It is a beautiful clear morning in the south of France and Shaun Edwards has already enjoyed a stroll on the long, scenic beach near his home just outside Perpignan. He has been up since 6.30am and taken his two young daughters to school. Short of pausing to practise his boules on the way back, he could hardly be more happily settled in his new place of work.
Every week he sits down for a French lesson and, while he lives near a few fellow Wiganers attached to the local Catalans Dragons rugby league side, the 54-year-old Edwards has had time enough to reflect.
The Mediterranean climate apart, his first year across the Channel was never going to be the simplest of transitions. “To go and coach an international rugby team in what is not your normal language is some challenge,” he says. “You’ve got to have some guts to do that.”
The potential rewards, though, are already evident. Coincidence or not – and it seldom is with Edwards – France won eight of their 10 games in 2020 and are visibly on the up as the 2021 championship approaches. It is 11 years since Les Bleus tasted Six Nations glory but they will be appreciably stronger by the time they host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
It is the squad’s collective youth that has really struck their defensive guru since he signed a four-and-a-half-year contract to work alongside the head coach, Fabien Gathié.
“We have a ritual where we train on a Wednesday. They’re very, very hard sessions, as hard as I’ve seen. Then they reveal the players selected for the weekend on a big screen in the team room. Time after time it’s ‘21 ans, 21 ans’. I’m like: ‘Are you sure? No chance.’ Next there’ll be a couple of big forwards who I thought were 27 or 28. ‘22 ans.’ ‘24 ans.’ That’s been among the most pleasant surprises.”
He has also discovered Galthié to be “probably the most meticulous person I’ve ever come across” in terms of match preparation. Galthié, in turn, understands that a broad Wigan accent is no barrier to educating his golden Gallic generation in the art of winning. “Fabien often speaks about there being another language,” says Edwards. “He’s a big believer that body language is huge.
“I’m at the stage where I coach and do my presentations in French but William Servat [the forwards coach] stands by in case I need to reply to somebody. I wouldn’t be able to have a 45-minute conversation but I can speak the rugby language. That’s why I’m here: to win rugby games. There are positive things being said about us but there’s still a long way to go.”
Hence the reason everyone else in world rugby is feeling slightly apprehensive. Edwards, by his own admission, is “addicted to the big games” and has the medals to prove it. A record-breaking eight championships and nine Challenge Cups in a 467-game playing career with Wigan were followed by three Premiership titles and a Heineken Cup as Wasps defence coach plus a further Heineken Cup and Premiership title as head coach. With Wales and Warren Gatland he shared in three grand slams and reached two World Cup semi-finals, losing by one and three points.
His secret? The burning intensity and competitive instinct are obvious but Edwards’s innate gifts have long extended beyond that. He is almost as happy to talk politics – his son James is studying it at Edinburgh University – and history as he is rugby and has long since possessed a masters degree in distilling instinctive tactical acumen into motivational nectar. “Even when I was a player I didn’t really think about lifting the Challenge Cup at Wembley. I thought about the process of getting there first.
“With every team I’ve been involved in my primary goal is always to make our supporters proud. I think we’re on our way to doing that with the French lads but it’s a never-ending process. If you take you foot off it, things can soon change. I’m not one to be going on about how it would feel to lift the World Cup. It might work for other people but to me that’s an absolute load of nonsense. I’m all about process: how do we get there, how do we get better, what can I do today to help that happen?
“Sometimes that could be doing nothing and having a rest. You want to be fresh when you go into training camp. It’s not always work, work, work. Anybody can slave away at a laptop for eight hours but working smart is also important. Laurent Labit, our backs coach, likes being at his laptop. That’s not how I work but it’s important to appreciate and accept that we’re all different. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
It also makes absolute sense to Edwards to advise sports fans to look at boxing if they wish to understand why the top Test sides kick the ball so frequently.
“A friend of mine who used to be a professional boxer, Paul Walters from Stoke-on-Trent, said to me: ‘Why do you have to kick the ball in rugby?’ I told him it’s similar to using your jab in boxing. You have to use it to open up other things. Even though it’s the right-handers that knock them out normally, you can’t fight without your jab. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I understand now.’”
By now he is warming to his theme. “All the great teams throughout history have had a good kicking game. Does that mean we’re going to kick all the time? Of course it doesn’t.”
One significant regret also still lingers: France’s Autumn Nations Cup final sudden-death defeat by England was almost two months ago but Edwards is still not entirely over it. “I remember the losses more than the wins I’ve had. That’s what keeps you motivated. I’ve won 53 trophies in my career – 37 in rugby league and 16 in rugby union – and I don’t like losing in finals.
“I’ve thought about the last 10-15 minutes of that game a little bit too much. Let’s be honest, there were two blatant knock-ons in the buildup to the penalty which led to England scoring at the end of normal time. I’ve checked and the referee was on the other side for one of them. But the touch judge and TMO … I don’t know, maybe they blinked?
“Well done to England but I’d have been delighted to have a winner’s medal to add to the other 53.”
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Could it yet be France who enjoy the last laugh? Claim victory in Dublin next month for the first time in a decade and what a Twickenham reunion it could be, this time with a first-choice visiting XV seeking vengeance.
It rarely pays to bet against the singular Englishman currently gazing at the Mediterranean and plotting trophy number 54.