French hit back at “lack of respect”
Posted by Hamish McBrearty on June 7th, 2007
Two senior French players have hit back at All Blacks’ coach Graham Henry’s suggestions that France used negative tactics in the first test.
Veteran full-back Thomas Castaignede says France never spoke about, nor did they use negative tactics during the first test. Henry accused the French of killing the ball, faking injuries and deliberately slowing the pace of the game.
He said that the poor showing by France was probably caused by the three day preparation time rather than an intention to slow the game down. Castaignede added that the so-called negative tactics were just a perception.
Giant loose forward Sebastian Chabal also dismissed accusations of cheating at scrum time, saying that the French front row had trouble adapting to the scrum engagement calls of referee Stuart Dickinson.
Both French players also said that they were dissatisfied with being labelled a ‘B’ team by the New Zealand media, making the point that this test series clashes with the semi-finals and finals of the French club competition, robbing France of some of their best players.
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The French hit back at “lack of respect” by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
