France - where dinosaurs roam

One of the puzzles of women's rugby is why France - the country that could reasonably claim to be the birthplace of the women's game - under performs, when compared with other major nations. Overseas tours are few, and - despite being part of the FFR for two decades - those running the game seem to lack the ambition of the country they seem to envy more than any other - England.

Or maybe it is no puzzle, if the pronouncements of French men's coach Marc Lievremont are typical. In an interview yesterday's Le Parisien - Aujourd'hui en France the interviewer mentions that his sister plays the game. Lievremont replies...

She played, unfortunately! We were devastated in the family. She was wrong, obviously. Rugby has been in our home for a long time, but to do the same as her brothers, it was not appropriate for her personally. Once we get a little scratch in in women's rugby, we become all macho. Anyway, I think there are other sports for women.

I suppose the best you can say about this is that at least he is honest. However, can you imagine Martin Johnson saying anything similar? That he should think he could say such things without being slapped down by the FFR perhaps shows that his patronising attitude is by no means unique in French rugby.

Estelle Sartini, former French captain and a member of the Steering Committee of the FFR, was unimpressed - "I know that unfortunately still a lot of people who think like this." though she hopes that "the inclusion of the women's rugby at the Olympics will be one way that attitudes to legitimacy of the sport will change."