FRENCH COLUMN
DAVID BARNES

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose is a French axiom adopted even by the English to wearily describe an immutable state of affairs that defies change.
And, when applied to France’s international rugby of recent times, it is entirely accurate.
Especially when it comes to summer tours, the latest of which was concluded in South Africa last evening with a third defeat in a row.
For Federation president Bernard Laporte, who has made the restoration of France as a global power a cornerstone of his reign, memories of such excursions are bleak.
He add...