News

Lièvremont rues `naive` display

Saturday 05th July 2008

Exhausted: Lionel Nallet deserves a holiday

France Head Coach Marc Lièvremont has reacted to his side's 40-10 drubbing at the hands of Australia in Brisbane on Saturday by saying his inexperienced team were "naive".

Lièvremont lined up the most inexperienced France team since 1906 but was optimistic about their prospects prior to kick-off.

But after just a few minutes the writing was on the wall for the visitors.

"[The game] was played at a very high tempo," said Lièvremont in the wake of defeat.

"Against a team with so much experience, being down 10-0 after seven minutes made it very complicated - especially since the Australians were not being overly expansive.

"On the other hand our youngsters were courageous, for sure, but extremely naive.

"It's extremely frustrating in terms of the investment made by the players and Australian spectators because we were out-classed."

Lièvremont also pointed to the fatigue that was clearly visible on the part of the French players, who were playing in their last game of the season.

"What was shown was the limits of the French system. Just speaking of the captain Lionel Nallet - a 53-week season really isn't possible," said the coach.

"There are some satisfying points for the collective in terms of the courage of the team and some of the individuals.

"But there's also quite a lot of despondency. Even if before the game we wanted to persuade ourselves, because we're competitors, that anything is possible, the Australians brought us back to the reality of our limits, which is difficult to accept."

Nallet, for his part, was ready to look at the silver lining of a very difficult tour.

"I'm not despondent," said Nallet.

"Disappointed, yes, because we lost two games. For all the players, it's always difficult to lose.

"The players were exemplary for the whole stay which went very well.

"We had a lot of fun but the training sessions were very serious. Everyone was committed.

"On the field, however, there were some bad decisions that cost us dearly."