France not carried away by English woes

ENGLAND’S below-par performance against Samoa last night has provided prospective semi-final opponents France with some vital information – but it will not be assessed until they eventually reach the last four.

Hooker Raphael Ibanez and the rest of his international team-mates tuned in to watch England on television and sat in amazement as Clive Woodward’s side struggled to overcome the combative South Sea Islanders.

Having almost contemptuously dismissed the threat of Scotland 24 hours earlier, France’s hopes of becoming the first northern hemisphere country to capture the Webb Ellis Trophy appear to have increased significantly.

However, Ibanez did not believe England’s performance was as bad as it seemed and though there were parts of the game which did offer encouragement, there is no point assessing them until a semi-final pairing is certain.

“England did have a few bad moments and I’m sure that will give the coaches some information if we do meet them in the future,” said the Saracens front-row.

“But not everything they did was poor. Their scrum looked very solid and their defence held up quite well, so I don’t think we should get too carried away.

“Besides, we have a group game left yet and then a quarter-final so we can’t afford to start thinking about England. We have to concentrate on our own job. We’ll assess what happened last night as and when we play them.”

Ibanez reacted with a smile when asked for his opinion on the 16-man debacle at the end, when Dan Luger entered the field of play without asking permission.

“It was a very original tactic,” he laughed. “Maybe we should look at doing it if we get into trouble.”

France booked a Melbourne quarter-final with either Australia or, more probably Ireland, with their win at Telstra Stadium this weekend.

After steering a path through the World Cup virtually un-noticed, Les Blues’ record 51-9 success announced their arrival as a major contender.

Immediately after the game, Scotland director of rugby Jim Telfer said he felt France were back to their Grand Slam-winning form of 2002 and it is no coincidence that centre Tony Marsh and number eight Imanol Harinordoquy are restored to the side and returning to top form.

On Saturday’s evidence, France will certainly provide England with a stern test should they meet in the semi-finals, although Ibanez does not feel the 50 minutes of magic they produced against the Scots will be enough to win the bigger games.