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Bret Harris | June 23, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE French will be looking to rediscover their Gallic flair in the one-off Test against the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday night.
Under previous head coach Bernard Laporte, the French worked hard on eradicating ill-discipline from their game, but they seemed to lose some of their instinct in the process.
But Marc Lievremont, who replaced Laporte after the 2007 World Cup in France, has asked Les Bleus to play with more of the old French spirit of adventure.
"We want to impose our game and find again a kind of French flair," France five-eighth Francois Trinh-Duc said in Sydney yesterday. "Above all we want to win. The coach has asked us to be more ambitious and the notion of pleasure is at the heart of the spirit of the French attack now."
One of the first players of Vietnamese descent to play for France, Trinh-Duc is one of a handful of survivors from France's disastrous two-Test tour of Australia last year. The superiority of this year's touring team was evident in it drawing a two-Test series with the All Blacks.
"There are much more big players this time than last year," Trinh-Duc said.
If he is selected again at five-eighth, Trinh-Duc will have one of the most difficult assignments in the Test, marking Wallabies flyhalf Matt Giteau.
"He is one of the best number tens in the world," Trinh-Duc said. "He can kick well or play with ball in hand. There is no weakness in his game."
One of the French players who demonstrated Gallic flair in Les Bleus' 14-10 loss to the All Blacks in Wellington last Saturday was veteran winger Cedric Heymans, who scored a brilliant, solo try, beating five defenders.
"It was an inspiration," Heymans said of his score. "I didn't calculate anything. It was just taking the choice when the difficulty was in front of me. It was just an inspiration on the moment."
Heymans noted a change in the Wallabies' backs. "The backs are younger now in the Australian team," he said. "They are very ambitious players and they are taking many, many risks."
France assistant coach Emile Ntamack said his team was tired after its Tests in New Zealand, but was looking to finish their tour on a high note.
"We knew the tour would be very tough and we are for the moment one win, one loss," Ntamack said. "It would be good for the French players to finish on a good opportunity, maybe."
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans rested several players, including Stirling Mortlock, Al Baxter, Nathan Sharpe and Richard Brown from Saturday's win against Italy in Melbourne, while Giteau did not come off the bench.
Ntamack said the freshness of the Wallabies would be an advantage. "We know the Australian team is ready to play at a very high level," he said.
"For the French players it is important to compare the level of play against the best team in the world like the All Blacks and now the Australians."
Charismatic French second rower Sebastien "The Caveman" Chabal has been ruled out of the Test with a pulled calf muscle.
Chabal joins Yannick Jauzion, Louis Picamoles and Thomas Domingo on the sidelines.
Ntamack said he hoped the assault on French player Mathieu Bastareaud in Wellington would not affect relations between France and New Zealand.
Bastareaud has four stitches in his bruised face after being attacked by a group of men in central Wellington early on Sunday morning.
"I don't want to see a problem between Les Bleus and the All Blacks and the New Zealand public," Ntamack said.
"It's just a bad incident. He hasn't broken a bone or something like that. In rugby, you have some stupid people."
Police in Wellington are investigating the attack, but Bastareaud has returned to France.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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