Rob Kitson, of the Guardian, assesses France's chances in the Six Nations.

"France, to plunder from Winston Churchill, are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. They lost to Italy and Tonga last year yet reached the World Cup final and rocked the hosts New Zealand before succumbing by a point. They are like a shower with a faulty temperature gauge: heat is a matter of wait and find out.

Like England, France are under new management with Philippe Saint-André replacing Marc Lièvremont as head coach. Unlike their great rivals, they are not rebuilding ahead of the 2015 World Cup. The Six Nations squad is pretty much the one that went to New Zealand."

Martin Gillingham, writing for the Independent, looks at whether the French league has as much flair as they'd like the rest of the world to believe...

"Were you to offer me a ticket and trip to the Ernest Wallon I’d bite your hand off. Do the same for Welford Road then I might have to think a little longer before accepting. For starters, the prospect of post-match dinner at a brasserie in the corner of Toulouse’s Place du Capitole is rather more appealing than a kebab in the shadow of HM Prison, Leicester. It’s also a general assumption that 80 minutes of Rouge et Noir is likely to be more entertaining than the traditional fare of biff, bash, bosh dished out across from the local nick by the Tigers.

Indulging in stereotypes, though, can be dangerous."

The Independent's James Lawton attempts to decipher the enigmatic French coach Marc Lievremont ahead of Sunday's World Cup Final.

In a little more than 72 hours Marc Lièvremont may have stunned the rugby world. He may have moved from the low ground of controversy to the uplands of pure legend.

At this moment, though, he is standing beneath a ball that has been hoisted high by one of his coaching assistants.

It is one of the Lièvremont rituals that so often suggest a man congenitally apart, this session of kicking and catching while his frequently malcontent players loosen up at the other side of the training field for a little serious work before Sunday's World Cup final with the All Blacks.

Writing in the Guardian Paul Rees searches for the reasons behind France's thrilling rivalry with New Zealand in the World Cup.

"Dimitri Yachvili paused after being asked why France had a good record against New Zealand in the World Cup but a poor one against England. "Fear," he eventually replied. Against the All Blacks, he explained, it was a fear of playing against a great side, an emotion that could be challenged positively. When it came to England, the fear was of facing a team he described as France's bete noir; a fear of failure."

Brendan Fanning highlights the importance of tight-head Mike Ross to Ireland's Rugby World Cup bid in The Sunday Independent.

"In case you weren't tuned into Mike Ross's importance to Ireland, you should be now. Having been ignored for longer than was reasonable, he has become the difference between having a scrum and Ireland not having a scrum. Yes, it's possible to win the odd game without one -- Wales managed it earlier in the day in Cardiff -- but it's not a policy you want to adopt.

"So the chance of a draw in Bordeaux last night, and with it a boost to morale having come back from as bad a 40 minutes as we have seen from Ireland, went south on a five- metre scrum that went back. Ross was on the bench; Tony Buckley was in the cockpit, and the plane crashed. It remains to be seen what effect this has on Buckley's chances of going to New Zealand. You need two tight heads on board, and aside from Ross we have one who is too old -- John Hayes -- and another who is not a good enough scrummager -- Buckley. There is no way out of this for Declan Kidney."

The New Zealand Herald's Peter Bills looks at the farcial under-use of the salary-sapping, world-class tighthead Carl Hayman at Toulon.

"The whole incredible farce of Carl Hayman's non-season at French Top 14 club Toulon is finally at an end.

"Yet the wonder - the absolute bemusement - at how the club of the Mediterranean made Hayman, widely regarded as the No. 1 tight head in world rugby when he joined the club last June, the highest paid prop in the world at a reported 625,000 euros a season yet at the same time turned him into almost a complete nonentity as a player, continues.

"According to Toulon's own statistics, Hayman incredibly made just three starts in his entire first season with the club. His other 21 appearances were as a substitute.

"Yet to spend such a huge sum of money on one player out of the club's 20.8 million euros total budget and then sit him on the bench for almost the entire season, defies belief."

Of all the stupid things Welshman Gavin Henson could have done to endanger his stay with French club Toulon, insulting Jonny Wilkinson was about the worst. Peter Bills writes in the New Zealand Herald.

"Henson, by general belief never the brightest spark in the electrician's box, was this week suspended for a week by the French club for alleged 'fights' with certain team-mates at a nightclub after the club's 21-9 victory over Stade Toulouse in Marseille last weekend.

"Now, as a result, Henson's whole future with Toulon is in doubt, as is his possible involvement in the Rugby World Cup with Wales later this year.

"But Henson's first mistake was to make it clear he didn't respect Toulon captain, South African Joe van Niekerk, either. This, too, showed Henson has clearly been short-changed when it comes to the grey matter.

