KEY POINTS:
News of the All Blacks boot camps has reached the Northern Hemisphere and France, outmuscled badly by Graham Henry's men last year, have hired a wrestling champion to help them get to grips with the situation.
France, winners of their Six Nations tests this season over Italy, Ireland
and Wales, face a below-par England at Twickenham early tomorrow but are still grappling with new self-help methods ahead of the World Cup.
University don Herve Dohin may concede about 30kg to players such as Sale No 8 Sebastien Chabal, who was recalled by France along with scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili and prop Pieter de Villiers for the England test, but by employing the wrestling techniques that won him six national titles, Dohin can put them in their place on the mat. And that is without having recourse to the half nelson, head lock or even the Boston crab.
"In a combat sport like rugby, our coach Bernard Laporte has understood the value of wrestling," said Dohin. "I have been training the France team three times a week and already they are showing the benefit of the new knowledge they have.
"Our players have a better appreciation already of balance, using the weight of their opponents to their advantage and bouncing quickly back to their feet.
"Wrestling will not only help them to penetrate the defence but prolong their sequences of play by spending less time on the turf. We are trying to develop the same kind of dynamic, mobile, powerful game as the All Blacks in view of the World Cup later this year."
Dohin uses a 20m by 12m mat on which the lines of a rugby pitch have been drawn to put the players through their paces.
"The wrestling does help," he added. "When they see what I can do against them as a skinny 46-year-old with a history of injuries, they realise what they are capable of doing."
Having previously worked with former European champions Toulouse, he reckons players can lose up to 30 per cent of their strength by not applying it correctly.
The key is sensing the precise moment to relax before an explosive use of muscle power, he said. "Wrestling techniques can also be used to trap the arms of ball-carrying opponents or to keep one's own arms free at the point of a tackle."
The physical prowess of the All Blacks is well known in Dohin's part of the world, where the 45-6 thrashing in Paris in November 2004 still haunts the French. The Tri Nations champions showed that was no fluke with victories over France in Lyon (47-3) and Paris (23-11); and England (41-20) and Wales (45-10) last November.
Reports have filtered through about the new levels of fitness being attained by the top 22 in the All Blacks squad who are sitting out the Super 14, especially skipper Richie McCaw.
News that they are using Pilates in a bid to improve flexibility and such scientific aids as lactic acid tests to prevent overtraining while at special training camps has caused somewhat of a stir.
And while the top France-based French players are excused from playing for their clubs so they stay fresh for internationals, that does not apply for the English who are also watching developments Down Under with a mixture of envy and foreboding.
The Sunday Times was impressed but wondered if it was a publicity stunt in order to intimidate the opposition. It said: "You have to hand it to the All Black aura and publicity machine once again. Whether the players really have become mega-athletes or not (and don't worry, some of them won't have put on a pound or shaved a millisecond from their sprint personal best) the propaganda value alone of their training camp will be worth 10 points against any team by the time the World Cup comes around."
That may be true, but France will be able to see for themselves during the June tests in Auckland and Wellington. The notoriously unpredictable French are unlikely to reveal much only months before the World Cup.
However, they are slippery customers at the best of times - the 1999 World Cup semifinal comes to mind - and their latest training regime means they could be even harder to hold on to by October.