French coach Marc Lievremont is only reliable in his unreliability. That he has made no changes to his team for this weekend’s World Cup final with New Zealand is probably a bad sign.
France have been largely dreadful at this tournament, regardless of what team their crazy coach put out. Defeated by New Zealand once already, and by Tonga, they probably should have lost to England and Wales too.
But they didn’t and they are now 80 minutes away from winning a first ever World Cup. As always, the moustachioed maverick was pretty cool about his latest selection.
“It was quite clear for me to name the same 15. A simple decision,” said Lievremont
“It is the same as last week with minor injuries… I expect these 15 players to be on the pitch at nine o’clock on Sunday.
“Everything has been more or less the same – our preparation on and off the pitch – and we will use any pressure we are feeling to our advantage.”
If the rumours are to be believed the players stopped listening to Lievremont a long time ago so who knows how they will play on Sunday.
But if any team have it in them to beat the All Blacks at a World Cup it’s France. “Yes, we’ve played them before, and we all remember the score there,” Lievremont said. “But we now know the team and that will help us.
“All I am focusing on now is this match, preparing the players and making sure we have the best chance possible.
“I know how we are going to try to win but I’ll keep those words for my players’ ears only.” If they are listening to you Marc.
France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurelien Rougerie, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Morgan Parra, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean Baptiste Poux
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
