In the rush for control, discipline, organisation and structure, the French have jettisoned the great quality that always set them apart from more plodding rivals; namely, unpredictability, according to Peter Bills in the Irish Independent.
"In 1998, I watched mesmerised as a French team cut Wales to shreds in a scintillating 51-0 win at Wembley. It was rugby to make the gods dance in delight and it warmed your soul, like a hot toddy on a cold winter's night.
"Yet within a mere handful of years, the French had sacrificed this lethal philosophy forged on an attacking mindset for a dull, altogether more predictable approach.
"Of course, it is necessary in the modern game to add a healthy touch of pragmatism to your philosophy. Rugby defences no longer leak like sieves, are no longer as disorganised as a kids' play-group at break time. Yet even so, it seems to me curious that the French should have so willingly forsaken their roots, the great tradition that was their hallmark."
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