Six Nations Championship: Gerry Thornley hopes that Les Bleus are a bit more effusive than their coach Bernard Laporte in the upcoming Six Nations
Maybe it was the largely English-speaking audience or perhaps it was the persistent line of questioning along the same subject - well, Bernard, do you agree that France are strong favourites to win the Six Nations? - but for France's sake their team would want to be a good deal more effusive and expressive than their coach was at last week's RBS Six Nations launch.
Bernard Laporte is not inclined to do soundbites, even less so when not speaking in his native tongue, and he understandably sought to dampen the increasingly prevalent mood that France merely have to show up on five weekends out of the next seven to claim their 15th title.
Nevertheless, most things appear to be in their favour. Even allowing for the typically mercurial form they showed in the autumn of 2004 - being declared the best team in the world after beating Australia, then losing to Argentina and being hammered by the All Blacks - they easily produced the best form of the six contenders last autumn.
Even more impressive than the win over Australia was the astonishingly physical 26-20 defeat of the Springboks. When they are able to match the Boks for physicality up front, then the gamebreaking abilities of Frederic Michalak and Yannick Jauzion and their finishing power out wide makes them the most complete side in Europe.
"Yes," agreed Laporte of their autumnal form, "but the problem is that November was two months ago. Now we have another competition for the players to perform in. If we have the same spirit that we had in November, then I am sure we will play well, but I don't think we are the only favourites of the Six Nations. England play well, they are very strong. It is never easy to play against Scotland. This season and last season Wales play well. They win the Six Nations and it is not easy to play in the Millennium Stadium. No, I think it is very open this year.
"The interesting thing for us is, yes, for sure, we improve in June in Australia and South Africa and we improve in November, and it will be very interesting to see where we are in the Six Nations."
True they were again their enigmatic selves in last season's Six Nations, looking devoid of inspiration in the fortuitous wins over Scotland and England, they were inspired for a half in losing to Wales, before finishing on a high with wins over Ireland and Italy.
Nevertheless, this is the itinerary, with Ireland, Italy and England at home, which in recent times has been the platform for their last three Grand Slams, 1998, 2002 and 2004. They begin their campaign on Sunday in Murrayfield, which in times' past was a nemesis for them, but a win then would be followed by three home games in a row before their finale in Cardiff.
"In the professional game it is always difficult, it is never easy against Scotland," maintained Laporte. "Last season we didn't play well against Scotland. I have put a lot of concentration and determination into this game. It is particularly important because it is the first."
Nevertheless, France have not lost to Scotland for seven years, which might conceivably lead to the kind of over-confidence or complacency which blighted their opening performance in Paris 12 months ago.
"It is another season, it doesn't enter the stadium and we think 'oh yes, we win the last six or seven times'. It is another competition we have to play in and the same for Scotland."
Of further encouragement has been the form of his frontliners in recent weeks, for 16 of his 22-man squad have been drawn from Heineken Cup quarter-finalists Toulouse and Biarritz as well as Stade Francais, perhaps the unluckiest side not to make the last eight after being mugged late on away to Leicester. "Yes we have a lot of players from Toulouse and Biarritz and Paris. The three teams play well and even though Paris are not in the quarter-finals they played well in the two games against Leicester. But it is the same in England," he points out, referring to the presence of three Premiership teams in the last eight of the European Cup. "We are happy about the performances of our international players in the Heineken Cup."
The emergence of new Test stars such as Dimitri Szarzewski, Yannick Nyanga, Florian Fritz and others has expanded France's squad base and led Laporte to believe he is close to having two teams of comparable Test standard, although he believes that the time for experimentation or rotation is in June or November, not in the Six Nations. "First we want to win the Six Nations," maintained Laporte.
Hosting the 2007 World Cup has also, however, heightened the focus of the performances of the French team and its coach.
"There is pressure for us, sure, but I think it is good to have pressure, because when you don't have pressure you make the pressure. Without pressure it is very difficult, so I want to have pressure a lot of time," he said, barely containing his muffled laughter.
