Laporte: Big French squad ‘one little family’

FRANCE head coach Bernard Laporte believes the spirit fostered in his title-winning squad over the past seven weeks vindicates his decision to assemble a 40-man party for the recent RBS 6 Nations Championship.

Laporte was not able to live up to his pre-tournament vow of giving every member of his squad at least one game in the Six Nations in the hope of seeing as many players as possible in the run-up to the World Cup later this year. A combination of injuries and a desire to keep his first-choice team intact to maintain a Grand Slam momentum put paid to that.

But Laporte believes almost two months of continuous training and bonding at Les Bleus’ custom-made training camp in Marcoussis, a village 20km south of Paris, has helped mould his group into “one little family”.