As the French phrase goes, on prend les mêmes et on recommence: take the same ingredients and begin again. Bernard Laporte today followed this prescription to the letter by naming the same 22 who overcame New Zealand for Saturday's semi-final against England. There was nothing to raise the eyebrows at all, which, coming from a man whose love of tinkering frequently defies all understanding, was a surprise in itself.
Much noise has been made in the French press about the fact that Laporte has tried out 35 half-back combinations in his eight years at the helm, but he will persist with Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Lionel Beauxis on Saturday. To mention merely the most recent recipients of the poisoned chalice: does anyone remember Pierre Mignoni and David Skrela, the incumbents in the Six Nations and seemingly the pairing that would dispute the World Cup? Mignoni is injured, but Skrela is clearly yesterday's man.
While it took two hours' deliberation to finalise last week's team, there was apparently little argument over Saturday's 22, according to Laporte and his co-selector Jo Maso, even though there had been issues in Cardiff such as Beauxis's lukewarm early performance, the early lack of precision in the kicking game, Fabien Pelous's lack of stamina and Damien Traille's rank inexperience at full-back.
France also have a question over their lineout - apparently they struggled last week because New Zealand unscrambled Les Bleus' codes and the team did not get round to changing them on the pitch - not to mention a backline that only truly flowed when Yannick Jauzion took over at first receiver. In those phases, which led to the near try for Imanol Harinordoquy and Thierry Dusautoir's score, Beauxis's role was limited to clearing out a ruck or two, while he was responsible for one horrible missed tackle which nearly let Nick Evans through late on.
"Everyone performed well, so why change anyone?" said Laporte today, when one mischievous French journalist asked if his policy of using all 30 players in the side through the World Cup remained intact. "Playing with a team of 30" has remained at least as intact as the policy of giving all 40 pre-selected players game time in the Six Nations. That went out of the window as France's challenge for that tournament developed, and "playing with 30" has gone the same way here.
What this will tell England is that France don't intend to change their game plan for Saturday. And why should they? Given last week's result over New Zealand, and given the outcome when they turned up in Sydney in 2003 without a well-established kicking game, why should they have switched Beauxis for Frédéric Michalak?
France look set to play the same defence-based territorial game as against the All Blacks, with the kicking boots of Traille and Beauxis up against Wilkinson. Michalak and Sébastien Chabal will, presumably, appear again as impact substitutes, together with Harinordoquy. It may seem bizarre that the player who turned the Ireland and New Zealand games with little flashes of brilliance should start on the bench, along with the most physical presence in this France side, but if France are forced to chase the game from relatively early on it may come to seem plain wrongheaded.
