Up for France in Le Crunch

On RugbyIt will be nice to sit back and feast on Le Crunch courtesy of the goggle box next Saturday - it's like watching embittered neighbours having another little spat for our entertainment, whatever about complaints from the other side of the Irish Sea that England v France has come too early, that the "Grand Slam decider" would have been better served as a climax to the championship for Twickenham's delectation. Ireland, most of all, may have something to say about that.

Even the Italy-Wales opener which kicks off the Six Nations could be the most entertaining game either of these two will be involved in, on the premise that it will be the only truly competitive encounter the two will be involved in. Imagine, therefore, the sense of gloom and foreboding which will envelop the side and the country on the losing end of this one?

Italy must be targeting this as their most winnable game, for Steve Hansen has a loaves-and-fishes job which probably requires a change in Welsh rugby's whole professional culture from the club game up. Alas, for the Azzurri, much of the old problems persist, not least their inability to score tries, and they struggle to live with the intensity of Test rugby when opponents start attacking through the phases. Though the Italian sides have improved in European club rugby this season, their club game leaves them ill-prepared for Test rugby, and coach John Kirwan may also need to oversee a change in culture as much as anything else.

It can be done, as Bernard Laporte has shown, but, as his reign has also highlighted, these things don't happen overnight. In Laporte's case, his target was French discipline, or rather the lack of. Like some bespectacled academic, he was unflinchingly tough on any players guilty of foul play, petulance or persistent infringing, even in their domestic championship.

Despite an ultra-disciplined and controlled 36-3 win in Cardiff in his first year, many questioned whether Laporte had, in the process, stifled French flair, particularly after they lost at home to England and Ireland.

In the 2001 calendar year, France lost seven of their 11 matches, but one of those four wins came on a breakthrough, end-of-season tour to South Africa which Laporte has always highlighted as a new beginning following the departure from the international stage of such luminaries as Benazzi, Lamaison, Dourthe, Bernat-Salles and Sadourny.

Laporte applied his fresh broom some more at the outset of last season by blooding the Tony Marsh-Damien Traille midfield partnership, winger Aurelien Rougerie, full back Clement Poitrenaud and others in the 20-10 victory over the Springboks which kick-started an eight-match winning sequence.

Ultimately, Laporte can be seen to have taken one step back in order to take two forward. Now, praise the Lord, French discipline has become a virtue where before it was their Achilles heel and a source of succour to all opponents.

Last season Jonny Wilkinson was confined to just one penalty at goal in France's memorable 20-15 win in Paris, and, all told, France conceded the fewest penalties in the championship - just 48 in their five matches. When they beat South Africa 30-10 last November in Marseilles Les Bleus conceded just two penalties.

Now France have a bit of everything, they really do, save for a possible void in leadership, direction and vision if anything untoward were to happen to Fabien Galthie.

ENGLAND and France are set to meet twice more in August as part of their World Cup preparations, which sounds like it might even dilute the fervour of their rivalry. Yet, Saturday's collision could be the first of four meetings this year, for they are seeded to avoid the All Blacks and Australia in the other half of the draw and meet in the World Cup semi-finals.

Every aspect of the clash will be immense and intense, even if both scrums may have been weakened by the injuries to England's Phil Vickery and the indefinite sidelining of Pieter de Villiers, who cuts a singularly unfortunate figure.

Sure, he tested positive for banned, grade A drugs, and players have to be good examples to young players. But they were not performance enhancing drugs. He was not cheating, unlike some in rugby and other sports who have either not been caught, or got off lightly on the premise that they took too much ginseng or whatever. Does he really deserve to be the new bete noire of the global game and face a premature end to his career?

The other major topic in last week's build-up to the game was Imanol Harinordoquy's injudicious comments regarding his dislike of England and their arrogance. In truth, when England lost in Dublin two years ago the then-captain, Matt Dawson, and Co were gracious losers.

But perceptions of English arrogance die hard when you read Francis Barron, chief executive of the RFU, saying: "How can you have a championship determined by its first match?" And they wonder why Celts and French alike cheer their defeats? Even so, Harinordoquy's observations will only intensify the antipathy between these two rugby nations and, actually, one imagines Laporte would not have been too amused by his number eight's outburst.

From afar, it's hard to be neutral. Watching, from the confines of a packed Lansdowne club bar, as France suffocated the life out of England in Paris last year with an unrelenting 80 minutes of pressure defence, everyone bar a few English weekenders were rooting for the French.

Away from home, can the French be inspired enough to scale those heights again? After last year, England, you'd suspect, will want it more, and at Twickenham not only are they flat track bullies, they have now perfected the art of winning matches they don't deserve to win. They also have Jonny.

In any event, it's a culture clash as much as a rugby match, from bangers and mash v crepe souzette, to Tony Blair's gun-ho support of America versus French anti-war diplomacy.

So not much thought required again then. Allez Les Bleus.