French no pushovers, but money is on Boks

When Guy Novès arrives this week with his players, someone is bound to irritate the coach by asking which French rugby team he has brought.

Novès dislikes clichés, especially the one about never knowing which France will turn up, or the hackneyed headline for matches against England: "Le Crunch".

It's no cliché that he will bring a strong team to take on the Springboks in three Test matches next month - if one missing the French flair of earlier tours.

The French finished only third in this year's Six Nations but they were brilliant against England despite losing; electric against Ireland until No10 Johnny Sexton masterminded their demise; won a brutal confrontation upfront to demolish Scotland; and outlasted Wales in the 100-minute match.

Not that the Springboks will be complacent. For all their supposed indifference, the French have never been pushovers here. The 1995 World Cup semifinal was the most memorable, and there have been others.

It took the All Blacks 75 years to win a series on our soil. The French did it first time up in 1958.

When France made a return visit in 1964, revenge was uppermost in South African minds.

Springbok fans at Springs were incensed when South Africa lost the single Test in Springs. An angry, if unfair, fan confronted Bok flyhalf Mike Lawless: "Are you Lawless, Wyness [Wang Wyness, a wing who didn't even play that day], or just plain f****** useless?"

The Boks' chances of a series victory this time will depend on many factors, one of these being player fatigue. If it came down to only that, my money would be on the Boks.

It's also a reason why any Bok coach should ignore South Africans playing in France. French club rugby is the most enervating in the world. The season often runs from August to June. This year, it ended mostly - and mercifully - in early May.

Only eight players in Novès's squad of 31 will still be in action this weekend during the Top-14 final. Another 12 were involved in the play-offs that finished last weekend.

Players face up to 40 club games a season in France, while in other countries it is seldom more than 30 and in the case of Ireland only 20.

The Top-14 has a budget of à150-million (R2.1-billion), while the French Rugby Federation has one of only à100-million.

"The league is bigger than the federation," says former Les Bleus coach Philippe Saint-Andre.

That's what's killing the national team, say the critics. Among the problems that Novès has to deal with is that 70% of wings in French club rugby are not French.

This subservience of the national team to French club rugby has been referred to as the elephant in The Louvre. And lately, the elephant has trampled the joie de vivre that once marked French rugby.