On Shaun's side

The Englishman Shaun Edwards shapes the defense of Les Bleus with intensity. This coach who seems made from a block is indeed multiple, and distills as much energy as thoroughness.

CANET-EN-ROUSSILLON – To get in touch with Shaun Edwards, responsible of our national defense, you must first cross this furrow which plows the middle of his forehead. Get past that gruff, uninviting air. Bearing the flashes of his light blue gaze. One would swear to glimpse black there.

This English defense specialist, recruited by Fabien Galthié in 2019, has just celebrated his 56th birthday. Son and grandson of Lancashire miners, legend of rugby league, he was named "O.B.E", distinguished by the Order of the British Empire. We inquire whether to give him “Sir”. He smiles. "Just call me Giz."

Bing ! From the start, as if he had uncapped a foam, Edwards let go of the valves of self-mockery. "Giz" was his nickname when he played "stand-off", playmaker at Wigan Warriors. An incandescent of the contact, the smallest of the team (1m73) that the big guys had to temper: “They told me: “Don’t send too hard, let us do Giz !"

His nickname comes from the movie "the Gremlins", soft creatures like stuffed animals that purred "Gizmooooo" before turning into diabolical furies. "It seems that it looks like me" smiles Shaun who has never seen that film.

He is sitting on a bench in the garden of his house in Canet-en-Roussillon. The sun shines on his Yul Brynner haircut, which he polishes every morning with a razor. Maggie, his companion, pops a head, brings a generous smile and steaming tea. A Welsh-Zimbabwean half-breed, she sports Afro hair that contrasts with her lover's skull. We plug it baldness. He relaunches: “My mother was a hairdresser, she practiced on me. I always had weird haircuts. I was a mulet pioneer in the 80s me, môsssieur !” He laughs out loud.

Later, with an absent eye, he tells of Phyllis, hismother who died last year in the middle of the VI Nations Tournament. He took the hit. But remains forever struck down by the death of his little brother, in 2003. A road accident. Billy-Joe was twenty years old. His first name and portrait are tattooed on the coach's left shoulder.

Sometimes there are clouds in Shaun's blue eyes. It looks like the threatening sky of the Catalan coast. He chose to live here, between the sea and the mountains, where weather can turn quickly. Ten minutes by car from Aimé Giral and Gilbert Brutus, stadiums where he can, depending on his mood, go and see USAP or the Catalans Dragons play.

Shaun was born in Wigan, Lancashire. English, he has Irish blood. He seems made of one block, yet he is multiple. “He is both energetic and meticulous, summarizes Jonathan Danty. His coaching is technical, the "one against one" is important to him. He prepares clips for us on our vis-à-vis with a lot of meticulous details. More complete than in a club. These precise elements help us to better manage the emotion of matches.

In training Edwards repeats to les Bleus : “Smart aggression! ". It sounds like an oxymoron, it's a tactical instruction. "Rugby requires commitment but also tactics and controlled emotions" justifies the coach. Relentlessly, this ultra-competitor refines defensive gestures. He digs into the XIII, stuffs himself with NFL, works with Jérôme Garcès, the referee integrated into the staff of Les Bleus. "A fantastic guy," enthused Edwards. With Jérôme we worked a lot on the “pics and go”. The Australians are going to want to take us there. This phase of the game brings a lot of tries.

Garcès and Edwards are like water and fire. “However, we hooked up well from the start, confides the referee. Shaun is passionate. He fascinates me because he goes fast, knows how to be clear and concise to find the three key words to deliver to the players. Personally, I would tend to show ten clips, to reinforce my message.

Warren Gatland, who worked alongside Edwards for fifteen years, at Wasps and in the national Wales team, remembers: “With Shaun we often had this conversation about the risk of “over-coaching” players, tells the neo- zealander. Best not to overwhelm them with info. To keep a clear mind, two-three points are enough. Together, they won three VI Nations Grand Slams. “Behind his gruff looks, Shaun is a super caring guy, very generous in the relationship. Demanding but not overwhelming.

However, this requirement is inflexible. “My first mission was for the France team to stop losing in the last ten minutes. The “championship rounds”, the last three rounds, is where a fight is won! “During the video sessions, revealing guilty slackness, he hammered at Les Bleus: “It is not acceptable! ", In french in the text.

