This man will keep Graham Henry awake tonight

THE one area of consistent performance from the unpredictable French has been the solidity of their set piece.

In this, their front five have been magnificent. As always with the French, the game starts and finishes with the scrum. No scrum, no game is their well-worn mantra. That is why New Zealand must take them on first and foremost in the scrum.

In Nicolas Mas, William Servat and Jean-Baptiste Poux, France have a very compact and competitive front row. They will scrummage with a ferocity and intent in each and every engagement. It is the way they are. Behind them the gargantuan pairing of Lionel Nallet and Pascal Pape are picked for one reason — and it’s not to deliver lineout ball. Their job is to drive their front row into every scrum, to keep the pressure on, to sniff any weakness in that All Black scrummaging unit and drive it home if it exists. The problem is the New Zealand scrum has been pretty solid in this tournament so far.