The sense of desperation over England’s team to face France in Paris on the final weekend of the 6 Nations Championship, underlines the mess in which English rugby finds itself.

A whole winter season has been wasted by England because they are no nearer finding the men they need to take them forward towards the World Cup next year. Only in this final match of the winter programme have England found the courage to start with two young players identified at the beginning of the season as possible future stars, Northampton full-back Ben Foden and his club colleague, wing Chris Ashton.

Until now, they have failed to win a place in the starting line-up due to England’s poor selection decisions and conservative approach. Only now, in extremis after the torrent of criticism following the drab 15-15 draw with Scotland in Edinburgh, have Martin Johnson and his fellow coaches, acted.

It is a sad indictment of England’s many failings that it has taken them seven internationals to summon up the courage to be bold in the selection process.

But England’s team for the Stade de France, chosen as it clearly has been with a damage limitation exercise in mind, also reveals the poverty of options available in some positions. To have to recall 31 year-old Mike Tindall at outside centre speaks volumes for the lack of alternatives being groomed by the English clubs in the Guinness Premiership.

Tindall played for England in their 2003 World Cup triumph but for most of the last three years has been battling a series of injuries, some very severe. He is plainly well past his sell-by date yet gets another recall purely because the other alternatives are so poor.

England’s problems begin with their captain, the worthy Steve Borthwick, who surely cannot hang onto the job after this weekend’s match. A new leader, probably Wasps flanker Tom Rees, must be unearthed for the short summer tour and then next season.

Borthwick’s presence denies England potentially their best second row pairing this weekend; Simon Shaw, the veteran, and Courtney Laws, the young thruster. It is only by trying a young player such as Laws in a place like Paris would selectors really learn about his suitability for the job and potential. But Laws cannot play because Borthwick gets in. Sad as it is to say of such a decent and honourable man, the feeling throughout England rugby is that the Saracens man only wins another cap because he holds the captaincy and I cannot believe Borthwick is happy with that state of affairs.

England’s selectorial process this winter has been as poor as their game. It has taken them a season to work out that Jonny Wilkinson is no longer the player he was and does not cut the mustard any longer at Test level. Anyone who watched him playing for his French club Toulon back in September and October, knew that but not, apparently, England’s selectors.

Wilkinson has done for England what Toulon have asked him to do all season for them – stand back in the pocket, well out of the way of opposing flankers and half-backs and kick for position and territory. Oh, and kick copious numbers of penalty goals. That has been enough to give Toulon a successful season in the French Top 14 but it is nowhere near enough at international level these days. But then, England have been playing a brand of rugby from years gone by...........

As always, the acid test of how good any international side is, is to ask how many of its players would get into a World XV? In England’s case, the answer is none, zilch. The talent simply isn’t there but you have to say it has not been helped by some abject decisions made by the selectors.

Toby Flood should have started the season in the No. 10 jersey, not ended it. No-one still knows whether he is the real answer but at least if he had been given seven games, not Wilkinson who was plainly past his best, we would have learned something. Instead, England have wasted another season.

Up front, it is true that injuries and unavailability has hampered them. England’s best front row is Andrew Sheridan, Dylan Hartley and Matt Stevens, yet the two props have missed the whole season; through injury in Sheridan’s case and suspension, in the case of Stevens.

In the back row, Rees would be first choice open-side flanker if he were fit and Tom Croft of Leicester would have been the No. 6, had he been around. But there are real concerns at lock where surely not even the admirable Simon Shaw can go on much longer.

Danny Care has made progress this season yet I wonder if Leicester’s  Ben Youngs is not the technically better player for the long term. I would like to have seen him get a start in Paris. Why not, what have England got to lose? They must start finding out about players, not keep opting for the most conservative way. Only a crisis has finally given Foden and Ashton a place in the starting line-up and for Martin Johnson and his men to have kept picking Delon Armitage at full-back when he was clearly out of form, was ridiculous.