"As for the field, he is very tough and doesn't take any tweaks, outside it is quite the opposite" explains Gael Fickou, appointed captain of the defense by Edwards. "Shaun is very introverted but deeply human," continues the Racing player. His conviction makes him convincing. He brought us this warrior side, taught us not to let go.

For Warren Gatland, Edwards has "Managed to twist the clichés" about Les Bleus : "We always heard: "The French are reluctant to defend, they only like to play ball". We can now see the “Shaun Edwards” effect : Les Bleus are fiery in their game, including without the ball. The "French passion" is expressed today in defense.

Despite his airs of chief warrant officer, Edwards knows how to win membership without barking: “I admire his way of doing things, continues Gatland. He has a bunch of stories about the bad choices he made as a player. When he tells that to the guys, his self-mockery becomes educational, pedagogic.

In defense, Shaun Edwards sees double : the collective articulation but also the dimension of individual combat. Like a boxing coach on a minute's rest, he knows how to be economical with his words. Efficient. “The forwards, I leave them alone, he confides. So that they are in the instinct, do not cerebralize too much.

The coach transmits his energy, sometimes in spite of himself. “One day, at the gym, we saw him comming, says Jonathan Danty. He was wearing a tank top, you could see his tattoos. He started banging on the bag. We were like, “Wow, that hits! He's in shape! ". His vigor and body language expressed exactly the attitude he asks us to have on the pitch. With high guard, block the opponent with an upward swing of the arms. Very tonic on impact so as not to be beaten on a shoulder.

Shaun knows a bit about commitment, played 570 matches. “In the first ten alone, I had a broken nose, a dislocated shoulder and twenty-five stitches. “He never forgot the toughest of them all, against Featherstones Rovers. “Penniless miners, driven by mad rage. I was 17 years old. That year, 1983, Edwards signed a big deal with the Wigan Warriors. "Shaun was supporting his family," Maggie says. His father Jackie, injured in the spine during a XIII match, could no longer work. Edwards took the pressure: “The games were broadcast on the BBC in front of five million viewers. It stirs."

He played with rage and intensity, as in the Challenge Cup final in 1990. He was 23 years old, had his jaw and orbital floor fractured in the 10th minute. He still bears the scars today. “Sometimes I see triple. Some boxers have this thing, it makes you blink. Bug, I can't stand people who whistle the corner of a fighter who throws in the towel. They don't know what it is!

Shaun likes to reference boxing. In his garage, he hung a punching bag. Why have you never fought in a ring? "I didn't have the level," he sweeps. “He had a taste for collective adventure, slips Maggie. A very strong sense of community and mutual support.”

As wallpaper for his smartphone, he chose a sepia photo. We see a kneeling miner, a headlamp on his helmet. He says it's to remember where he came from. "As a kid I looked at my grandfather's hands. He was missing fingers since a gallery collapsed on top of him. A few days later, he had to go back down underground.

Aged 18, before a match, Shaun covered with adhesive the logo "British Coal", sponsor of his shirt. England suffered the full brunt of the recession of the Thatcher years. He wanted to be in solidarity with the miners who were being laid off by the shovel.

"This gesture from my father contributed to my involvement in politics," explains James Small Edwards, his 25-year-old son. Dad was a very young player. It would have been easier to keep quiet and not make waves. Rugby was everything to him but he understood that there was a higher cause to defend.

James does research in “Public Policy” at Oxford University. He was born from the first union of Shaun Edwards with Heather Small, a soul singer. Trained at the Wasps academy, the son played scrum half in the Richmond first team. The call of political commitment will have been stronger than that of the ball.

Shaun's eyes sparkle with pride: “My son was elected “Councellor” in London on May 5, in the Bayswater district ! For the first time this upscale, traditionally Conservative neighborhood swung to the left in favor of Labour. “Dad came to support me during the campaign. He helped us tow. Before the election I had trouble sleeping, he reassured me. Like a coach on the eve of a match. Present, benevolent.

The opposite of what Shaun knew, younger, with his father Jackie. He calls it “tough love” and illustrates it with a memory: “One day my father was asked if he had to push me for me to succeed. My old man answered: “A blow of pumps, yeah! ". The coach of les Bleus is like that, in this in-between, half laugh and half emotion, on each side of the furrow.