Frogs on boil with big boys
Land of the giants: French forwards Jean Christophe Borlin (180cm, 104kg), Olivier Elima (188cm, 104kg), Jamal Fakir (181cm, 103cm) and Teddy Sadaoui (190cm, 101kg) shape up after training at the University of Wollongong yesterday. France take on Fiji at WIN Stadium on Saturday.
Photo: Robert Peet
France will rely on some fire to go with their flamboyance in their Rugby League World Cup match against Fiji on Saturday at WIN Stadium.
While they have always been renowned for their flair, the French have developed a reputation as being soft around the ruck.
But times have changed, and with a monster pack of forwards selected, the Tricolores will look to dominate in the middle of the park.
Former premiership-winning Parramatta coach John Monie has overseen a three-year recruitment process that has seen the French change their physical profile from petite to powerful.
"We've got a big, solid pack of forwards and we've got some bigger backs," Monie said.
"We just had to go out into the local competition and pick guys out who could play and were taller. Generally a lot of the French guys were five foot eight - so we went out and purposely tried to recruit taller players with the longer, leaner build and then they've done some pretty good weights for the last couple of years and (English Super League club) Catalans have helped that enormously.
"The body shapes have changed and with Catalans coming in they've worked really hard."
French captain and Catalans forward Jerome Guisset said the transformation of his side hadn't just been in its physical make-up and that Monie had brought a harder edge to the team.
"We've never been famous for being that big, but I think we have improved our toughness since John joined - at grinding games down," he said.
"We expect it to be a tough game against Fiji, a very physical game."
The French kicked off their campaign with a 36-18 win against Scotland last Sunday, but Guisset said they needed to step up a level against Fiji.
"Around the ruck - in defence and attack - we were pretty good at the weekend, but we've just got to repeat that against Fiji because they're going to be much more physical and much more aggressive," he said.
Despite the French plans to play it tough, fans can expect an entertaining game on Saturday night with the Fijians famous for their athleticism and trickery with the ball.
And Guisset said his troops still had the ability to play expansive football, but would base their game-plan around structure.
"We've still got the champagne - but nowadays you can't win a game like that," he said. "You can't just throw the ball around and expect to win games - the defence plays a big part and the ruck plays a big part.
"At some stage you need to be able to off-load the ball and have a bit of skill obviously - but you just have to grind the game down first."
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World Cup: Fiji vs France
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