France should stroll to their Grand Slam against this muddle of an England side. The only chance of England limiting the damage is if the likes of Joe Worsley, Lewis Moody, Nick Easter, Toby Flood and Mike Tindall tackle themselves to a standstill. Presumably, that is why some of them have been included.

As ever with England, and especially with the World Cup due next year, it is a short term policy. The worry is their absence of long term thinking.

ENDS.......................
 

In 1939, they sent simple, humble, wonderful men – farmers, labourers, workers, whoever – to help save England in its hour of need.

In 2010, I send this heartfelt message to New Zealand and South Africa – please send some men to save our rugby.

The state of the game in the UK and especially England is dire. Just as the Australians sent us a brilliant bowling coach a year or two before an Ashes series, so that we could get back on our feet and record a famous triumph, so we need New Zealanders to rescue our rugby.

English rugby is in an absolute pit of mediocrity, a dire state just 16 months out from the 2011 World Cup. The performance England gave in carving out a 15-15 draw against Scotland at Murrayfield served only to underline the extreme poverty in England’s game at this time.

It was a shambolic, shameful, appalling performance. We have no idea how to play the game of contemporary times. England are playing a game more resembled to a clash of behemoths.

In the world of English rugby, it is as though Singapore has not yet fallen. Players stand around, kick the leather off the ball, and go nowhere fast. They crunch into opponents and make about a yard and a half each time. It is the rugby of the dinosaurs.

In charge of the national side is Martin Johnson, a forward who played the game at his own pace. Sure, Johnson was a wondrous, powerful, charismatic player but alas, the cruel world of coaching has found him out. Great players do not automatically make great coaches, as we are seeing.

England’s game at Murrayfield was not dissimilar to the policy of the peasants in Stalinist Russia: namely, how to handle fear, how to survive, how to risk nothing and simply stay alive. The lack of ambition in their game was cringe making, their accuracy pitiful. They are playing a brand of rugby that went out of fashion years ago.

It was tragic to see Jonny Wilkinson, once one of world rugby’s greatest ever players, trying to direct this utter shambles of a game. Wilkinson stood 10 metres deep, well out of harm’s way and vainly tried to attack the gain line from there. A child could have told him what he was doing wrong.

When he kicked, it was invariably inaccurately and when he was led off, dazed, bruised and battered after an awful collision with his own captain Steve Borthwick, you just wondered whether we had seen the last of a player who guided England to their 2003 World Cup win. Manifestly, England cannot go on with Wilkinson. He represents the past, not the future.

What is so missing in the England set-up is the freedom of players to go out and play, to express themselves. Their minds are clearly filled with the fear of failure, of self doubt. No-one is willing to take a risk, to break the Stalinist creed. It is as though they are pre-programmed robots, only able to perform to the technical programme written for them.

How did England rugby, a structure that luxuriates in the advantage of having hundreds of thousands of people playing the game in the country, get into this complete mess? That’s a simple one to answer. Put at the top of the RFU people who know nothing about the game, who are corporate creatures who talk only of the ‘brand’, not the team, and you quickly slide into this sludge of atrophy.

The business still makes money, serious money, because the people will pay big money to go and watch cardboard cut-outs as long as they have England jerseys on them. But there is no-one in the crowd with any judgement, no-one willing to stand up alone and cry out that, er, actually, the emperor has no clothes.

The occasion is all, the actual product absolute garbage. As we have seen from this England side already this season, there is a dearth of confidence and innovation. They are prepared to the nth degree but for what? To trade 9 penalty goals and a drop goal with the strictly limited Scots in a game that was a shocking advertisement for the sport.

One of the lines of the Scottish national anthem talks of England and ‘proud Edward’s army’ being ‘sent home tae think again’. If this dreadful, demoralising display by England was insufficient to make them think again, then nothing will.

ENDS......................

To Scotland this morning, for the memorial service tonight at Murrayfield for the great, late Bill McLaren............

I should declare a particular interest at this stage – I wrote Bill’s last book with him, his lifelong autobiography. And if I hadn’t known it by then (which of course I already did) I quickly came to see what a lovely, charming, exceptional human being Bill was.

