Philippe Saint-Andre wants a dominant French performance in their World Cup match against Canada that could see fly-half Frederic Michalak become his country’s all-time top points scorer in the tournament.
The French coach — who ends a controversial three-year reign after the World Cup — is hoping he will not have to repeat his Alex Ferguson hairdryer moment in last week’s game against Romania.
A woeful first-half performance provoked the 48-year-old former France captain into a dressing-room rant during the break that was caught on camera. France pulled away in the second period from 17-6 up to prevail 38-11. But they still trail Pool D leaders Ireland by a point.
“A coach needs to be able to scream when needed, and to congratulate his players when things are going well,” said Saint-Andre ahead of the Canada game in Milton Keynes.
“Apparently cameras are mandatory, so next time I’m getting upset, we’ll go under the showers.”
However, Saint-Andre accepts his side will have to go up a notch against a Canada side that showed a marked improvement in the 23-18 loss to Italy last weekend from the one mown down by a relentless Irish surge of attacks in the opening 50-5 thrashing.
“We have to be better in the rucks,” said Saint-Andre.
“In modern rugby, there are 150-180 rucks per match, so we have to be more accurate.
“I expect my team to be better in this area and show more discipline on Thursday.”
Michalak, who resumes his halfback partnership with Toulon team-mate Sebastien Tillous-Borde that Saint-Andre prefers, should garner the three points he requires to pass Thierry Lacroix’s World Cup points national record of 124.
Saint-Andre, though, has given some key players a rest. Fijian-born wing Noa Nakatici and No 8 Louis Picamoles, who have played both pool games and the warm-up tests before will sit the match out. The absence of Nakaitaci allows the first blooding at this level of Remy Grosso.
“Louis played the three friendlies in the lead-up to the World Cup, then two matches with a four-day turnover, just as Noa Nakaitaci,” opined Saint-Andre.
“They need some recovery time — to gain back some freshness — and will work on other skills in the next few days.â€
Canada coach Kieran Crowley is the only handler at the tournament to have won the Webb Ellis trophy as a player.
He has established a side with some useful backs and DTH van der Merwe’s try against the Italians is certainly one of the best of the tournament so far.
Crowley’s main fear is that the short space in between the two games against two fully professional sides as opposed to his which numbers some amateurs in it will prove too much for his plucky Canucks and a similar scoreline of 46-19 from the last World Cup could be on the cards.
“That’s the biggest challenge when you have short turnarounds, the mental side of it,” said the 54-year-old, who was a member of the All Blacks squad that won the inagural trophy in 1987, beating the French.
“You put a lot into it physically, but you also put a lot into it mentally.
“When I was involved in Test match rugby it used to take me about a week to come back down before I was ready to go again.”