FRANCE’S COACH Marc Lièvremont was not impressed with his sides performance during their 47-21 win over Japan. He admitted to shouting at his players at half-time and after the game but perhaps not quite in the same vein as he did following the team’s defeat to Italy during the Six Nations Championship.

Following the Italian debacle Lièvremont ranted: “Do I feel responsible for that? No, they betrayed us, they betrayed me and they betrayed the French national team shirt. In terms of the tactics deployed, it defied belief. I did not recognise anything in their performance we had worked on. Do you really think I told them to play as they did against Italy?

“I was ashamed. I do not have the impression we asked them to walk on the moon – I do not ask for complicated things. This match was an hallucination. I do not want to clear myself from the blame but they invented things on the pitch. They are lacking in courage. They are good guys but cursed with what is obviously cowardice. They are not even capable of admitting to their own mistakes.”

He did row back a little in subsequent days and it’s obviously a lesson he’s learned judging by his comments following a hard fought win over Japan. “They’re (players) the ones who are playing, the ones out on the pitch. It’s all well and good to say we discuss things with them, but at some stage they’re on the pitch; it’s up to them to sort out the problems.

“Our match was littered with loose play, technical mistakes, errors of discipline; wastefulness in our finishing, wastefulness in our organisation.”

The message though was abundantly clear once again.