Honestly, if the world were filled with Bill McLarens, it would be so much better a place. You see, he had core values that have underpinned the great centuries of civilisation – kindness, courtesy, a wish to look out for and help others, to be gentle and caring.

I’d fly up to Edinburgh at the crack of dawn on a Monday morning from my home (in those days) in Bath. The 0700 ‘sleeper’ special from Bristol, filled with half asleep businessmen and executives. Into Edinburgh airport by 0800, pick up a hire car and drive the 90 minutes down to Hawick, Bill’s home town, in the Borders.

Of course, the scenery was magnificent, the area beautiful. But not even that could match the wondrous warmth of the welcome I would always get when I knocked on Bill and Bette’s door. They were always considerate, always caring and always ready to offer breakfast, coffee, lunch or anything else you wanted.

Bill McLaren was a super person to work with. He was prepared to talk about the toughest times of his life, the sadnesses and the tragedies, such as when they lost their beautiful daughter Jane. And he was the supreme professional; he knew what we should put into the book, what we should highlight and he knew I needed to hear his innermost thoughts. That isn’t always easy for someone when they’re talking about themselves.

That cheery greeting was something I, and countless others, had known all around the great rugby cathedrals of Europe: his beloved Murrayfield, Twickenham, Cardiff, Lansdowne Road, Dublin and the Parc des Princes, Paris.

How McLaren made those occasions special for so many people back at home, watching the game and listening to his commentary from corners far and wide.

He was an institution, a truly special operator in his field, rightly remembered as ‘The Voice of Rugby’. But he was much, much more than that: a brave soldier in World War 2, a doughty fighter against serious illness, a loving, doting husband, a wise, cheerful father to Jane and Linda and a friend to so many.

But perhaps above all else he was a man who made people smile whom he had never even met. Isn’t that a pretty unique trait in any human being?

So, en route from London to Dublin for this weekend’s 6 Nations match between Ireland and Wales, I will cheerfully make a diversion via Edinburgh. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world tonight.
Linda Lawson, Bill’s and Bette’s lovely daughter, tells me the Scottish Rugby Union have been magnificent in their kindness in helping arrange this special event at their headquarters. That is great to know.

So when I get there tonight, I’ll take a quiet look across at the commentary box where Bill used to sit and I’ll reflect on what a great man he was.

And I’ll give thanks that I met him and knew him. Because people like Bill McLaren are few and far apart in the modern world. I feel privileged to have been able to call him a friend. And we will never ever forget him.

ENDS.................

The advantages enjoyed by Irish coach Declan Kidney over his England counterpart Martin Johnson were vividly emphasised this week.

As Kidney was announcing an unchanged team to face Wales in Dublin on Saturday, Johnson was making two changes in his side to play Scotland in Edinburgh and admitting that it was, in effect, the last chance saloon for an England back division which has misfired like some old jalopy this season.

Despite widespread calls for the London Irish full-back Delon Armitage to be dropped in favour of Northampton’s Ben Foden who made a real impact as a substitute against Ireland at Twickenham, 12 days ago, England have kept faith with Armitage. Given his lack of form this season, few understand why.

The decision to omit an essentially attacking minded player like Foden from the starting line-up represents, in many people’s minds, confirmation that a strong streak of conservatism runs right through the selection process in this England side. Given their loss to Ireland, England could surely have tried a couple of new faces after such a disappointing 2009-2010 season. But no, England retain as many as possible of their side even though they have consistently failed. But how much longer should they go on with these inconsistent players?

By contrast, Kidney was able to announce an unchanged team from the one that triumphed 20-16 at Twickenham. In truth, that might have been somewhat less than totally convincing a performance, especially as Ireland only squeezed home through Tommy Bowe’s late try.

But the difference is that Kidney has long since found the players of his squad tried and tested. He knows their capabilities, understands their value and potential. Ireland doesn’t have question marks over half its team as this current England set-up has, most of the coaching staff included.

