Republican style rugby

By WYNNE GRAY

They talk about rugby becoming a seamless game where the number on a player's back does not always correspond with his accepted position.

Nothing like the days when the concrete mixers just went down fat man's alley and the fancy pants had their occasional fun out wider on the track.

These days you find props in midfield, hookers on the wing and midfield backs acting like loose forwards. It has all changed.

But the seamless scenario takes on another angle when French teams are involved.

Each season they seem to have a new swag of players on international duty, names as unfamiliar to New Zealand rugby watchers as the All Blacks were when they arrived in England a fortnight ago.

It is a sign of their depth of talent and the strength of their domestic competitions that France can mix and match, interchange and rotate players on a regular basis.

In the deluge of internationals taking place in the Northern Hemisphere, the All Blacks have a well-known set of backs playing behind an inexperienced group of forwards. France have the reverse situation.

Household names litter the pack, which includes two former captains, Rafael Ibanez and lock Fabien Pelous. His second row partner is the experienced Olivier Brouzet while the front row of Pieter de Villiers, Ibanez and Jean-Jacques Crenca have been to more scrums than the entire All Black pack.

The free-spirited flanker Olivier Magne has been a star on the world scene for several years, his driving runs and instinctive athleticism puncturing All Blacks sides in both hemispheres.

Halfback and captain Fabien Galthie is the only back with regular test play in the past few seasons, his calmness and authority doing much to drive the Tricolors' success. Utility outside back Thomas Castaignede is also long on reputation but short on matchplay after a long spell from injury.

Around that core of experience, France has a group of exciting, talented but raw players at international level. The back three - Nicolas Brusque, Vincent Clerc and Cedric Heymans - cannot rack up 20 caps between them.

Brusque is 26 and made his debut in 1997 at fullback but has been overlooked for Castaignede, Nicolas Jeanjean and Clement Poitreneau. But injuries to the last pair and a shift to centre for Castaignede to replace injured Kiwi Tony Marsh has given Brusque another chance. A tall, lean, elegant runner, Brusque is said to be deceptively quick, has a good kicking game and is dependable on defence.

However the Boks did rough him up last week and French critics believe he needs a harder edge.

Clerc is only 21 and will mark All Black juggernaut Jonah Lomu. The French wing has been receiving his defensive tuition from team tactician David Ellis, a descendant of the alleged founder of the sport, William Webb Ellis.

Injuries to first choice wings David Bory and Aurelien Rougerie have opened up chances for Clerc and Heymans. A fortnight ago Clerc sealed his place with two individual tries against London Irish in the European Cup, where he showed his skill and extreme pace.

Heymans is reputed to be a real creator, a wing in the mould of Christophe Dominici, who has taunted past All Black sides. Heymans has size and a darting elusive running style and has progressed from his tour to Argentina and Australia this year.

Damien Traille plays for the unfashionable Pau club near the Pyrenees, where he has been used as five-eighths, centre and fullback. When he made the French side it was felt he might have been made to look a lot better because of the sympathetic work by his midfield partner Marsh.

But against the Boks last week, Traille disproved that theory with an authoritative match with his boot and some destructive attack.

First five-eighths Francois Gelez is from the Agen club, who are leading the national competition. He has an allround game and is a potent goalkicker who has been promoted because Gerald Merceron has lost some of that accuracy and confidence in other parts of his work.

Gelez is smaller than Andrew Mehrtens but the French say he is brave on defence and mixes his running and kicking skills well.

Then there is the No 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, a forward the New Zealand electronic media hoped might miss selection. Pronunciation of his name (sounds like arin-gnaw-door-key) has been a regular topic of concern for those broadcasters this week.

A Basque who also plays his rugby at Pau, Harinordoquy is the antithesis of the traditional small, dark, powerful Basque men who usually inhabit the front row or wing.

The 22-year-old is blond, tall and lean, a ball-playing forward who was rushed back into the test against the Boks after just one club game to recover from a knee ligament injury.

These men are the new breed, or at least the latest group of men, to wear the blue shirt of France. Others like flanker Serge Betsen and prop Crenca are on their second time round.

Crenca has overcome discipline problems on the loosehead for his Agen club while Betsen, a coloured flanker who was born in Senegal, has got over some erratic play and fits into coach Bernard Laporte's demands for more structure in the French side.