The Rugby World Cup hasn’t begun yet and already Bernard Laporte, the French coach with his foot and mouth tendencies, has landed himself in controversy with a couple of clangers. The first was his threat on Australian ref Stu Dickenson in an Auckland hotel. Larporte was reportedly very angry at the way Dickinson refereed the first test between the All Blacks and France in June. The French coach was overheard implying in no uncertain terms that he could put an end not just to Dickinson’s games allotted in the World Cup but also, his career.
Just when you hope the bald bespectacled one may have taken a chill pill a month out from the world cup, off he goes again. This time he implies that the English and New Zealand rugby teams are on performance enhancing drugs. Admittedly – both teams look rather bulky – but no more muscular and thick necked than say France, Australia or South Africa. The English have already leapt into damage control refuting the French claims, saying theirs is the only union with a full time doping officer. It will be interesting to see what the NZRFU come up with. It is not the first time the French coach and media have taken a pot shot at the All Blacks regarding doping. Last year a French newspaper ran an article about an AB testing positive for cannabis. We never did find out who that All Black was, or how the newspaper believed cannabis could possibly be performance enhancing.
1 comment:
Ferdy, many years ago when I was studying in Paris and going out with a Tunisian Girl(go way back in blog to read that one), she asked me a rhetorical question: "Why do the French have a rooster on their national team Jersey's?" I said I did not know. She said that "the French Are like a rooster in that they both can make a lot of noise while being knee deep in shit and can be irritating as hell". You are a long time fan-you can draw your own concuslions. As somebody who has studied there, my former girlfriend was really onto something with that theory.
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