UNITED KINGDOM: RUGBY UNION - France face New Zealand without home advantage

If the rugby World Cup had followed the script, hosts France would be playing their quarter final at the weekend in Paris with the huge advantage a familiar stadium and a passionate home crowd behind them. But it all went wrong when France unexpectedly lost their first game against Argentina and, having failed to top their qualifying group, now have the worst possible outcome, a match in Cardiff, Wales against tournament favourites New Zealand. On Friday (October 5) French coach Bernard Laporte supervised a training session on the famous Millenium Stadium pitch as France faced up to the possibility of being evicted from their own tournament at the first of the knockout stages. Laporte seems intent on bombarding the All Blacks with volleys of kicks after he moved centre Damien Traille to fullback and selected Lionel Beauxis at flyhalf. France prop Pieter de Villiers identified the New Zealand pack as the biggest threat. "They've been scrummaging very well over the past three years and you can see that they've got a very combined effort and all of the eight players do very well," said de Villiers He admitted it was demoralising to be playing away from home but added: "That's the way sport goes. If we won our pool it would have been in Paris for the quarter final so we're certainly paying expensively for that error against Argentina." de Villiers was also well aware of the challenge facing France. "We know we're not favourites, we know we're coming up against the best team in the world but it's up to us to stay focussed and concentrate on the match on the day," he said.

ITN Source | October 6, 2007

Tags:. .weekend. .huge. .lost. .possible. .possibility