France look to get past All Blacks thrashing

MARCOUSSIS, FRANCE - France's 45-6 mauling by New Zealand still hurts and coach Bernard Laporte reminded his players they had nothing to be proud of as they assembled to train for their Six Nations opener on Monday.

The first event of a week's preparation for Saturday's game against Scotland was a long video session entirely dedicated to the All Blacks game in November.

When he drew his conclusions afterwards, Laporte told journalists that he regarded the "physical factor and not the tactical factor as the main reason for the defeat".

He added: "I don't believe there is a winning system because if there was one, everybody would use it. However, I believe that if you want to go into Formula One racing, you need a Formula One engine."

The French coach admitted he and his technical staff were partly responsible for the lack of physical form of Les Bleus.

"When you lose, you have no choice but to admit you were wrong," he said.

"After our win over Australia, we should have given a start to our reserve players against Argentina to face the All Blacks with more freshness." France were beaten by the Pumas.

The video exercise and the coach's lecture left the players ready to redeem themselves.

"On Saturday, we shall be out for revenge, not on the Scots but on ourselves," said captain Fabien Pelous. "We can't leave it at such a failure."

However, the act of contrition quickly made way for irritation and defiance.

"Some people are saying that 2004 was a horrible year for French rugby. I would like to remind them that we won a grand slam, defeated England, who are the world champions, and Australia, who were the World Cup runners-up", Pelous said.

"OK, we probably played our worst game of the year and the All Blacks were in a state of grace. According to some, it was a cataclysm but it was only a rugby game we lost. Enough is enough, let's move on to something else," he added.

France will face Scotland without seven regulars, including the back row trio of Imanol Harinordoquy, Olivier Magne and Serge Betsen, but the changes are due to injuries more that a sanction for poor results.

As usual in French rugby, the halfbacks will pay the price for the November defeats. Halfback Jean-Baptiste Elissalde has been dropped from the squad and will be replaced by Dimitri Yachvili in the starting line-up due to be announced on Tuesday.

First five-eighths Frederic Michalak survived but will probably be relegated to the bench and replaced by Yann Delaigue.

With Harinordoquy, Magne and Betsen all injured, Laporte will have to name a totally reshuffled back row.

Among the four candidates is Sebastien Chabal, who fell out with Laporte after the World Cup but found a new lease of life when he joined Sale in England and switched from blindside flanker to number eight.

Chabal will be in contention with Patrick Tabacco, who played his last test against the United States in July, Julien Bonnaire and Yannick Nyanga, who have three and two caps respectively.

- REUTERS