France send Wenger as rugby secret weapon

14 April 2012

England will have to cope with a formidable French connection if they are to take their World Cup defence all the way to the final in Paris next year.

France coach Bernard Laporte revealed yesterday that his strategy includes an alliance with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

Laporte has invited Wenger to meet the France squad when they build up for the World Cup with their Six Nations match against England at Twickenham in March. He said: 'I met Arsene during the football World Cup in Berlin and we struck up a good rapport. He invited me to London to see the new Arsenal stadium and we had another talk. He is a great man and we will meet again.

'I have asked him to have dinner with the players when we go the UK for the Six Nations. The players will be very pleased because there is so much to learn from talking to him.'

No coach will have to shoulder a more crushing burden of expectation than Laporte when the World Cup begins in exactly 12 months' time. In the five previous World Cups the only hosts to fail to reach the final were Wales in 1999.

'It's as if there is a rule that the home country has to be in the final,' Laporte said after attending a World Cup symposium at the French national training base at Marcoussis, south of the capital. 'There is a very big expectation.'

It will become greater still should France beat the All Blacks on successive weekends in November.

For the first of those matches, Laporte has enlisted the help of his football counterpart, Raymond Domenech. Laporte believes England will come good when it matters next year. He said: 'You take Zidane, Henry, Thuram and Vieira out of the French football team and they also will suffer accordingly.

'That is what it has been like for England without Jonny Wilkinson and a lot of other key players. Now that they are all coming back, England will be well-prepared for the World Cup.'

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