The Sunday Telegraph's Brendan Gallagher believes France coach Marc Lievremont's selection gamble failed to pay off against England.
"France wanted intensity, big hits, go-forward and muscle. Except that with the French, and with Chabal in particular, physicality is not something that can usually be measured in kilograms and biceps. It’s all to do with how badly they really want it.
"On Saturday the 'caveman’ spent most of the first half wandering around in a daze like a man blinking in the sunlight for the first time in years.
"Lièvremont fretted and frowned on the sidelines, aware that to bring him off too early would be humiliating and underline his own mistake, but eventually he lost patience and threw on Bonnaire, who thus reuntied with Thierry Dusautoir and Imanol Harinordoquy, the trio that served France so well in the opening two games.
"Lièvremont can’t say he wasn’t warned. That doughty old French warrior Serge Betsen has been warning all week that he didn’t fancy Chabal at No 8 for one second."
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