MARC LIEVREMONT blasted a section of his France squad as “spoilt brats” after he discovered some players went out to celebrate their World Cup semi-final win against Wales on Saturday.
France battled to a 9-8 victory against 14-man Wales to reach their first final since 1999, when Lievemont was Les Bleus’ starting openside flanker.
Lievremont, who has had a fractious relationship with the players during his four-year tenure, called a meeting yesterday and told the guilty players they had let the team down.
“I went to bed in a bad mood because I’d asked the players not to go out, and I found out a few of them had gone out,” Lievremont said. “I told them what I thought of them – that they’re a bunch of undisciplined spoilt brats, disobedient, sometimes selfish, always complaining, always whining. It’s been like this for four years. The problem is we are not world champions yet and we just qualified for the final. This reminds me of 1999 when there were four days of celebration for the semi-final.”
France were in an apparent state of disarray after losing their final pool match to Tonga but they united to beat England in the quarter-finals. “The Tonga match is the one that stands out (as a turning point) for the words said after it and for the weeks that followed,” said Lievremont. “The Welsh played a great, pragmatic game and it was great to watch our defence. We had great communication and we had a lot of encouragement between the players and there were no penalties in the last 20 minutes, apart from one that I thought was not justified.”
Lievremont insisted Sam Warburton deserved to be sent off for the tip tackle on Vincent Clerc, which yesterday earned him a three-week ban. “I thought the sending-off was totally justified and it is not my fault if other people do not agree,” he said.
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