"The English? They are robots."

The author of one of the few histories of women's rugby ever written - Des Filles en Ovalie - has been in touch. Its the book we've has been serialising here, but instead of complaining he has sent a free copy! It is in French, obviously (in fact no history of women's rugby has ever been published in English!), but thanks to its well ordered layout, Google Translate, and some exceedingly basic and barely remembered French language skills, its quite possible to get the gist of the book.

Most of the actual history the book covers has already appeared on here (see below), but there are also some amusing - and even probably quite controversial - bits later in the book, where it reviews in some detail the state of French women's rugby at the time it appeared (2006).

For English readers the best bit comes on p126 where the author, in a very relaxed chat with several senior French team officials, gets onto the subject of doping and the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. This, of course, never happens in France we are assured - but elsewhere?

Remy Louis, at that time the French physio, had some real suspicions. "For two years [around 2003-2005] the French team has worked really hard with targets and preparations at a high level and yet over the same period the English have changed a lot physically. There must be some chemistry involved here."

Team doctor, Nicole Darrieutort, replies "The English women? The are robots" before going onto say how he warns his players about the dangers of drugs.

However, the best bit comes next when French team coach Philippe Laurent sums up what is wrong with his team's biggest rivals - "Nous, en fait du rugby feminin pour filles et les Anglais font du rugby masculine pour filles!" Or, roughly, "Here, we have women's rugby for women and the English have men's rugby for women!"

I'll leave it for you to decide - regardless of what was intended - whether we should take that as a complement or not!