Rugby World Cup 2015: French 'mutiny' is a smokescreen

Selector Grant Fox (R) and assistant coach Ian Foster of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.

The All Blacks say rumours of a French player mutiny against their coach are a "smokescreen" designed to con them ahead of tomorrow morning's sudden death showdown in Cardiff.

All Blacks selector Grant Fox dismissed English and French media reports that coach Philippe Saint-Andre has been "dismissed" by the players ahead of the quarter final at Millennium Stadium, saying it is a psychological ploy against New Zealand that is doomed to fail.

"You can't keep playing that card," Fox told Newstalk ZB host Tony Veitch as comparisons were being made by media to the 2011 World Cup where France's players turned their back on then coach Marc Lieveremont early in the tournament and then went all the way to the final, pushing the All Blacks to the limit in the decider.

"We actually don't believe it," said the former Superboot of the current claims. "We don't think that's real. The media report what they hear (but) we don't believe it.

"We don't think Saint-Andre has lost the group at all. In fact he's well respected by his group so we don't believe it for one minute."

Fox said the All Blacks brains trust suspected it was a deliberate tactic to unsettle the All Blacks.

"At times, there are messages put out by a team or a coaching group and they use the media to help convey that message. We suspect that's what the French have done.

"But it doesn't actually matter; it's irrelevant; it's a smokescreen; it's out there; it's a little bit of bi-play for the media, they love that sort of story. What happens in the 80 minutes is what counts.

It's a smokescreen...it's a bit of bi-play for the media who love it."

Fox, who is in Cardiff for the match but has not been with the All Blacks during the week, said he was encouraged by seeing the mood in the camp since rejoining them.

"I walked in and I felt an edge, I really did, more so than at any stage during pool play," he said after attending the Captain's Run at Millennium Stadium earlier today.

"I felt a steely quiet about the group which I loved. They are ready, there is no doubt. It's been a very calm and clear week which our guys respond to well. It's been task-focused; it hasn't been emotionally focused, so no talk about 2007. Those drivers for us emotionally don't work."

"We're in good shape, we've had a great week and we are ready to play. But so are the French."

Fox believed the sudden death nature of the knockout match would bring out the best in the All Blacks and tipped some prominent players who have been struggling for form, notably Kieran Read, to have big games.

He felt that in the pool matches, with the exception of Argentina for half an hour before the All Blacks bench took the game away from the Pumas, that the fear of losing wasn't there for the New Zealand team and it had impacted on performance.

"Subconsciously, the guys have known they are going to win so that real fear of losing that drives All Blacks teams hasn't actually been there. That fear has been here big-time this week, I can tell you that. And that's a good thing. Anxiousness and nerves are a good thing....I am more nervous now than I have been at any stage other than when I first started. So that means we're worried about it.

"These guys love it every time they pull an All Blacks jersey on but there is no doubt that when the atmosphere is really special and there is something so big on the game as this, that this is what they really play for. This is the stage they want to be on. And some our our really big guns who are world class and haven't perhaps fired that cannon yet, I just get a sense they are going to fire it against the French - and we are going to need to.

"I have a funny feeling we're going to get a vintage Kieran Read performance."

Fox said that while the calamitous exit from Cardiff at the World Cup quarter final stage eight years ago had not been a major theme with the All Blacks this week, the lessons learned had been.

"We won 2011 because of the lessons of 2007. And part of the lessons of 2007 have been put into practice for this World Cup."

That included management of players, he said.

"Yes, we've managed a couple of players who have had a heavy workload and that's been strategic and hopefully that will pay benefits for us because that's part of the plan." he said. "But with the great benefit of hindsight, that was perhaps one of the big mistakes of 2007 was rotating too much before settling (on a team)."