"Van Niekerk, a former Springbok, is hugely popular at Toulon. He was quickly made club captain because of what was seen as his devotion and commitment to the club. He is regarded as an inspirational leader and a popular one, too, a player and personality revered among the club and its supporters. After his first season, Toulon offered him a longer term, improved deal. They were delighted when he accepted."

The nightclub incident which led to Gavin Henson's suspension by Toulon was allegedly sparked by the Welshman's criticism of team-mate Jonny Wilkinson, the Daily Telegraph's Gavin Mairs reports.

"French daily L'Equipe reported that Henson angered team-mates his criticising Wilkinson, and captain Joe van Niekerk, who was sin-binned during the game. The paper also alleges that Henson fought with Henjak, the Australian scrum-half.

"His suspension ensures he will miss the game against Perpignan on Saturday, leaving him possibly just one more game, against Montpellier, to prove he deserves a new contract for next season.

"Some sources have suggested that Henson can expect his contract until the end of the season to be terminated next week when he comes before Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal and head coach Philippe Saint-André following an internal investigation by the club."

Mick Cleary focuses his attention on the lost man of French rugby, Marc Lievremont, in The Daily Telegraph.

"L’Equipe gave over its first four pages on Monday to an in-depth post-mortem following the team’s first-ever defeat (22-21) to Italy. Its message was clear: Lièvremont pose vraiment probleme.

"Former head coach Bernard Laporte issued a stinging rebuke in the paper’s columns and finished off his critique with a familiar refrain for a Frenchman: we need a revolution.

"Jonny Wilkinson’s boss at Toulon, Philippe Saint-Andre, despaired of a shop window that is filled with the soiled goods of the international team. In brief, it’s not been the best 48 hours in the life of Lièvremont."

Mick Cleary yearns for the days when the build-up to England v France was infused with real bite in The Daily Telegraph.

"His opposite number, Martin Johnson, shrugged off the usual anti-English, no-one-likes-us jibes. It was no more than bit of fun, a pantomime villain routine.

"What a far cry from the glory, gory days when Brian Moore’s every caustic word was pinned to the France dressing-room walls, guaranteed to enrage every Gallic hero of true blood.

"Little did they realise – or perhaps they did – that the more they reacted, the more it invited the next deliberately provocative statement from the England hooker."

In the Independent on Sunday, Hugh Godwin reports how the foreign invasion on the Top 14 is causing the French national team concern.

"As the queue of players grasping at the mega-Euros on offer in France's Top 14 Championship grows ever longer, so Marc Lièvremont, the head coach of Les Blues, is becoming more exasperated. "I am delighted that players like Jonny Wilkinson are playing in France but as a selector it is a problem," he said. "You go to a league match and the teams you are watching have so many foreign players."

"The trickle of foreigners in former flanker Lièvremont's playing days – he was a member of the Grand Slam side in 1998 and made it a double as coach when he landed the same prize last year – has become a torrent. Wilkinson's Toulon recently added Wales's Gavin Henson to their roster and Kingsley Jones, the Welshman who has been linked with a coaching job at the club, predicts wealthier French sides will soon run the equivalent of two playing squads totalling up to 50 players."

Mick Cleary marvels at the mercurial French following their opening Six Nations win over France in The Daily Telegraph.

"The call has already gone out to New Zealand passport officials to check the paperwork carefully when the French squad arrive in Auckland for the Rugby World Cup in early September. Just which lot will land?

"The supine, angst-ridden mob who had a collective nervous breakdown against Australia in November, or the gung-ho, on-message, fast and fancy-stepping outfit that shredded Scotland at the Stade de France on Saturday evening? Not even the French know the answer to that one.

"If the Six Nations championship does its best to reinforce national stereotypes, then we can only thank the Lord, sir, for the mercurial, flighty French. Just as you think you’ve got then nailed down, they switch masks and give you another face. Keep ’em guessing, that’s the trick."

Peter Bills advises French fans not to read too much into their dominance of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in The Independent.

"For anyone seduced into believing that four French clubs in the last eight of the Heineken Cup reflects the altogether superior quality of rugby being played across the Channel this season, a reality check is required. Either that, or a visit to the men in white coats.

"You can use this fact as one arbiter if you wish. Or you can use the other fact that the French national team was utterly destroyed, 59-16 in Paris last November by an Australian side that had just lost to England by a record margin.

"As ever, the truth lies somewhere in between the two. But what is undeniable is that this has been, thus far at least, no halcyon season for the game in France. Very far from it, in fact."

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, David Flatman concedes that the mix of greater professionalism along with the retention of some traditional traits makes French rugby almost unbeatable.

"It's true, you are more likely to get rich in French rugby and you are also more likely to get chinned in the process, but that is no longer all the place has to offer. Albeit a bit late, professionalism is being embraced in what – despite blokes being paid – remained an atmosphere with a wholly amateur feel for so many years. While it might be a touch ambitious to put the "new" French approach on a par with the top English clubs in terms of organisation, it is, I am sure, safe to declare them "proper" pros.

