All Blacks legends slam ‘disrespectful’ French selections as Justin Marshall pleas to stop ‘inviting’ them

Legendary All Blacks, Jeff Wilson, Mils Muliaina and Justin Marshall, have slammed French Rugby following the announcement of the squad to tackle New Zealand.

Les Bleus head coach Fabien Galthie named a largely understrength team to face the All Blacks in three Tests in New Zealand, with nearly half of the players yet to make their debuts for their country.

This is because of an agreement between the French Rugby Federation and the LNR – the governing body of professional club teams in France – around the release of star players, ensuring that they get sufficient rest.

An exception was made this July to allow Galthie to select five players from the Top 14 final, who he has yet to reveal but would be available for the second and third Tests.

Still, the selection of an inexperienced squad has irked the former All Blacks, who highlighted the fact that the best New Zealand have to offer always play against Les Bleus when the two sides collide in November.

Ex-All Blacks slam French Rugby

Former half-back Marshall was the first to air his dismay on Sky Sports NZ’s The Breakdown show.

“To be honest, I’m really disappointed,” he began.

“The side the French have bought is clearly underpowered and you’re talking about an average age of 25, and an average number of caps of 9.3, this is a side that has a very little amount of experience. There’s 49% of the players who have no caps at all, so it’s a development team with a few senior players involved.

“In my mind it’s it’s complete BS, the way that they’re treating this tour, the way that the French always seem to have come up with excuses to not bring their top players. I feel they disrespect the international window.

“I’m not going to say that it’s not going to be a contest out there but our fans deserve to see their best players playing in our country against our All Blacks because we do that in November to them.

“We send our very best players to fill their stadiums and giving their fans the best experience they can get by seeing the best players in the world.

“They are not doing that and if they keep doing this, which is quite regular for them, just don’t invite them, we’ll play someone else.”

While Marshall is annoyed that the French have sent a weakened squad for the three-Tests, he does expect Les Bleus to be competitive considering how deep France’s depth runs.

“Look it’s still going to be a good series,” he added. “They’ll be competitive and they’ve got depth but the reality is they’ve left 70% of their best players in France. I just don’t feel that that is within the decency and the respect of the game.”

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World Cup impact

Former winger Wilson agreed with Marshall and believes that France’s players are missing a key development in their games because of French Rugby’s decision to regularly send weakened squads to the Southern Hemisphere, which he feels hinders their ability to compete at Rugby World Cups.

“The reality is that we heard last year that they might bring a second-string team and I have full respect for French Rugby, I have no issues with the fact these guys are playing in a world-class competition but this is still not their best side,” Wilson added.

“We know their best players aren’t here, they know their best players aren’t here, are they going to go out and compete? Absolutely. But when push comes to shove, experience goes a long, long way and you’re playing the All Blacks in New Zealand.

“The part I’m disappointed about is that if they genuinely want to win a World Cup at some point, you want to give yourself the best opportunity to do that, you have to take on the top teams away from home.

“In two years’ time, there’s a World Cup being played in Australia and that’s familiar territory to us. Ireland came down here and they beat the All Blacks for the first time in New Zealand, and it gave them a better chance of winning a Rugby World Cup. Now they pushed us right to the very limit and France have denied themselves the opportunity in a three-Test series to give guys the chance to understand what it takes to be successful in the Southern Hemisphere.”

Muliaina continued the pile-on: “I just think it’s ridiculous that they’re able to bring this, an average of nine caps, it’s disrespectful. You build this sort of series up and they talk about how difficult and how our players want to come down here and then they bring a squad like that.

“Every time we go on the end-of-year tour of the Northern Hemisphere [we go fully-loaded], can you imagine us taking an understrength team, imagine the outcry that would cause.

“Now is when we’ve actually really got to hone things home and I hope that the All Blacks give them 3-0.”

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Farcical component

Marshall pinpointed what he believes to be the real farcical component of France’s decision and how it impacts the All Blacks’ preparations for the Rugby Championship and the remainder of their international season.

“The farcical component of it is if we were to be playing the French in November it would be a completely different side that we would play than we’re going to play for the next three Test matches because they would have all their superstars back out there,” he said.

“When we select our All Black teams and we’re preparing for a very difficult Rugby Championship and some really challenging Test matches, we want to know about our players against the best players in the world. The French are I think third in the world or fourth in the world and we need to know who they go.

“When I was playing, the litmus test for me it was playing against Fabien Galthie, if it was playing against the third-string half-back, I wouldn’t know where I’m at.

“I can’t measure myself, I want to play against the best, I want our All Blacks to play against the best the French have got to offer, they can still throw the kitchen sink at us because they don’t win here very often, so they’re underdogs anyway with their top team.”

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