French and les miserables

By DAVID LEGGAT at the World Cup

It is a fair bet that when the French selectors sat down to pick their team to play England in Sunday night's World Cup semifinal, they'd have finished the job before they finished their espressos.

France have rolled through the tournament with such conviction so far that any change in the starting XV would have been of jaw-dropping proportions.

Alone among the cup's big guns, France have been untroubled in waltzing through their group, then demolishing their quarter-final opponents (Ireland, in Melbourne last weekend).

The camp is settled - not always the case with the French - the confidence is high, they are playing with strength, cohesion and discipline and, to play the tired old pre-match game, it is easy to make them slight favourites against their fiercest rivals at Telstra Stadium.

"We are full of experienced internationals, we are happy together and when you relax together you play well together on the field," captain Fabien Galthie said at the team's Bondi hotel yesterday.

Galthie is a key figure in France's progress.

He will be playing his 64th test on Sunday, his 24th as captain - and maybe his last if England win. Galthie, 34, is retiring after the cup. He is still good enough to carry on but as he put it yesterday, "I am too tired to continue my adventure with the team".

The International Rugby Board's 2002 player of the year, the lively halfback is hugely respected by his players and victory in this tournament would be a dream finale for a career which began in 1991.

The only changes France announced yesterday were on the reserves bench.

Gone from the quarter-final are flanker Patrick Tabacco, replaced by versatile loose forward Christian Labit; David Auradou takes over from the injured Olivier Brouzet as the backup lock; Damien Traille is the midfield back cover ahead of Brian Liebenberg; and Clement Poitrenaud comes in for Pepito Elhorga, who has had to return to France after the death of his father.

"There was no need for any changes to the starting XV - we were happy with the way we played against Ireland," said manager, and former backline great, Jo Maso.

Certainly there is an air of calmness about the French camp.

As close to 100 journalists milled around the foyer of their hotel yesterday, players wandered in from a walk on the beach across the road, bare-chested, full of polite handshakes, only too happy to talk to anyone who wanted a word.

It is a far cry from the tightly wound English operation at Manly. Before players - never more than two - are brought out to meet the media they are taken into a room for a briefing on what, and what not, to discuss.

There is a surliness about the atmosphere around the camp, unhappiness at constant sniping over their tournament form from their own, and Australian critics.

Questions from French-accented journalists are given short shrift. There is no question which is the happier bunch of footballers to be around this week.

That doesn't necessarily translate into what will happen on Sunday night.

As Galthie was quick to point out, England might have been below their most imposing so far but "each close match, they win", followed by a very Gallic tilt of the head and shrug of the shoulders.

England's team will be named today, with speculation that somewhere in the 22 they will include blindside flank kingpin Richard Hill, who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since the opening game against Georgia.

It will be a massive gamble against unquestionably the outstanding back row trio of the tournament in Imanol Harinordoquy, Olivier Magne and Serge Betsen.


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