Bernard Laporte, the France coach, may need a sense of humour in the coming months. After only four matches in charge of the side that captivated the World Cup with that tour de force against the All Blacks at Twickenham, he finds himself caricatured on the French television satire Les Guignols, the Gallic version of Spitting Image.
Laporte may have thought he was pulling the strings rather than dangling from them like his puppet counterpart but, after two successive defeats at Stade de France, the French public are having a snigger at this rather intense man they were convinced was going lead them to a third grand slam in four years.
Instead England and Ireland triumphed in Paris, making today's meeting with Italy something of a sideshow.
Laporte, of course, has blamed the French club game for the worst succession of French injuries since Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. The injuries have undermined France's season and more importantly given the side a jaded look. Against Ireland last month they simply ran out of steam in the last quarter and were beaten by the Irish in Paris for the first time in 28 years.
Laporte said yesterday: "We have got to use this match to bounce back and finish the campaign on a high note, so it will give us some form of impetus before we play the All Blacks and the Australians this winter. I also expect the team not to make the same errors, particularly the dreadful way we defended against the Irish.
"I want us to find a well-balanced game. We only played one match, the opening game against Wales, with what I would call our first team. After that we had to patch up the holes, and certain players who came in were not at international level," he said. "But I would say that while we may have been criticised for our results not even the All Blacks would have played at the same level if they had lost 10 players.
"We need to have a deeper pool of class players and that is why I want to get things moving at club level," he added.
Italy, meanwhile, after catching Scotland cold on the opening weekend, have conceded 166 points in defeats by Wales, Ireland and England. Their best hope of staying in touch with France will be Laporte's former player at Stade Francais, Diego Dominguez.
The Argentina-born out-half is the second highest scorer in the championship with 50 points. But his side face a backlash today. If not, Laporte may be shown la porte.
]FRANCE: T Castaignede; P Bernat-Salles, R Dourthe, E Ntamack, D Bory; A Penaud, A Hueber; T Lievremont, O Magne, L Mallier, F Pelous (captain), O Brouzet, F Tournaire, M Dal Maso, C Califano.
ITALY: M Pini; N Mazzucato, L Martin, N Zisti, C Stoica; D Dominguez, A Troncon (captain); A De Rossi, M Bergamasco, W Cristofoletto, A Gritti, C Checchinato, T Paoletti, A Moscardi, A Lo Cicero.
