NICK CAIN
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THERE are too many Englishmen happy to genuflect at the altar of “French flair”, extolling their rugby to the heavens, while ignoring the deadly dull boot-and-bash straitjacket that France have worn for most of the past 12 years.
In that time the French have not won a single title and have produced very little of the panache that were the hallmark of French teams of the decade bookmarked by their Five Nations Grand Slams in 1968 and 1977.
As a 16-year-old flanker who spent a summer month hitchhiking around France, I recognised...