back to the semis and basically my ex-wife was with a new fella on the pitch, and he’s bigger, brighter and richer than me, so the final has just been rubbing it in even more.
“Our French hearts are raining and we’re just sad.”
The pool stages had gone so well for France after they finished at the summit of Pool A and became the first country to ever beat the All Blacks in the round-robin phase.
They went into the quarter-finals with high hopes of ending the world champions’ reign, especially with star player Antoine Dupont back from injury.
Rassie Erasmus’ influence
However, they went down to a Rassie Erasmus “masterclass”, according to Kayser, who felt Les Bleus head coach Fabien Galthie was “outplayed”.
“It’s been a masterclass in managing this whole emotional rollercoaster of this competition, and Rassie is definitely the brains. He is a wizard. That’s where they just had the edge on everybody else,” he added.
“Ian Foster, technically outstanding, but they didn’t have any tricks up their sleeve. Steve Borthwick is very, very good at what he does, but not a trick.
“Fabien Galthie, outstanding, but he got outplayed in the quarter-final. I still think back to when Rassie had this press conference and said they weren’t announcing their line-up, and he was going, ‘we’re going to do a 7-1 or a 6-2, we’re just not sure because Fabien can play this guy.’
“He was already playing games and picked a 5-3 the following day, and Fabien was almost surprised.”
READ MORE: Ex-France hooker defends Springboks over ‘rugby values’ after criticism during Rugby World Cup
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