I don’t see it happening, but if Scotland, doubtless fired up for their performance of the season by a combination of the memory from defeat to Italy in Rome and, more pertinently, the sight of English jerseys at Murrayfield, managed to get home for a famous win, English rugby would be plunged into a miasma of gloom and doom.

With France in Paris the final match of England’s season, a disastrous outcome to a poor season could ensue and who knows who would be the casualties? For sure, there are many other than players to blame for England’s present demise.

Ireland, however, can look forward to their last two games at home in Dublin, and the target of another Triple Crown. So coruscating was their defeat to France in Paris that if they ended this season with four wins from their five games and, in all likelihood, the runners-up spot in the Championship plus a Triple Crown, that would represent a very acceptable season for Ireland after 2009, their miracle year.

Meanwhile, struggling England can only look on enviously at such a scenario.

ENDS..................

This weekend will surely prove to be the defining weekend of the 2010 Six Nations Championship.

The hopes of France, England, Ireland and Wales may be settled one way or the other between Friday night at Cardiff where Wales meets France, and Saturday evening, by which time England will have played Ireland at Twickenham and Italy have hosted Scotland in Rome.

After this weekend, it could be that two countries still retain a fighting chance of landing a Grand Slam – France and England. Or, perhaps, both could have seen their hopes crash.

Likewise, Wales and Ireland, their opponents, must be more than aware that if they slip up this weekend, their chances are definitely over for another year. With both the Celtic nations having already suffered one defeat, Wales to England and Ireland to France, a second would rule them out of the Championship race, in all likelihood. There would be little left to play for in their final two games.

But if Wales can upset the French under the Cardiff floodlights, then they will throw the Championship wide open. If that happened, Ireland’s match against England at Twickenham would assume even more importance.

Ireland end the season with two home games, against Wales and Scotland. Victory at Twickenham would keep them firmly in the hunt for trophies, not least another Triple Crown.

So the weekend looks likely to be crucial in shaping the likely outcome of the RBS sponsored 6 Nations. Ireland have had an outstanding run of results at Twickenham and must know what it takes to win there. But I wonder whether their defeat by France in Paris took more out of Declan Kidney’s side than even they realise.

It wasn’t just a defeat, a narrow loss something like 17-13 and a game which could have gone either way. Instead, it was a full blown hammering, 33-10, and the fact was, the French squandered some glorious chances of further tries.

So can Ireland pick themselves up straightaway after that big reverse? Did the French defeat knock their confidence and might England take advantage? England are making progress, albeit much slower than their many followers would like. And perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into what was a grim war of attrition against Italy in Rome last time out.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see England lift their level of performance significantly from that day. The question is, if they do, can Ireland match it and still beat them?

Wales v France is another tough one to call. France start as favourites but a Welsh side that gets in the mood, fired up by their redoubtable coaches Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards, is capable of upsetting anyone at any time. Cardiff will be alive with atmosphere for the first ever 6 Nations Championship Friday night fixture and it could be a cracker.

Finally, Italy and Scotland, who have each lost twice, meet in Rome to decide, in all probability, the outcome of this season’s wooden spoon.

The Scots showed in Wales they can play some proper rugby. Italy’s problem  is that they seem to have no cutting edge whatsoever behind the scrum and therefore have to rely on kicking.

For me, the Scots will win that one and I suspect France will win in Paris. But as for the Twickenham clash, I’m just not sure about that one.

ENDS...................

Be afraid, be very afraid. French rugby is stirring and a giant awakes.

It was all very well for France’s re-invigorated rugby team to hammer and humiliate reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland, in Paris last Saturday. But to receive laudatory comments from that notoriously dissatisfied body of opinion known as the French media, was another thing altogether.

Thus, we can imagine that French coach Marc Lievremont probably needed to sit down in a dark room once he had digested the words of France’s great newspapers following his team’s 33-10 victory at Stade de France.

“Combat Kings” ‘L’Equipe’ hailed them.
The magisterial ‘Le Monde’ opined “France replied in masterly fashion to the question of what level they are at.”
And the rugby bible, ‘Midi Olympique’ added “It was their aggression and breakdown work which were the most impressive aspects of the French performance.”

