France coach Marc Lièvremont has changed his tune and vowed to wield the axe for the second Test against Australia after admitting his team got their game plan all wrong in Sydney last week.
A largely second-string Les Bleus XV were beaten 34-13 in the first Test, the side only really coming to life in the final 30 minutes with the match already over as a contest.
Immediately post the game, the boss assured the press that he would keep faith with the line-up that capitulated at the ANZ Stadium.
However, now Lièvremont admits both the staff and the players must take their share of the blame for the loss, and is pledging to shake up the starting line-up for this weekend's clash in Brisbane.
"It seemed to me that we didn't do everything we set out to do," he said.
"We lost almost every ball on the ground, we only played in front of their defence and we often ran the ball into touch without looking dangerous.
"We [the coaching staff] also have to take responsibility as we said that from slow ball, we needed to use a pressure kicking game.
"The problem was that every ball was slow and the only ones we were able to exploit were wasted straightaway by our poor kicking game.
"So even if we were brave for a long time, it was inevitable we were going to crack.
"There are two injuries [Pepito Elhorga and Lionel Faure] but as well as that there will be changes made so we can bring some physical freshness into the squad.
"Also, we will be more tactical."
One change Lièvremont seems highly likely to make is the return of François Trinh-Duc to the fly-half jersey.
The Montpellier youngster had an impressive Six Nations Championship campaign at number ten, but was used by Lièvremont at outside-centre against the Wallabies at the weekend.
Benjamin Boyet filled in at fly-half and struggled, mostly because the French were on the back foot for most of the game.
Therefore, the attacking Trinh-Duc should give added assurance and panache when he returns to his usual position, but Lièvremont did not regret the experiment.
"Boyet was not to blame for everything - he often had dead balls to deal with," said the coach.
"Moreover, I am convinced the [Damien] Traille/Trinh-Duc partnership at centre can work. It turned out that Traille did not have the best match of his career, but we know his potential."
The France squad on tour in Australia does not include any players from Clermont, Toulouse, Perpignan or Stade Français - the semi-finalists in the Top 14 this season.
It is therefore a largely experimental party of 26 comprising players from some of the country's less-celebrated club sides, and it was to be expected that they would struggle against an Australia team preparing for the forthcoming Tri-Nations campaign.
But Lièvremont, whose side has already arrived in Brisbane ahead of the second Test, is determined to give all of his squad some experience on tour.
As for the lack of Top 14 semi-finalists, Lièvremont is resigned to the inconvenient club/country scheduling agreement.
"[A change] isn't negotiable, even if it may not be the best thing to do in top-level rugby," he said.
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