Laporte to emulate Ireland’s strategy

FRENCH rugby coach Bernard Laporte has revealed he will be looking to copy Ireland’s strategy as the hosts prepare for next year’s rugby World Cup.

Laporte blamed the heavy club schedule of many of France’s internationals for their dismal autumn series, which included two limp and uninspiring losses to World Cup favourites the All Blacks.

And he said that the two-time world finalists would be using the Six Nations Championship as a springboard for their World Cup campaign.

“We have to win the Six Nations, our reputation is at stake, but we want to use this big gathering to have a look at all the players,” said Laporte during the official presentation for the 2007 Six Nations.

And for the first time in the competition, all 40 members of the France squad will be mobilised for the tournament from February 3 to March 18.

“Of prime importance will be physical freshness, enthusiasm and spirit of competition,” explained Laporte, adding that during the November Test series “(teams like Ireland) showed a totally different level of physical freshness than us”.

Laporte pointed out that they will be looking to build physical fitness with a wide-ranging programme of activites scheduled for the week before each match, with players aware that their place in the World Cup is at stake.

“All (of the 40 players) will play at least one tournament match, but no-one will play all five matches,” said Laporte.

Meanwhile, French rugby chiefs are worried about the effect the influx of foreign players is having on the national side just nine months ahead of the World Cup.

“Today our only obsession is the World Cup,” said French team manager Jo Maso.

“But after that, the French rugby federation and the national league will have a big job to manage — the number of foreign players in our championship.”

In the last round of French championship games, on December 22 and 23, 17 of the 28 props who started the seven matches were foreigners.