Michalak totally relaxed, but taking it all seriously

By CHRIS RATTUE

Frederic Michalak drew a media audience of 70 at the French team's hotel in Bondi Beach this week.

Yes, the World Cup had found its star. Yet the man who was supposed to be the brightest light was never far away.

The name of Jonny Wilkinson - who will oppose Michalak in tomorrow night's semifinal - was brought up repeatedly.

In response, the 21-year-old Michalak was all deference.

A prankster lurks within Michalak, but he is also known for his team-first approach and the respect he shows to one and all.

He will help an opponent off the ground as willingly as he made the tackle that put him there.

And he was not about to tackle Wilkinson before the match in Sydney.

"It is not my preoccupation to worry about how I match up against the best flyhalf in the world. I'm interested in my team role," may sound cliched, but it apparently sums Michalak up.

He has the look of a model, and displays model public behaviour.

And Michalak is not only the talk of the cup, but may be about to become the game's next superstar.



In his first test start, when he was 19, Michalak outshone Australian ace Stephen Larkham. He is also gifted enough to have played halfback for his country.

If Michalak can guide France to World Cup glory, he will secure a glorious place in rugby history.

But first, there is the small matter of England and Mr Wilkinson.

While debate rages on whether Wilkinson is in razor-sharp form, Michalak will glide into the semifinal.

If he were Australian, you would expect a stack of "no worries" to pass his lips.

Not too long ago, Michalak was a utility with an international future as confusing as French rugby temperament.

Now, his running and passing skills, kicking game and reading of the play are firmly wrapped in a No 10 jersey.

Even on attack he is fearless, making a good dozen tackles in the quarter-final annihilation of Ireland, although he is not as fierce in this department as Wilkinson.

Against Ireland, he also landed every goal attempt and scored 23 points as the men in green were left red-faced.

So here he is in a hotel function room - expressionless and almost motionless, which seems very un-Gallic - answering the media via an interpreter.

Even the shortest questions get a detailed response, although interpreter Andrew Knox takes less than half the time to relay the message. You wonder what is being left out.

What is left is an impression of an earnest young man. He is from a hard-working blue-collar family - his father is a bricklayer - of East European heritage who live in a tough suburb of Toulouse, the riverside city in southern France.





But the Michalak on display to the media is partly at odds with the one his team know.

He is a trickster, delighting especially in preying on forwards, who must accept the strange antics of the annoying young mite.



The bigger the forward, the more likely he is to answer an early-morning knock and find a bucket of water delivered over him.

His collaborator, club and room mate, Clement Poitrenaud, is at pains to say that Michalak has left his zany behaviour behind for the World Cup hunt.

"No trickery," says fullback Poitrenaud as he wanders the hotel lobby.

He claims they surf the net and that Michalak listens to hip-hop music in any spare time.

But other stories emerge, of the pair obtaining keys and turning over players' rooms. You can only go so far in curbing 21-year-olds' zest for life.

"He is their playmaker, their matchwinner. What can they do?" a member of the French entourage says.

The French management faced these questions, balancing instincts and structure, when they sat down with Michalak towards the end of this year's Six Nations.

Gerald Merceron was struggling, and France were re-considering their options.

One of Michalak's problems was his versatility and also that two other international halves, Yann Dalague and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, played for Toulouse.

Toulouse made the French club final and won the European championship early this year with Michalak often starting at halfback then switching during games to first five-eighth.

"Because of injuries over the past couple of years I have played No 9 and No 10 at regular intervals," he said.

"But ever since I was little, flyhalf is the position I played and dreamed of playing."

French manager Jo Maso and coach Bernard Laporte asked Michalak to demand of Toulouse that he play only in the No 10 jersey this season.

They also wanted Michalak to ensure his tactical kicks landed where he was aiming them, that his kickoffs went the 10 metres ... He had to get the basics right.



"A gift without work is a bad habit," was the motto.

Michalak replied: "Cinq sur cinq," which means, although not literally, "I receive you loud and clear."

The French management wanted from Michalak what they wanted from their team - some form to give flair a proper stage.

And Michalak is prepared to work hard.

On goalkicking, he says: "It's important to practise every day, whether it is holidays or vacations ... You must put in maybe one-and-a-half hours every day to kick at the top level."

Michalak has repaid Maso and Laporte's investment since they established him as the first-choice first five-eighth against the All Blacks at Jade Stadium in Christchurch in June.

He has the advantage of working behind the best scrum in world rugby.

The French also have a superb lineout, so Michalak has a head start.

But you never know when the magic of the French might strike or go on strike.

During the last World Cup, they found it midway through a semifinal that New Zealanders will remember well.

Are they about to do the same to another tiring team - Clive Woodward's England?

Michalak, playing his 17th test, will be at the heart of whatever happens.

His cross-field kicks and long passes should test an English defence that will try to compress its opponents infield.

The English in turn will be desperate to pressure Michalak physically and mentally. Will he have enough schooling from limited test experience to retain the calm his team-mates talk about in this ferocious battle? Or will other instincts take over.

At the time France were plotting Michalak's future, team-mate Thomas Castaignede was watching the Blues play the Hurricanes on television.

He roared into Michalak's room, proclaiming, "This is how we must play the game."

A battle between two of the wilder Super 12 teams might not be a recipe England would follow.

But for the French, it is different. They identify with that free spirit.

So which buttons will Michalak push? Will the prankster, the free spirit, emerge under pressure or can Michalak retain France's structure, as Laporte and Maso demand, in the toughest game of his career.

He has faced few major tests since June. The England team he helped defeat in Marseilles in August were second-string, and Michalak was on the bench when France were crushed by Woodward's top line-up in September.

France's five World Cup opponents were poor.

Even if Wilkinson is blinking in the World Cup spotlight, we still have more idea how he and his team will play tomorrow night compared to what Michalak and the most famous mavericks in world rugby might serve up.

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