But were these paeans of praise justified? Actually, yes.

As Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll rightly pointed out “It was an impressive display, not just from their forwards but an all round performance.”

Since 2004 when they last won a Grand Slam, France’s national team has atrophied, stymied by the kind of straightjacket tactics that are currently bedevilling the England team. This has suited the national psyche and characteristics of the French about as well as a glove on a three-fingered man. They have looked ill at ease, out of sync.

But on Saturday at Stade de France, we saw a different France. For a start, there was a cohesion and balance which had not been apparent before. Forward power is a mighty weapon if it is accompanied by pace, a requisite of the modern game, and a willingness by the pack to set up the backs. Crucially, France appears to have discovered for the first time in years a half-back combination of considerable potential.

Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc have brought a quality that has had an ageless appeal to French teams, namely, invention. They can vary their games which is another crucial facet in modern rugby. This is another of the root causes of England’s failings. More propitiously, Parra’s goal kicking was so effective against Ireland, even from long range.

Outside them, Mathieu Bastareaud, a centre who weighs an extraordinary 114kgs, could be one of the biggest stars of the next World Cup.

We might do well not to let our emotions disappear completely out of sight. After all, it is only three months since New Zealand slaughtered the French in Marseille, raining down five tries to nil on their hapless opponents.

But to counter balance that, France have beaten the All Blacks and world champion South Africans in the course of the last 8 months. Clearly, something is stirring in French rugby and the timing could hardly be better with a World Cup looming next year.

Nor has this transformation been achieved in a nonsensical, cavalier fashion. As the Australian Ewen McKenzie, former coach of Paris-based club Stade Francais and now in charge of the Queensland Reds, says “Lievremont has brought a lot of younger players to the fore but he had the skeleton there all the time.

He has still got some hard heads – Nallet, Harinordoquy, Pape, Servat, Mas, Jauzion and Poitrenaud – through the key positions of the team.

“France winning last year in New Zealand was a big statement of intent. That confidence will give them a massive boost, knowing how their psyche works.”

If France go to the World Cup with a combination of massive forward strength, real pace around the field from their big, marauding back row and a half-back pairing that can pull the strings effectively, they could be a handful for anyone.

KEY PLAYERS

Thierry Dusautoir: A quiet, yet deeply respected captain and an outstanding breakaway forward, perhaps the next Richie McCaw.

Mathieu Bastareaud: Young, impetuous, short on judgement off the field but a huge, physically intimidating prospect on it.

Morgan Parra: The best teams always had ‘Un Petit General’ at scrum half. At 1.81m, he’s no Jacques Fouroux but he could be a future leader.

Francois Trinh-Duc: France have needed a consistent, yet inventive No. 10 for a long time. It’s too early for definitive judgements but he just might be the answer.

ENDS.........................

Sometimes in this sporting life, even the results of major matches, apparently crucial outcomes, hardly seem to matter.

This morning, the health of Scottish rugby player Thom Evans is a case in point. Evans was stretchered off the field at Cardiff on Saturday, attached to an oxygen cylinder and rendered motionless after damaging his neck in the game against Wales. The young man required surgery in a Cardiff hospital overnight, and the outcome of that operation remains very far from clear.

Evans was said on Sunday morning to be moving his arms and legs. But true fear strikes you at such moments. His parents and brother Max, who also played against Wales, are with him in the hospital. The whole sporting world will send him their very best wishes, praying and hoping that he makes a complete recovery.

In the same hospital on Saturday night was Scottish full-back Chris Paterson who suffered a damaged right kidney during the match against Wales. These and other injuries like them that are now occurring on an increasingly frequent basis in the world of professional rugby union are a grim confirmation of the increasing dangers of a sport which has taken physicality close to scary levels.

When you watch a lot of rugby around the world, as myself and some colleagues do year round, you wonder about where this sport will be in 20 years time. So many injuries are now occurring that the physical demands are out-pacing the worthy attempts of the game’s governing body, the IRB, to make it as safe as it possibly can be.

