Gregor Paul: Faux worries for ABs over French farce

French coach Philippe Saint-Andre has reportedly been overthrown in a player revolt. Photo / Getty Images.

Ousting of coach won't bother Hansen's team one bit.

A French mutiny on the eve of a major World Cup test. Talk of the players having no respect for their coach and pushing him to one side while they get on with things is, amazingly, not a new occurrence for French rugby.

It happened at the last World Cup and reports are emerging it has happened again.

A mutiny would be a disaster for most sides. Not the French, though - they seem to thrive on this sort of internal conflict and chaos.

Drama is their driver. It turned them around in 2011 when they lost their final pool match to Tonga and fell into an open war with then coach Marc Lievremont.

The players didn't respect him, he didn't respect the players and it was the happiest alliance imaginable with the French coming within a point of being crowned world champions.

A similarly bad marriage has apparently developed in 2015 between the senior players and the beleaguered Philippe Saint-Andre.

The former wing has, since his appointment in late 2011, presided over the worst French reign of the professional age.

The performance against Ireland last week that brought France to a quarter-final against the All Blacks was one that was surprisingly lacking in passion and ferocity.

Technically and tactically France have often been nowhere near the mark but it's rare indeed to see French players not willing to lay their body on the line for the jersey.

The chances of an equally lacklustre performance tomorrow would now be about nil.

The French team - and of this everyone can be certain - will be frothing at the mouth by kickoff.

Whatever they lack in tactical organisation, they will make up for in effort and willing.

But despite what may or may not have happened behind the giant screens protecting prying eyes from the French training ground, it will mean little to the All Blacks.

Not once this week have any of them doubted for a second that the "real" France will turn up at Millennium Stadium.

They have been preparing to meet a French side at the top of their game.

The All Blacks used to be silly enough to buy into a French performance one week and imagine that's what they would be facing the next. Not now.

They have been hurt too many times in the past to make that mistake again.

Mutiny or no mutiny, it will have little or no effect on how the All Blacks are thinking.

They couldn't have taken the threat of the French any more seriously than they have. They have seen all tournament - and they see it all the time anyway - how teams raise their level to play the All Blacks.

The French are a little different in that they seem to find more levels than everyone else when they play the All Blacks, but how much more passion can they really find as a result of "overthrowing" their coach?

The All Blacks will assume plenty and will have already factored in the certainty of the French, for all sorts of reasons, being emotionally charged and desperate to win.