Cup Shorts: A french meltdown and some jersey dramas

CupShorts has isolated the footage from Sunday night's match that shows what would need to happen for Wales to beat a major nation in a tight match. Photo / NZ Herald

Sacre bleu

Like a limpet mine latched firmly to the side of a Greenpeace ship, internal strife clings doggedly to the French squad ... and threatens to sink the campaign.

The cheese-eaters' halfback Dimitri Yachvili was annoyed to hear coach Marc Lievremont's criticism "from a journalist" rather than from the coach.

"It's a real pleasure, it's touching," Yachvili said sarcastically. "No, I would prefer to be told directly rather than going through the press. He spoke out in anger. I probably deserved him saying it, or not. [But] I would rather it happened another way."

Yachvili, who plays for Biarritz, touched upon how things are different for him at club level.

"At Biarritz over the last four years, if they had something to tell me they did it to my face without problem," he said. "It has to stay intimate because it's something that stays between the coach and the player. A coach has to be a bit of a psychologist as well."

History repeats

John Key's National Government has enacted special legislation to take control of the waterfront.

It's not unprecedented. The last time special legislation was enacted to take control of the waterfront, was back in 1951 - and back then it was the Nats too, as they took on the wharfies.

Good omen: In 1951, the All Blacks played just three tests, in a series against the Convicts, and won them all.

Bad omen: In 1951, it ended with baton-wielding police on horseback and mass public rioting.

A glut of O'Connors

Irish back Geordan Murphy got his O'Connors in a tangle when opining yesterday on who might replace injured Wallaby back Digby Ioane when the teams clash at Eden Park on Saturday night. "I'm not sure who it will be, Matty O'Connor - sorry, James O'Connor. I was thinking of my Leicester coach. I'd be happy if he was playing," he quipped of the 40-year-old Australian.

Jersey grief I

CupShorts' chum has this to say about the sudden exposure of SBW beefcake to which the nation was treated on Friday night. "Apparently Sonny Bill heard the new adidas All Blacks shirt was a rip-off. So he did."

Jersey grief II

Adidas had their fair share of bad press when the public became aware of the scale of their fleecing on the eve of the Rugby World Cup. Fair enough. Sportswear companies are quick to tell us about the technological wonders of their products - the latest All Black kit is, we're told, half the weight of the previous jersey and specially designed to keep the players cool and dry.

What a pity then that the blasted things weren't specially designed not to fall to pieces in a game of footy.

England's number is up I

We all know England is a nation culturally inclined towards cheating (proof: they gave the world cricket). But their latest trick takes skullduggery too far. Those numbers that came to pieces on Saturday night are clearly designed to make it hard for the referee to single a player out and send them off after the boot has been put in.

England's number's up II

When Richard Smith QC, England's legal counsel, came off the bench to represent thug lock Courtney Lawes before the judiciary, he brought to 22 the number of backroom staff actively employed by the Red Rose Barmy.