But when you have players who weigh anything up to 120 kgs each smashing into each other at full pace, then you have to conclude that the human body was not built for such massive impact shocks. French centre Mathieu Bastareaud, for example, weighs an intimidating 114kgs, just one kilo less than the two French second row players Pascal Pape and Lionel Nallet. Ireland prop John Hayes weighs in at an enormous 125kgs.

For a threequarter like Bastareaud to be so big and so quick was unknown 20 years ago. Thus, one wonders what will we see in another 20 years time?  If players continue to bulk up as they have done, swallow legal substances that claim to make them bigger, heavier and quicker, then you are forced to conclude that more serious damage to individuals is an almost inevitable outcome.

The problem for the game’s authorities is that, now the genie called professionalism is out of the bottle, it can never be put back. Nothing can stop players bulking themselves up still further, becoming even more muscle bound and powerful so that the potential damage they can inflict upon opponents, most especially when they collide with them at speed, will be greater than ever.

But one injury like that suffered by Thom Evans on Saturday is one too many. If the paraplegic wards of specialist hospitals contain just one young man whose life and future has been ruined by rugby, albeit by a complete accident, it is one too many.

I recall after the 1995 Rugby World Cup visiting the Cote d’Ivoire rugby player Max Brito who was horribly paralysed following a tackle in a match during that tournament. Brito lay motionless in a hospital bed at Bordeaux, unable to react even if a fly landed on his nose. As someone who had covered grotesque road crashes in which dead bodies were frequent during his earlier career in journalism, I’d thought I would be immune to a sight as sad as Brito. Yet I still left that hospital in tears.

The rugby world can but hope Thom Evans makes a full and speedy recovery. But you worry for the future of a sport that has now become so massively physical and confrontational that complete accidents, as the injuries to Evans and Paterson undoubtedly were at Cardiff, can become cataclysmic.

The message such incidents send to mothers of future young rugby players is alarming. This, by the way, is not a blame game; no-one is specifically responsible.

But how high a price is this sport prepared to pay for its ever expanding limits of physicality and brute force? Someday, somewhere, especially if there are more serious injuries of this nature, surely someone has to say enough.

ENDS.......................

Ireland’s hopes of taking a significant step towards back-to-back Grand Slams were considerably boosted when British & Irish Lions flanker Stephen Ferris was passed fit for the  key clash with France in Paris.

The tough Ferris has unexpectedly overcome a knee problem and will take his place in a powerful Irish side. His presence in terms of a strong, ball carrying loose forward and hard tackler will be vital for Declan Kidney. The Irish coach knows he will need his best possible team at the Stade de France for Ireland have only won twice in Paris since 1952.

The last time they did it, in 2000, Brian O’Driscoll scored a hat-trick of tries to steer them to a thrilling win. O’Driscoll is still in peerless form but he knows the French, who beat Scotland in Edinburgh last Sunday, will pose the severest possible test.

France are always the ultimate yardstick of where you are at, O’Driscoll has said. He believes they have so many outstanding players it doesn’t really matter that much who plays. They will be a very hard nut to crack for Ireland, he warns, and there certainly won’t be any complacency on his team's part.

The French have not won a Grand Slam since 2004 and coach Marc Lievremont knows he is under increasing pressure to put an end to such a run. Whether the freezing weather which has hit Paris will help either side is doubtful, so Ireland may well rely on the boot of experienced outside half Ronan O’Gara to put them into propitious attacking positions.

France, led by the outstanding Thierry Dusautoir at flank forward, have changed both wings from Edinburgh, Vincent Clerc and Alexis Palisson replacing the injured Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall.

France start as slight favourites but Ireland have enough quality players in key positions to push them all the way. It could be a desperately tight contest and if Ireland win, they will open up the road to the Grand Slam.

England, who meet Italy in Rome on Sunday, are the only other side still able to win a Grand Slam after the opening weekend. They have brought in Dan Cole, Leicester’s 22 year-old tight head prop, for his starting debut, while British Lions centre Riki Flutey, injured since the tour of South Africa last June, returns at last at inside centre.

