Blues man eager to hit some high notes

Two weeks ago, the strangest and the wildest scoreline in recent Five Nations history glinted across the smoothly curving loop of the Stade de France. The blunt summary of an extraordinary game was told in French, but a clearer meaning was seen in the accompanying band of computerised digits: France 33, Pays de Galles 34.

After an 80-minute blur of dizzying rugby, time had almost slipped away. France were on the breathless brink of losing to Wales in Paris for the first time in 24 years, to the same Welsh team which had been throttled in February by both Scotland and Ireland.

"We could not believe it," Thomas Castaignede sighed. "We never thought we might lose to Wales. Last year, we played the Welsh away, at Wembley, and it was like a dream. I cannot forget the score: Wales 0, France 51! Now, 11 months later, it is incredible. We have not lost a match in the Five Nations for so long but we are in danger. We know the score. We are one point behind Wales and it is injury-time. And then, you know, we get that penalty . . ." Castaignede had mastered the trick so many times before. On his Five Nations debut, against England in 1996, he had snatched a win with a last-minute kick - a sweet drop goal. Only a month ago, in this season's championship opener in Dublin, he'd snaffled a desperately-late French lead with a serene penalty. His rival out-half that afternoon, David Humphreys, then had his own opportunity to win the match with a final swing of the boot. Humphreys missed. Castaignede and France had their 10-9 victory.

Castaignede felt "very calm. The kick should always go over. It's my job. But, against Wales, and I don't know why, it went to the left. I was so upset. We had lost, and I had missed the last chance to save us. Normally, my penalties go over because I work hard. I am a kicker."

Castaignede, of course, is more of a magical runner and creator than he is a mere kicker - but he was right. He did labour over his solitary craft.

"Perfection," the French marvel explains, "cannot happen every time.'

Castaignede is too self-assured and bright to blame himself for such a shocking defeat. "I don't think we underestimated the Welsh," he stressed, "but maybe they surprised us. We did not expect (Neil) Jenkins to run like he did. We also had a bad defence. That's why we lost - not just because of one kick at the end. We made too many mistakes before."

The French were often typically graceful and devastating in attack against Wales. There were moments of astonishing running power and blue guile - especially from Emile N'Tamack, who scored a hat-trick of tries, and Castaignede himself, most notably when he slashed through the red line and then slid out a wonderful little ruse of a reverse pass.

"We have the capacity to play this way," Castaignede agreed, "but we also have one main problem. It is the same struggle we always have in French rugby. Concentration. I don't know why we lose our concentration."

The old French debate about the varying merits of `flair' and `pragmatism' has ground on even more this year. Yet, amid the clutter of the French camp, Castaignede is a sufficiently stark tackler to stress that they need to match the intensely physical challenge England will impose today at Twickenham.

"We will play again with flair and with continuity. But, against England, we also have to bring the discipline and the determination. We will stand up at Twickenham because we know that the English pack is very strong. They come at you - pow, pow, pow! I saw that against Ireland, (Lawrence) Dallaglio had a very good game. But their whole back row (Richard Hill, Neil Back and Dallaglio) will make it hard for me."

Although England are the seemingly superior team, they have lost four successive matches to France - going back to a third place playoff game in the 1995 World Cup. For Castaignede, "the atmosphere in France was not good after the Welsh match but, facing England again, our mood has come up. "England will be difficult because they want to win very badly. But we have beaten them so often. Now they have a chance to win the Grand Slam. If they are serious about the World Cup, it's very important for them to beat us. It's also true for us. We need to win to get the confidence again.

"With the French, there are always two possibilities. We can be very bad - and we can be very good. This is such an important match and so we hope very hard that we become the `other' France, the very good France." French rugby has always been built on such contradiction but, if Les Bleus aim to once more surprise a resolute England, they will need more than supreme application and a much improved performance from their creaking pack. More than anything, to crack the white wall, they will need their talismanic No 10 to unleash his favourite game of shimmering rugby while kicking his goals up until the very last minute.

"I am ready to do it," Castaignede grinned. `This is the kind of match I like most. I love the pressure and the danger. To me, it is an adventure. Anything can happen. And, in France, we like this. The uncertainty makes us try harder. This is how we must play at Twickenham - because in rugby, like life, everything is possible . . .