Coping with Le Crunch

Sometimes teams make the mistake of paying France too much respect

Watching France saunter around Murrayfield last Sunday made me think about what their much-maligned former coach, Marc Lievremont, must have been thinking as he sat in front of his television back home.

When Philippe Saint-Andre assumed the reigns after the World Cup the only pronouncement he made was that he would seek to rid the French of the infuriating inconsistency that has dogged their performances at international for well over a decade. Under Lievremont at the World Cup things went from the ridiculous to the sublime within a period of three weeks, when they were beaten 19-14 by Tonga in their last pool game before losing by a single point to New Zealand in the final despite outplaying the hosts over the course of the 80 minutes.