England scrum coach Graham Rowntree said of Cole’s selection “There is an element of a gamble there but we know that he can do it. His temperament is his biggest strength.”

Italy, who lost 29-11 in Ireland and showed no ambition whatsoever to try and attack, will again focus on damage limitation under South African coach Nick Mallett. In reality, keeping down the score to acceptable proportions is their only objective, even at Rome’s Stadio Flaminio.

The final game of the weekend sees Wales entertain Scotland in Cardiff on Saturday. Both sides lost first time out, Wales to England at Twickenham and Scotland to the French. Wales still harbour hopes of contesting the Championship title even if a Grand Slam has gone but they have become embroiled in a petty dispute with the Scots over the roof at the Millenium stadium.

Scotland, as is their right, have insisted it remains open. Welsh coach Warren Gatland greeted that news by saying “Well, it doesn’t require rocket science to see what sort of a game they want to play. There looks sure to be a lot of kicking, especially if the pitch is wet, and I can’t understand in an era where entertainment is essential, why you would leave a pitch open to the elements if you don’t have to.”

ENDS..................

He’s a hulking 1.83m, 110 kgs brute and the bad boy of world rugby. He once catapulted his own country into a major diplomatic row with New Zealand after he’d lied to police in Wellington to cover up getting drunk.

So is Mathieu Bastareaud, the French centre who will line up against Brian O’Driscoll in Saturday’s 6 Nations clash between France and Ireland in Paris, just a thinly disguised thug ?  Far from it, says the man who knew him as well as anyone.

Australian Ewen McKenzie coached Bastareaud at Stade Francais and says he’s one of the quietest, shyest boys he’s ever coached. The McKenzie dossier is a fascinating counter argument to the sensational headlines about the big, bruising French threequarter who represents a massive threat to Ireland’s challenge at Stade de France this Saturday.

Bastareaud was recalled for this tournament after being axed by coach Marc Lievremont following his lies on the tour in New Zealand last June. There was a huge diplomatic fuss after extensive police enquiries were found to have been an utter waste of time when Bastareaud confessed.

The boy may have been crazy to concoct such a story. But for sure, he can play rugby as his two tries against Scotland at Edinburgh last Sunday proved.

But a bad boy? McKenzie smiles. “He might look it and when he gets out onto the field he just explodes. He’s a big boy and knows how to use that strength and size.

“But Mathieu is a quiet, shy, attentive lad. I had no issues with him at all. He’s a good kid. It was a big surprise to me what happened in New Zealand on that tour because he is certainly not arrogant. He’s more the type of shy, quiet guy although of course he doesn’t play that way.

“He’s a coach’s dream in a way.”

McKenzie helped Bastareaud’s development through the junior ranks at Stade Francais until he was a first team regular and then a member of the French national squad.

“I’ve got a lot of time for him. When I first met him, he was a really big kid even then but one just on the fringes. Yet in 12 months he went from the fringes of our squad to our first team and then the French national team and that was quite a transition.

Maybe it all came too fast for him, I’m not too sure.  But everyone makes mistakes in life and everyone matures at a different pace. No two people are alike and after all, he’s still only a young guy.

“Young men of 21 are not worldly and very experienced. Plenty of them make mistakes under pressure at that age but unfortunately for him, his became public.

“Therefore, it was great to see him score a couple of tries at Murrayfield after there had been so much doubt about him. He has worked his way through his problems and you’ve got to give him credit for that.”

McKenzie urges that the young Frenchman be judged now on what he does on the field, not off it. “You can’t judge him on the past, either, just on where he is now and where he is going to go.”

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Bastareaud can play, least of all Ewen McKenzie’s. “He is a real handful, a very promising player and extremely powerful. He’s a difficult customer who gives the opposition something to think about.”

And the clash with Brian O’Driscoll this weekend in Paris? Even from faraway Brisbane where he now coaches Super 14 outfit Queensland Reds, McKenzie is salivating at the prospect. “Those contests are the ones you look for as an international player.

