Laporte braces for Blackout
13 Mar 2007
France coach Bernard has Laporte warned that New Zealand were still a class apart from the rest of the world.
He said that despite his side being in a strong position to capture the Six Nations title, success should not be seen as indicative of how they’ll fare against the All Blacks.
“If you look at the Six Nations tournament and then the All Blacks there is clearly a difference,” Laporte said. There are the All Blacks and then another four or five teams below them.
“We are on our way to winning the tournament and we are hoping to rediscover our dynamism with a great match against Scotland. But that will not make us World Cup favourites.”
Laporte’s charges were woeful in their 26-18 defeat to England on Sunday. He attributed this to two factors, but was adamant that the loss wouldn’t hinder them form retaining their title.
“Competition [for World Cup selection] is one parameter among others to explain our defeat as is fear in a crucial match on our way to a possible grand slam,” he added.
“Despite everything I have said we are on course to win the tournament and now it just depends on us. We will wait until we have seen the match again on video before announcing our 22 [for the Scotland game on March 17] on Tuesday morning.
“But from what we have already seen, we will not make numerous changes.”
7 Comments
13 Mar 2007, 11:17 am
Can’t argue with the fact that the ABs are in a class of their own at the moment…
13 Mar 2007, 13:09 pm
My opinion is you can’t write off any of these teams. France, SA, Aus, Eng, Ire. They all have the potential to win and Argentina could cause serious upsets along with Scotland. Wales are just tooo **** and Italy’s form won’t last long…
13 Mar 2007, 14:09 pm
Agree that either France, SA, Ireland, Aus (and possibly England)should make it through to semis with ABs, but ABs were playing the most dynamic rugby last season (with Fr a distant second). Tri-nations will give us an indication of form I think.
13 Mar 2007, 14:54 pm
Boks are only team to compete with the physicality of the All Blacks – and maybe Argies as well …
13 Mar 2007, 14:55 pm
JB – Ireland did a pretty good job when they toured NZ last year, they just couldn’t play 80 minutes.
13 Mar 2007, 16:30 pm
I tend to agree with J.B.
Only the Boks can match and on their day better the All Blacks in the rough stuff.
16 Mar 2007, 01:23 am
But the Boks are six chapters behind on the SKILFUL stuff.
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