Which is how “Sorry, good game,” or some variation of it, has come to have its own entries in books by Bernard Laporte and Pierre Berbizier and in the French edition of Rugby for Dummies, why the great, galloping No 8 Imanol Harinordoquy has been described in interviews as being “haunted” by the phrase, and why after France’s last defeat at Twickenham, 23-20 in 2021, Antoine Dupont was asked how it felt to hear, again, “sorry, good game”.
“Want of training and discipline reduced their value,” the Guardian said of the French, “but most of the men are fast, the flying run with which one of the wingers went through after intercepting a bad pass was one of the best things in the game, when they cultivate a little more restraint and defensive power, French sides of the national class should fully extend our players.” Well, it would be a while yet.
‘Sorry, good game’: why English rugby attitudes still infuriate France The one thing France fear about England isn’t their scrum, maul or back-play – it’s their attitude when they beat them.
Another essential phrase has come into the French game in that time, one borrowed from the English, who are, amusingly, almost entirely oblivious to its significance: “Sorry, good game.”.
“Sorry, good game,” or something like it, is what Ian Preece repeated after he had kicked the winning drop goal in an 8-3 victory in 1949, when France were on a run of 43 years without winning in England.