“It’s the wily old campaigner who knows every trick in the book and has seen off all the great players against the up-and-coming, physically strong young kid who is just coming through. It’s going to be a great contest.”

For sure, Mathieu Bastareaud’s old Stade Francais coach will be hurrying home from Saturday’s Super 14 clash against the NSW Waratahs to watch the France-Ireland clash on television. McKenzie knows it could be a classic.

ENDS...............................................

McBride on Paris test

He calls it the toughest place in the world to go and play. Coming from Willie John McBride, who helped the 1971 and 1974 British & Irish Lions win Test series in New Zealand and South Africa,that is some statement.

But McBride insists that Paris is the most hostile rugby environment on the planet. “It is the most difficult place of all to win, no question about it. The atmosphere there is like nowhere else in the world.”

As Ireland prepare for this Saturday’s 6 Nations rugby international against France at Stade de France, Paris, McBride spoke of his own experiences of confronting the French in their own backyard.

“There is a real hatred coming out of the stands at Paris with all that booing. It was always like that, even in our day. I can remember playing at Stade Colombes in 1972, and you came up from underneath, out of the ground from the dressing rooms.

From that moment, they were jeering and throwing cigarette lighters at you. You were really up against it.

“I think in many ways it intimidated referees as well because of that. It was a real feeling of being inside a cauldron.”

1972 was the only time McBride beat a French side in Paris and he played there seven times. Some of the games were close, 9-6 in 1974, 8-0 in 1970 and 11-6 in 1966. But that 14-9 Irish win apart in 1972, McBride never tasted victory.

Why was 1972 different? “That day was certainly special for me. We had come from 1971 and New Zealand where the Lions had won, so we were all on a high. We were players who believed in ourselves and we believed we could beat France that day, even though it’s not easy to win there.

“That’s the one thing I would say to Brian O’Driscoll and his team. You must believe you can win, that is essential. In my experience, Paris was certainly more hostile than New Zealand as a place to play. You have to walk out there and experience it to know what I mean. And I think it’s still the same.

“It’s the drumming, the noise and the booing and whistling. You don’t get all that anywhere else in the world. Even when you see Heineken Cup matches now over there, you see that same fever and you know as a visiting player it’s not in support of you.”

Former Irish captain Noel Murphy once came up with an innovative idea on how to handle such occasions. “Now spread out lads and stick together” was his curious mixture of advice. What would McBride say to Ireland’s defending Grand Slam champions as they prepare for France at the Stade de France this Saturday?

“Self belief is the key to anything. For many years, there was this myth that New Zealand were unbeatable in their own country and I suppose South Africa as well. We demolished that myth in 1971 and 1974, as Ireland did to France in 1972.

 “I’d say to this Ireland team, it’s no good turning up if you don’t believe you can succeed. For example, in 1966, we went to New Zealand with the Lions to try and win but we didn’t really believe we were going to beat them.

“On one occasion when we met New Zealand in Dublin, someone said ‘We are not going to beat New Zealand but we can give them a miserable afternoon’. That was about the height of it in those days and it was true. But the trouble is, once you start saying that, you believe it and believe you won’t win.

“I think this Irish team can and should believe they can win. Nowadays in the 6 Nations, there really is nothing between the teams, or very, very little, anyway. It’s about the team that keeps its discipline, doesn’t have guys sent off because you can’t play this game with 14 men anymore” (as Wales showed at Twickenham last Saturday when they lost lock forward Alun-Wyn Jones to the sin bin and England scored 17 points while he was off the field).

McBride called for a repeat of the spirit and self belief that Ireland took to Cardiff for their Grand Slam win last year. He said “Ireland believed they could win that day, you could see it. For example, Ronan O’Gara was a targeted man for the whole game and he took a hell of a lot of physical abuse.

“But when it came to that late drop goal, he still had the poise and confidence to knock it over and that was down to self belief. That same sort of confidence will be needed this weekend in Paris.”

ENDS.................