Six Nations 2018: Déjà vu for France as new coach and new talent tasked with rebuilding Les Bleus

France enter the Six Nations in more turmoil than ever than ever with their hopes resting on the shoulders of a 19-year-old fly-half with 15 league appearances to his name

Matthieu Jalibert starts the opening Six Nations game for France at fly-half (Getty)

French rugby is going through a difficult period. The national team lacks direction, the head coach has just departed and been replaced a man tasked with a triggering a revolution, the team are being given little-to-no chance of winning the next Rugby World Cup and the hopes of a nation lie on a 19-year-old half-back protégé.

No, this isn’t the present. This is that start of the Millennium, but the similarities to the 2018 Six Nations are remarkable.

For Bernard Laporte and Frédéric Michalak all those years ago, now read Jacques Brunel and Matthieu Jalibert, but while there are a scary number of similarities to look at, the big difference is that Laporte took over a side that had won a Six Nations Grand Slam double in 1997 and 1998, three years before he took the top job.

Brunel arrives with France having not won the title since 2010, and if they fail to cause the biggest of upsets this year, they will match their longest barren run since returning to the championship in 1951.

At least that long wait to return to the top of European rugby has eased the pressure on the French national team coach – or so you would think. Despite the job appearing to be a poisoned chalice before his arrival, the vastly successful and experienced Guy Novès was sacked after just two years in the job following a string of “unacceptable” results. To top things off, the French Rugby Union [FFR] are taking legal action against Noves for “serious misconduct”, and last week their head office was raided by French Police investigating Laporte – now the current FFR president – regarding an alleged conflict of interest arising from his relationship with Top 14 side Montpellier.

To say that French rugby is in a state right now is putting it lightly.

But, as they did in Michalak all those years ago, France has a young teenager that can act as a shining light at a time when darkness surrounds Les Bleus. France has longed for a fly-half to emerge and make the No 10 shirt their own. Since Michalak made his debut in the autumn of 2001, France’s roll call of fly-halves reads as follows: David Skrela, Francis Ntamack, Julien Peyrelongue, Alexandre Peclier, Francois Trinh-Duc, Lionel Beauxis, Thibault Lacroix, Jean-Marc Doussain, Camille Lopez, Remi Tales, Jules Plisson.

No pressure then, Matthieu.

Jalibert has only played 15 Top 14 matches for Bordeaux Begles (Getty)

But Jalibert arrived on the international stage short on experience but big in potential. The Bordeaux Begles stand-off has been likened to England ‘apprentice’ Marcus Smith in his ability to run with the ball and bring teammates into the game at full speed – a quality that none of those names above can say they did better than Michalak when he was at his best. This may be an exercise in blooding Jalibert for bigger challenges in the future given he has just 15 Top 14 appearances to his name, but then they don’t come much bigger than facing the Irish in Paris in the Six Nations. France have only lost one of those since 2001, and an expectant Parisian crowd does not anticipate a second on Saturday regardless of the state of the national team.

"We are facing a side that is full of confidence having come out of 2017 with a lot of quality performances,” Brunel noted after naming his squad which, last week, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt named 14 of as an example of how strong France’s side still is. “We are not favourites but we hope that these two weeks we will have constructed a spirit or state of mind which will permit us to compete well.

"I am very happy that people either think we are not very good, even dreadful or just rank bad, and regarded as the fifth country in the tournament. That suits me very well."

Jalibert's career could well follow in the footsteps of Frederic Michalak (Getty)

France don’t tend to go under the radar though, especially when their home games this year are against the Irish and the two-time defending champions, England – the third and second-ranked teams respectively in the World Rugby rankings. Instead, this will be viewed as the year that French rugby can get back on track, spark a much-needed renaissance and transform into challenges at Japan 2019. Unfortunately, that is what is weighing down on Jalibert’s shoulders, and now we’re going to see if he can cope with it.