France pleased All Blacks not in Six Nations
BY JEAN-PAUL COURET
France cannot claim to be favourites for the 2010 Six Nations championship after being outclassed 39-12 by New Zealand, coach Marc Lievremont has said.
"We would have liked to go into the championship with three wins under our belt, more confidence and more control after defeating world champions South Africa, world number one New Zealand and Samoa," Lievremont told a news conference.
"This will not be the case. The All Blacks forced us to come back down to earth again and we'll have to roll our sleeves up," he added.
"I'm glad the All Blacks don't play the Six Nations but even without them we cannot pretend to be regarded as favourites," he added. "It will be a very interesting and a very open championship.
Reveiwing the performances of the other European nations, the French coach noted that Ireland had confirmed their grand slam by defeating the world champions South Africa and drawing with Australia.
"The Welsh tore themselves apart against the Wallabies yesterday (Saturday) as we did against the All Blacks. England had some disappointing results but they will be hard to beat as usual when they welcome back some of their key players," Lievremont said.
"We have to take into account Scotland because they beat Australia and recorded their first win over a southern hemisphere country for years and Italy, who will be difficult to play."
Asked about the consequences of his team's thrashing by New Zealand on Saturday, Lievremont said: "Obviously, we are disappointed because we thought we could rival the All Blacks but I'm also proud of my players because they tried to stick to an attacking game against a team that gave a fantastic display of panache and efficiency.
"I still think we have a lot of room for improvement and there will be no drastic changes in our strategy and in our choice of players."
- Reuters
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No, Dusautoir is better than Harinordothingy, plus Harry is 8 not 6. Dusautoir is probably best blindside in the world. Hes going great plus we all saw how he ripped into NZ in WC2007, hundreds of tackles
Who cares the tri-colors will be much better against the other sides because they are physically superior and have a back line that can rip the comp to shreds. Their selections in the forwards was wrong picking the wrong players Chabal for instances the coach obviously thinks he scares the AB's his only claim to fame was an accidental head clash with Ali Williams a couple of seasons ago. He is absent most of the time or loses the ball in contact.Harinordoquy,Picamoels, and Nallet in the starting line up they would have given the french more starch. Harinordoquy in my view is superb and probably the best 6 in the world.
A 2 horse race between France and Ireland if the weekend's performances are anything to go by. Wales were terrible against the Wallabies. Backs with no imagination, no variation and easy defence for the Aussies. Scotland were lucky with their win over Oz although their defence was outstanding. England and Italy are just bad.
I agree with Andy France vs Ireland will be the decider...one of those two teams will be 6N champions.
I think the 6N is there for France's taking, if they stick to an attacking philosophy.
Hopefully France keep the faith in their own attacking form, and surely they would be a good bet to win the 6N.
Wales are nowhere near where Gatland has tried to talk them up to; Scotland's win was nothing that would strike fear into other team's hearts; England are still in a double sculls race with only 1 oar; Ireland are the only other side with a bit of potential, although how much can be read into their win over a very jaded-looking SA is anyone's guess. I suspect the France v Ireland clash will be the decider.
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David - I think Harinordoquy was injured for the ABs game - hence why he wasn't picked. He'd be first on the team sheet most games for France I suspect, when fit.