Will Greenwood: Lievremont doesn't know his best team

Six Nations talking point / Will Greenwood / 23 February 2011 / Leave a Comment

Has the French coach got his selection gambles right?

"Clive Woodward proved that changes can be very effective. But you need to maintain a strong spine in your team."

Will knows what it takes to beat France, having done it plenty of times at Twickenham. He also knows that there's a fine art to team changes and believes the French coach is being indecisive rather than bold...

I played in an England team that never lost to Les Bleus outside France. However, I also never managed to win across the Channel and I admit that I'm still irked by that. On the three occasions I played in Paris we always managed to go down by close margins.

Beating them at Twickenham was always sweet. In 2001, I crashed over early in a 48-19 victory with a try that was the result of a system that was near perfect. We had created so much space that I was practically able to walk in untouched. I actually saw the same piece of play being used by New Zealand in the Tri-Nations last year, which shows that the best rugby is timeless.

The game has changed enormously over the last two decades and no team demonstrates that better than France. Fifteen years ago their midfield was populated by slight, darting players who liked to mix up their angles, but now they're just huge. The French have got taller and bigger and all those clichés about Gallic flair have been consigned to history. Eight years ago they used to dismiss Ben Cohen, implying that he was too big to be a winger, lacking in finesse, but Yoann Huget on the right wing is a carbon copy of Cohen. The old French rugby purists must be turning in their graves.

Marc Lievremont has rung the changes for Saturday's match and Martin Johnson is also considering selection dilemmas. Clive Woodward was never afraid of making changes - he changed the side for the 2003 World Cup semi-final and then again for the final - but I don't think Lievremont knows his best team.

Clive proved that changes can be very effective. But you need to maintain a strong spine in your team. Once you have got that you can make alterations around the core and that can make a side more dynamic. So you need to be careful. The key to winning big tournaments is to have a team that can win with changes. Martin Johnson will be aiming to develop that side of England between now and the autumn.

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Will knows what it takes to beat France, having done it plenty of times at Twickenham. He also knows that there's a fine art to team changes and believes the French coach is being indecisive rather than bold......

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