Argentina France

France 12 - Argentina 17

Bernard Laporte must be fuming! This morning (NZ time), 15 plucky Argentinians turned up and rained on France's opening ceremony parade by playing a game of tenacious defence and passion.

If the old cliche about Les Bleus: 'you never know which French team will turn up' is true - then certainly the French D team were out in force last night. I thought France were particularly let down by poor handling, nerves and lack of game plan. This probably wasn't helped by a very average first five combination of Mignoni and Skrela (surely Laporte can find someone better than these haphazard 'generals')? Their slow decision making and sloppy skills let down an entire backline that had limited chances to get in front of the gain line or produce any kind of flow.

In contrast - Argentina had it all over the French from explosiveness to backchat. Half back Augustin Pichot and fly half Juan Martin Hernandez out thought their opposites and directed the game fearlessly. Rallying their troops to never give up; Contempori slotted goal after goal in the first half, and a stunning breakaway try (the only one of the match) by Igancio Corleto must mean Los Pumas surely fancy their chances as this Rugby World Cup tournament begins.

For Match Report and Stats - check out Matt @ Green and Gold Rugby.

Rugby World Cup Profiles - France

In this lull before the Rugby World Cup, I have decided to follow the lead of fellow esteemed bloggers and publish my thoughts on each top ten team heading into the World Cup Competition and what I think their chances are. Here are my thoughts on France:

Current World Rank: 3

Random cliché: ‘Who knows which French team will turn up on the day’ and ‘they’re very enigmatic’

Murray Mexted most likely to say: "You don't like to see hookers going down on players like that."

Stephen Jones did say: ‘France, in many senses are a shadow of themselves’.

Coach likely to say in defeat: ‘You will never referee in this town again!’

Glamour boy of the team: Sebastien Chabal

Greatest Moment in last four years: Have had a lion like grip on the Six Nations trophy three years out of four.

Weakest Moment: The hammering suffered at the hands of the All Blacks on home turf both in 2004 and 2006

Weak link in the team: Frederick Michalek

Redeeming features: Bernard Laporte – if you’re going to play bad rugby and send along a C team, at least you’ve got a mad coach to liven things at the post match press conference.

Incumbent star: Dimitri Yachvili

Rising star: Pierre Mignoni