Scare tactics won't work with France any more

All Blacks in France

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Fans gather as All Blacks Brad Thorn, Tony Woodcock, Luke McAlister, Ma'a Nonu, Jimmy Cowan and Dan Carter attend a shirt signing session at an adidas store in Marseille.

All Blacks add muscle and experience

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French rugby great Phillipe St Andre says the Tricolores have finally shed their fear of the All Blacks.

The coach of the powerful Toulon club believes France's Top 14 has become the strongest domestic league in the world and is beginning to produce players to match.

"Before, when we played New Zealand or South Africa, the French players were scared of the physicality and strength," St Andre said.

"Now they play with South Africans and New Zealanders at their clubs. They train just as hard as them and they believe they can match any team in the world.

"I think for the first time they are confident against the All Blacks."

The man who captained his country to successive test wins in New Zealand in 1994 said rugby in France was the strongest it had been.

"I think so, because rugby has become attractive to a massive new audience – it has new sponsors, television deals, everything. It is very strong right now," he said.

"We are playing regularly in front of 50,000-60,000 people. The sponsors are there and economically it is very good.

"I think the French league is maybe the best in the world now.

"The Top 14 is very good. Before we only had Toulouse, Stade, and Biarritz and there were only four or five teams competing, but now there are eight or nine that can win."

St Andre, who played 68 tests for France between 1990-97, said the influx of foreign players to the cash-rich Top 14 had lifted French players to a new level of professionalism.

"People criticised it because they were scared no French players would be picked and it would damage the national team, but that has not happened.

"When you are a young player and you are training and playing next to Tana Umaga or Jonny Wilkinson or Sonny-Bill Williams, they realise the professionalism of these players – the diet, the lifestyle, the fitness, they are no longer c'est la vie.

"It has made them more professional. It was a big move, but now we are starting to see it with the young players when they get to the national team they are already there in their professionalism."

Next year the French union will introduce a rule that requires 50 percent of each club's players to be locals.

St Andre's club boasts Umaga, Williams and Wilkinson, and the Frenchman said that it would be a mistake to make it difficult to recruit top internationals ... "because it is the big-name players the people want to see.

"The crowd wants to see Byron Kelleher, Sonny-Bill Williams, Jonny Wilkinson. If we do this [recruit fewer star players] we will not attract the sponsors, we will not attract the people to games."

St Andre said a French win on Sunday would be a watershed moment for the current coaches and a huge boost for the sport ahead of the next World Cup.

"They beat South Africa and Samoa – to win three games in a row for the first time under [Marc] Lievremont would be a big boost for French rugby."

St Andre does not believe the side to play the All Blacks is as strong as the one that beat South Africa two weeks ago due to injuries to key players such as Imanol Harinordoquy and Maxime Mermoz.

However, he is convinced that the side which runs out on Sunday believes something that has not always been the case with French teams ... "that they can compete physically and beat the All Blacks."

- © Fairfax NZ News