French won’t lose their cool, says Crenca

HE’S no sensitive new-age guy but reformed prop Jean-Jacques Crenca is a far cry from the player who was once warned to behave himself or be kicked off the French team.

Crenca, 34, missed the previous Rugby World Cup when he was banned for six weeks and subsequently dropped from the French team for stamping on the head of a New Zealand player.

He spent two years out of the tricolores and developed a reputation as a violent player. He won't deny he had problems with his temper but said a reputation for violence was unwarranted.

"That incident was the first problem I had but I carried that tag with me for a year after that and was pigeon-holed as a violent player," Crenca said through a translator ahead of tomorrow's World Cup quarter-final against Ireland in Melbourne.

"I used to have a philosophy of an eye for an eye. If someone provoked me, my first reaction was to give one back.

"Now, my philosophy is that the referee is there and it's up to him to sort out any transgressions."

In his bad days, Crenca said that while he "didn't head-butt dressing room walls or anything", his mental preparation was all wrong.

"I used to get really worked up before the game, really psyched up, probably it was a little bit too much energy, too much negative energy. These days I'm more relaxed, less hyped up. I just concentrate on what plays we are going to use."

Crenca, a softly-spoken father of two who still holds down a part-time job as an electrician in Agen, said that when he worked his way back into Bernard Laporte's team in 2001, he was given a stern warning to behave himself.

"Bernard Laporte said to me, 'the first incident of violent play and you'll be out'."

Crenca said his transformation personified the transition of the French team under Laporte.

"The whole team realises that indiscretions cost us points and matches. The whole team has the same mentality it's too expensive in terms of points not to be like that."

Crenca, a mighty scrummager, said Ireland had a scrum that could test France, who have so far cruised through their pool matches without being given a strenuous workout.

"Ireland have a very experienced front row and they're very difficult to manoeuvre," he said, reserving special comments for Irish prop John Hayes, with a wink towards referee Jonathan Kaplan.

"He's a big, strong guy and that gives him an advantage straight away. Technically, he does things differently sometimes he gets pulled up for it by the referee, sometimes not."

Crenca acknowledged Ireland had matched France in recent contests, with five of the past six games between them decided by seven points or less, and Ireland winning three of the past four.

"Maybe it's because the Irish like to play a territorial game and occasionally France has tried to play too adventurously from inside its own half," Crenca said.

But that was the old France.

There's a feeling that the new France won't make those sort of ill-disciplined mistakes again.