Rupert Guinness | June 22, 2009


FRANCE'S coach, Marc Lievremont, won't accept that his side should be better prepared for Saturday's Test than the Wallabies, on the back of two punishing games against the All Blacks.

Wallabies great Matt Burke yesterday suggested the Australians might be worse off than their opponents in the one-off Test at ANZ Stadium, having won their own two-match series against the far weaker Italians.

"You wonder if the two All Blacks games for the French are going to hold them in better stead than the two games against the Italians for the Wallabies, in terms of intensity and preparation," Burke said.

Lievremont, whose side beat the All Blacks in the first Test but lost the second 14-10 in Wellington on Saturday night, did not rule out Burke's reasoning but certainly left an open verdict on it.

"Perhaps we will be better prepared because we have had two hard games but they have been able to rotate their squad," Lievremont said after he and the French squad arrived in Sydney last night.

"They had a number of players who didn't play [on Saturday]. So maybe they will be fresher. I don't know what is better. We have some injuries already in the group, players who are tired and will have to play a third match, players not used to playing three matches in a row at that level. I really don't know."

Lievremont said he was impressed by the Wallabies' teenage sensation James O'Connor in the first Test against Italy.

"I saw him score his three tries but I think they'll more likely play [Adam] Ashley-Cooper at fullback against us," he said. "I don't know. In any case 'bravo' … what [O'Connor] has done at 18 is exceptional."

What is certain is that Lievremont's opinion of Wallabies five-eighth Matt Giteau remains unchanged.

The French coach said Giteau "for me is the best playmaker in the world - he has perfected his position".

But one player on Lievre-mont's squad received equally high praise yesterday - Cedric Heymans.

Burke, the most capped Wallabies fullback, labelled the French winger's crucial try in the second half against the All Blacks to leave them 7-8 down as one of the best individual efforts he has seen.

Heymans's display of brilliance occurred in the 46th minute when the 30-year-old, 38-cap Test veteran from the Toulouse club unleashed his electric speed almost 50m from the All Blacks' line.

The 91-kilogram winger set off with the ball, hugging the touchline and using all his speed, step and brilliant understanding of positional play to score after beating a five-star cast of All Blacks defenders: winger Cory Jane, fullback Mils Muliaina, No.6 Kieran Read and winger Joe Rokocoko.

"You only dream of that kind of stuff," Burke said. "It was an incredible try."

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