Summary
FRANCE'S mood of triumphalism has given way to paranoia and Bernard Laporte is not amused. Just a day after Les Bleus enjoyed a hero's homecoming, the coach played down past failures. No wonder he declared: 'I don't give a monkey's about history.' Now that the host nation has come down to earth after their team's stunning win over the All Blacks in Cardiff on Saturday, grim memories from the last two World Cups have resurfaced. The confidence and optimism engendered by that astonishing success against the tournament favourites has been checked by flashbacks to 1999 and 2003, when pride came before a mighty fall.
On the first occasion, they had just beaten New Zealand in breathtaking fashion, to book a place in the final. But the scale of that achievement and the subsequent celebrations knocked the wind out of their sails, leading to a 35-12 defeat against Australia.See the full content of this document
Extract
Wary Laporte Is Going Ape!
Four years later, in-form France met England at the semi-final stage and sank without trace in a Sydney monsoon as Jonny Wilkinson kicked his ...
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