Rugby: Taylor and team braced for foul play on French tour

By WYNNE GRAY

LILLE - When Glenn Taylor last played rugby in France, cricket groin protector boxes were standard issue for some forwards.

The "Christmas hold," or "bag-snatching" as it is commonly known, was an insidious tackling method used by some French sides low on skill but stacked with brutality.

Taylor, a young man on a season's experience at the Nice club in 1992, remembers those rugged days well. He does not have the scars to prove it, but rates some of the games on the low end of acceptability.

"They would have had to clean the game up," he said yesterday, "but then, they have had to all over the world, haven't they?"

While there are increasing numbers of violent offenders being punished in French rugby, whenever their test team play, post-match tales of atrocities usually surface.

Eye-gouging, kicking, punching, testicle-tweaking, biting - the allegations filter out after Tricolor tests. They were there after the All Blacks and Wallabies both played the French in the World Cup last year.

The topic has been discussed by New Zealand A captain Taylor and his squad before they open their four-game programme against a French Barbarian squad at Lens on Wednesday.

"We will have to pull tight if anything happens, but it is a fine line," he said. "Invariably, if you retaliate you get caught, but we can't be intimidated. We have talked about that a fair bit."

Much of the danger and problems could be avoided, Taylor said, if NZ A keep the ball up off the ground.

"We have a side who like to keep it moving. We want to play a decent game and not go to deck too much, because that is where most of the trouble starts," he said.

NZ A will take a young back three and a youthful loose trio - including Jerry Collins, who turned 20 at the weekend - into this opening match, one which will test the tourists in many ways, including the late-evening kickoff.

Any decent New Zealand rugby side usually can lay their hands on video footage of their next opposition.

Not this week. And even if NZ A did discover some footage they would probably learn little from the film other than to be prepared.

"We cannot focus on them," Taylor said. "We have to concentrate on getting our game together and what sort of style we are going to use."

This opening combination appears to have been picked in the expectation of stronger challenges in the next two matches, against Wales A in Cardiff on Saturday and France A/Universities in Bayonne on Thursday.

But three games in nine days will stretch NZ A's resources, especially if the All Blacks take any more players other than Dion Waller.

As a reluctant but proud leader, Taylor has a big job. He has flirted with captaincy throughout his career and while he leads both Northland and the Chiefs, it is not a task he covets.

"I have grown not to mind it, I guess is the best way to describe it," he said, "though I do not totally enjoy it. I do the job for Northland, really, because there is not a lot of experience there.

"But I was very surprised and elated to hear first I had been picked for this team and then would be captain."

Whether this tour also pushes Taylor nearer another test jersey like his old locking mate, Todd Blackadder, is questionable.

But he and his family already hold a unique place in global sporting history.

His father played polo for New Zealand, his elder brother, Bretton, played test rugby for Holland, while Taylor was capped on the All Blacks' tour to South Africa in 1996.

NZ A team: Ben Blair, Mils Muliaina, Caleb Ralph, Scott McLeod, Orene Ai'i, Tony Brown, Mark Robinson, Koula Tukino, Justin Collins, Jerry Collins, Glenn Taylor (capt), Royce Willis, Carl Hayman, Slade McFarland, Dave Hewett. Res: Rua Tipoki, David Holwell, Jason Spice, Keven Mealamu, Nick White, Kupu Vanisi, Chris Jack.