Rugby World Cup 2015: France 'revolt' sets up All Blacks upset

Dissent within a French rugby team's squad has often been a recipe for success for past World Cup campaigns. Photo / Getty Images

The stirrings of a revolution among France's players against coach Philippe Saint-Andre won't surprise anyone familiar with the team's turbulent history at World Cups, but it might just be the final ingredient they need to topple the All Blacks.

French newspaper Midi Olympique has published a picture of lock Yoann Maestri appearing to shoulder barge Saint-Andre in the players' tunnel after the team's disappointing 24-9 defeat to Ireland at the Millennium Stadium which consigned them to second in their pool and into a quarter-final with the All Blacks at the same venue on Sunday morning.

Rival newspaper L'equipe, meanwhile, carried a headline on its front page which read "L'appel a la revolte", or "A call to revolt".

In the aftermath of the defeat in Cardiff, Saint-Andre called on his squad to stay unified for the test against the All Blacks, a repeat of the 2011 final at Eden Park which they lost by the slimmest of margins, 8-7. However, history has proven that the opposite usually gets better performances from the French.

Sud Oest journalist Arnaud David, wrote before the tournament started about talking to the great fullback Serge Blanco at the 2011 World Cup, one in which they lost two pool games - against Tonga and the All Blacks - and so very nearly responded with the ultimate triumph.

Blanco had played in the 1987 final at Eden Park - also won by the All Blacks - and wanted David to take him back to Takapuna where the team had prepared for the match all those years before.

"We were all love and harmony," Blanco told David for a story headlined: "Anger and pride, the key to French success".

"I had never experienced that. It was the weirdest anti-climax because the preparation for our semifinal against Australia was anger and hate.

"Jacques Fouroux, our coach, made our life hell in Sydney. He created friction with the press. Then he put pressure on us. No one was guaranteed a place. The training session we had on Wednesday before the match was one of the most violent I have seen."

The result was a brilliant 30-24 semifinal victory over the Wallabies before a return to the relaxed atmosphere of Takapuna and a 29-9 defeat in the final.

In 1999, when the French famously returned from the brink in their semifinal at Twickenham to stun the All Blacks, there was hostility between senior players and coaches Jean-Claude Skrela and Pierre Villepreux.

Halfback Fabien Galthie told David: "Some of the players got together - Ibanez, Magne, Pelous, Lamaison, Ntamack - and we decided to play the way we wanted.

"We had nothing to lose. We prepared our semifinal with the All Blacks focused, in a rebellious state, with a channelled anger."

The result was a 43-31 victory over the All Blacks and a place in the final against Australia.

"But the peace, unfortunately, was restored and France became ordinary again, like Champagne that had gone flat, in the final against Australia."

The French beat the All Blacks in the 2007 quarter-final amidst a backdrop of dissent. They suffered a first-up loss to Argentina and were coached by Bernard Laporte, who many felt was preoccupied by his imminent nomination as president Nicolas Sarkozy's sports secretary.

And before the 2011 final, their coach Marc Lievremont's frustration at his players was increasingly obvious to everyone.

David wrote: "It was captain [Thierry] Dusautoir, not Lievremont, who gave each player his jersey for the final - the people against the ruling class."

Before this current tournament kicked off there was no sign of discontent in the French camp so the journalist asked coach Saint-Andre whether that was bad news.

The reply was: "If we need conflict to win the World Cup, then I am more than ready for it."

- By Patrick McKendry in Swansea