Rieko Ioane runs in to score a try during the first Test match. Photo / Getty Images
Rieko Ioane runs in to score a try during the first Test match. Photo / Getty Images
Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, you have to wonder if that was France's pre-game pump up song before each match.
Traditionally they have used anything to ruffle the feathers of their opponents, punching, kicking, gouging, headbutting, squeezing, rucking, they've done it all.
But that might have changed. In recent yearsthey have backed away from their 'filthy French' mentality to have a much cleaner rugby etiquette.
On Saturday night the All Blacks and France only conceded nine penalties each, which was the same number France averaged in their Six Nations campaign.
Ben Smith contests a high ball. Photo / Photosport
Only once did they have more penalties than their opponents - their second-round loss to Scotland saw them penalised 13 times to 10.
In the remaining four games they were always penalised less: 6-10 against Ireland, 7-16 against Italy, 11-15 against England and 8-12 against Wales.
No French player was sin-binned in the Six Nations either, meanwhile, Italy and England both had players sent off with yellow cards against them.
France line up during the national anthems. Photo / Getty Images
Whether the new-found good behaviour will help them win remains to be seen, they were obliterated on Saturday and lost three games in the Six Nations, two by small margins.
There were probably harder players than the France and Toulon flanker, but none who seemed to take as much obvious pleasure in playing on the edge of reason. Champ, with his unkempt hair and all-action style, was made for colour television, where his brand of filth made for compelling, if uneasy, viewing.
Alain Plantefol (1967-69)
Most famous for having the temerity to kick the one and only CE Meads in the head during a test, and dined out on it for years. An enraged Meads proceeded to smack seven bells out of France's excellent No 8 Benoit Dauga in a case of mistaken identity.
Pascal Ondarts (1986-91)
Set the tone for "The Battle of Nantes", France's famous 16-3 victory over the All Blacks in 1986. It is not known whether it was he who ripped Wayne Shelford's scrotum apart, but you can guarantee he would not have been far from the crime.
Gerard Cholley (1975-79)
A former heavyweight boxer, Cholley is most famous for a match in which he laid out four Scots. Even Mel Gibson in his kilt and claymore would have blanched at the thought of taking on Cholley.
Franck Tournaire (1995-2000)
Prop cleared of biting a New Zealander during their famous semifinal victory in 1999, and fingered as the chief suspect in the eye-gouging allegations that came to light after the game. "I didn't say anything after the semifinal because I didn't want to distract from the French performance, but subsequent remarks from my players were of events that have no place in the game," said coach John Hart.
