How France lost their spine - Sunday Times - Times Online

France are urgently in need of some backbone, as in the spine of the team that they hope will retain them the Six Nations and then win the World Cup. Which is why Bernard Laporte needed the question fired at him at the Hurlingham Club on Wednesday like a slipped disc. It is the inaugural 2007 Six Nations press conference and Laporte, coach of France for the past seven years, and Fabien Pelous, his lantern-jawed captain, are doing the rounds in one of the conference rooms at the plush members-only sports club in southwest London.

The question I ask him is why, with only seven months to the World Cup, which France hosts, he has absolutely no consistency of selection in any of the positions regarded as the most influential in the success of any team; the spine that runs through hooker, No 8, scrum-half and fly-half to full-back? Laporte knows better than anyone that in the past 14 internationals France have not once fielded the same five players in those core positions. Instead, there has been such tinkering that he has used 25 players there, a figure that reflects France s state of flux, despite being the reigning Six Nations champions.

Over the past 18 months even battered old England have managed greater consistency, managing to field the same spine twice in last season s desultory Six Nations campaign, while Ireland s reputation as the coming force in international rugby has been based on a backbone that has been pretty well fixed for the whole period. France lost only one game last season, their opener against Scotland at Murrayfield, and, after they beat South Africa in a one-off match in Cape Town last summer, it appeared as if New Zealand would have a genuine northern hemisphere rival for the World Cup. However, that scenario lasted only as long as the All Blacks visit to France in the autumn, when Laporte s plans were blown to smithereens in the first Test in Lyon, which they lost 47-3 and had their scrum dismembered.

A patch-up job in Paris a week later meant a more respectable 23-11 reverse, but it was hardly damage limitation because of the psychological impact of Lyon. France were in bits. Back to Hurlingham.

Laporte is cornered, but the eyes behind the John Lennon specs do not blink: We want to see as many players as possible to see who will come through. The All Blacks change a lot as well . .

. and they win, Laporte says. And, er, that s it.

It s as nifty a side-step as he ever managed as a championship-winning scrum-half and captain of B gles-Bordeaux. Other than that, Laporte s only reference to the horrendous defeat in Lyon is this: We suffered against the All Blacks because a lot of our players did not play at their level in terms of fitness. For the moment, the French press seems to have bought Laporte s line that lack of preparation, jaded players and injuries were responsible.

However, while French expectations of winning the World Cup may have dipped after the All Black visit, Laporte knows that they have to remain champions of Europe, especially as he feels it necessary to tinker some more: We have to win the Six Nations, our reputation is at stake but we want to use this big gathering to have a look at all the players. As he heads off, he turns to an English journalist and says, Say hello to Andy [Robinson] and Clive [Woodward]. Mention of England s World Cup-winning coaches reminds you how keen Laporte is to emulate Woodward s 2003 model.

In the aftermath of France being bundled out of the last World Cup by England in the semi-finals, Laporte set out his stall. After the mind-boggling suggestion that France had lost because it rained, and his players knew psychologically that they could not beat England in the wet, Laporte was soon suggesting that Pelous could do in leadership terms for France in 2007 what Martin Johnson had done for England. The problem is that Pelous, 33 and injury-prone during the past two seasons, misses France s opener against Italy in Rome on Saturday with ankle trouble and shows signs of being far less durable than Johnson.

Laporte also talked about building a side based on experience, discipline and consistency, as Woodward did. Yet Laporte s selection policy has about as much credibility as Home Office figures on the release of foreign prisoners. Laporte says he already knows 20 of his World Cup squad, but close examination of his selections over the 14 Tests since France played Australia in the autumn of 2005 shows clearly that those certainties are not along the spine.

In that time Laporte has fielded eight full-backs, five fly-halves, three scrum-halves, three hookers and six No 8s. Woodward used less than half that number in the 18 months preceding the 2003 World Cup. Furthermore, he knew from a long way off that his first choices were Josh Lewsey (full-back), Jonny Wilkinson (fly-half), Matt Dawson (scrum-half), Steve Thompson (hooker) and Lawrence Dallaglio (No 8).

Laporte s selections at full-back alone have your head in a spin. He started with Julien Laharrague against Australia, then rehabilitated Thomas Castaign de against South Africa after he returned from injury, gave Cl ment Poitrenaud a run against Romania, tried Nicolas Brusque against Scotland and experimented with Christophe Dominici against Ireland before plumping for Castaign de for the rest of last year s Six Nations. Then in the autumn, he gave Laharrague another chance against New Zealand, before switching to Pepito Elhorga for the last two Tests, including the 27-26 win over Argentina.

Last week Elhorga did not even make the extended squad of 40, but Poitrenaud did, along with Anthony Floch, a newcomer from Clermont, with the Toulouse man favoured to start against Italy. Got it? Far more damaging has been Laporte s inablity to find a world class fly-half since question marks were raised over Toulouse s boy wonder, Fr d ric Michalak, at the 2003 World Cup.

He appears to have gambled everything on the quixotic half-back, who many believe is in limbo between being a fly-half and scrum-half, becoming the complete No 10. Michalak did not look convincing before he had knee surgery in November, and he faces a long haul just to get fit. In the interim Laporte has switched Damien Traille, the incisive Biarritz centre, to fly-half with mixed results.

After a good start in the win in South Africa, Traille looked one-dimensional against New Zealand, the All Blacks taking advantage of his relentless bombs. The picture at scrum-half is a bit more settled, with Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz) and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (Toulouse) sharing the honours, although Philippe Saint-Andre, the Sale head coach and former France captain, says he expects Laporte to introduce yet another half-back pairing against Italy. I ve heard that they will start with David Skrela of Stade Fran ais at fly-half, and Pierre Mignoni of Clermont at scrum-half, Saint-Andre says.

Nor does Saint-Andre believe that the merry-go-round at hooker or No 8 is about to end. The front five forwards are less heavy than with my generation, so in the back-row he needs the power players like Elvis Vermeulen, Sebastien Chabal and Remy Martin to carry the ball. He is trying to create competition in a lot of positions.

Competition, or confusion? We know the French take pride in being different, but if Laporte discovers the spine of the French team among this jumble of bodies over the next six months he will be a local hero.