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A makeshift French side will train together for the first time next week in Auckland, just days before they meet an All Black side charged with reclaiming their reputation on the first step of their World Cup odyssey.
People from All Black coach Graham Henry to French utility Thomas Castaignede have talked up the touring team's qualities when the reality is the French will be sorting out their final squad as the All Blacks go into camp in Auckland.
"It is madness. They will arrive with jetlag, have a few training sessions while people are still being introduced to each other and then have to play the best team in the world," said Henri Bru, senior rugby writer for L'Equipe.
"France will have a scratch team, it will be a very, very strange tour and I cannot understand why the IRB is sanctioning the visit.
"There is absolutely no interest in the tour here. All the focus in France is on our club championship, with the semifinals and the final on the same days as the two tests in New Zealand."
About 70 per cent of players from the regular French squad are not available as they are involved with their Paris, Toulouse and Clermont-Ferrand clubs and the likely fourth qualifier, Biarritz.
Most of the probable touring squad will play tomorrow in the final round of the club championship before coach Bernard Laporte and his medical staff assess any casualties and the need for replacements before the team leave on their long-haul flight, arriving in Auckland on Tuesday.
Laporte has tried to concentrate on the positive. He said veterans such as Olivier Magne and Christian Califano were playing for a final shot at another World Cup, Raphael Ibanez would use the trip to evaluate the All Blacks, while others would lay down their claims to be on a standby list or for future French selection.
A maximum of 10 tourists have World Cup aspirations, and the team's plight is shown by the absence of any regular backs involved in the last few Six Nations campaigns.
Dimitri Yachvili, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Pierre David Skrela, Damien Traille, Florian Fritz, Cedric Heymans, Christophe Dominici, Vincent Clerc and Clement Poitreneau are all missing because of injury or club obligations.
France's three best props - Pieter de Villiers, Olivier Milloud and Sylvain Marconnet - are unavailable as well as other big-name forwards Fabien Pelous, Imanol Harinorduquy, Jerome Thion and Serge Betsen.
Regulation nine of the IRB constitution states that any country has first call on players ahead of any club obligations. However, an IRB spokesman explained the regulation could be enforced only if a national union complained that a club was not releasing any players.
"In this case there has been a pragmatic, gentlemen's agreement between Laporte and the clubs in a World Cup year. The IRB cannot tell any country which players they should select," he said.
Bru explained some of the rationale about recent comments from French manager Jo Maso that the Tricolores wanted to cancel the tour and pay the New Zealand Rugby Union compensation.
That had been canvassed some time ago because France knew the tour would clash with their club championships and they could not change the dates because of the World Cup.
When the compensation offer was made, New Zealand insisted the tour should proceed. Utility back Castaignede is tipped to be in the slim group from this tour who will carry on to the World Cup.
He said France would have front-row seats looking at the All Blacks before the World Cup. There would be pointers about the All Blacks' form, but no more.
"The clash with the end of the French championship means I won't be part of a typical France side," he wrote in a newspaper column. "We won't be travelling as fall guys. There is much to be said for playing the All Blacks even if they are an incredibly difficult team to play.
"It's my last international tour, and it's going to take me back to a country where rugby is king."
The All Blacks last lost to France at Marseille in 2000 and drew with them two years later in Paris when coach John Mitchell left 21 of his top players at home.