"Speaking to friends playing over there, there still seems to be a big emphasis on playing on "feel", as opposed to playing according to research carried out. This is a far more reactive approach but, in the interests of humility and improvement, surely it is reasonable enough that we learn what we can from those achieving more in our field. Iain Balshaw of Biarritz told me something else interesting: "The coaches just concentrate on what we are trying to achieve in general, not the odd little mistake. Appraisals will be frank but there is nobody being torn apart for dropping the odd ball or giving away the odd penalty. It is far more relaxed and positive than the analysis in England."

Rob Wildman in the Daily Mail reports that Jonny Wilkinson could be one in a long line of international stars to be targeted by French side Toulon.

"Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has promised further big-name signings to follow the decision of Jonny Wilkinson to stay at the French club.

'We are in contact with some of the biggest names on earth. Some will come,’ he said after Wilkinson agreed a new two-year deal, adding: ‘Jonny is more a man of Toulon than anybody else.’

Toulon are chasing flanker Rocky Elsom, who helped Leinster to the Heineken Cup
title in 2009, to replace former Wallaby colleague George Smith who has not settled and has reportedly agreed to join Japanese club Sanyo Wild Knights next summer.

Other names being linked to Toulon are Sale’s Andrew Sheridan and Wales wing Shane Williams."

Aurelien Rougerie's mission to get his hands on the Heineken Cup again continues on Saturday © Getty Images

Writing in The Irish Independent, Hugh Farrelly profiles Clermont centre Aurelien Rougerie who he says, epitomises the club that he has spent his career playing for.

"When he eventually retires, Rougerie will have spent his entire professional career playing for his local club and, in many respects, he is the club. Tall, blond, handsome, articulate and prodigiously talented, Rougerie falls squarely into the 'women want him, men want to be him' category, as well as being a marketing department's dream. Walking around the industrial town last weekend, Rougerie's image gazed down upon you wherever you turned.

"Clermont have recruited a host of overseas talents and merged them with a clutch of quality French internationals but, more than assuming the practical duties of captain, Rougerie is the figurehead, the inspiration of Clermont rugby, deified by the region in the same way that Biarritz back-row Imanol Harinordoquy is by his fellow Basques. Rougerie is steeped in Clermont. His father Jacques played prop and hooker for the club in the 1960s and '70s, good enough to win a cap for France in 1973, while his mother Christine, an international basketball player, is deputy mayor."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills analyses France's humiliating capitulation at the hands of Australia last weekend.

"No one does a crisis quite like the French. Whether it's students tearing up paving stones in the street to hurl at police, workers setting cars alight or politicians spouting verbal abuse at critics, the French are in a class of their own.

"Last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy charmingly called his media critics 'paedophiles'. So perhaps we should have expected similarly dramatic statements in the light of the French rugby team's abject 59-16 capitulation to Australia at the weekend, at the Stade de France.

"Ahead 16-13 seven minutes after half-time, France were smashed and humiliated as the Wallabies ran in six tries in the last 32 minutes, four of them in the final quarter of an hour, as France fell apart."

The recriminations begin for France © Getty Images

Robert Kitson ponders France's capitulation against Australia and wonders if it is symbolic of a greater problem, in The Guardian.

"It happened so quickly the victims seemed to struggle to take it in. France have been beaten heavily at home before, most notably by the All Blacks. But what happened to Les Bleus in the final quarter against Australia in Paris last Saturday was comfortably the most embarrassing episode of the European autumn, if not the entire year. You don't often see an international team simply give up.

"Having just got home from Twickenham, I'd missed the first 55 minutes of the game. Australia were 27–16 up, a decent cushion but nothing extravagant. The remainder of the game was oval-ball film noir, certainly from the point of view of the home defence coach Dave Ellis. Slick as the Wallabies backs were, the French corpse was barely twitching. They seemed uninterested in tackling, competing for the ball or, frankly, anything at all. A 16-13 lead dissolved into a 59-16 thrashing. To score 46 second-half points without reply, as Australia did, simply should not happen in a game involving two Tier One unions.

"By all accounts Marc Lièvremont is still trying to work out what went wrong. When coaches say that sort of thing they know the answer is usually staring them in the face. The squad are either so poor they can perform no better – clearly not the case here – or they have ceased to care about the job they are supposed to be doing. The Wallabies, I repeat, were as ruthless as starving freshwater crocs. But France? They were pitiful."

The Australian's Emma-Kate Symons reviews the media response in France to the national side's hammering at the hands of the Wallabies.

"Following their "pulverisation" (59-16) before a capacity crowd at the Stade de France by "les Australiens", newspapers, public debates and online chatter are awash with the story of the collective national shame over "A Terrible humiliation", as Le Figaro lamented.

"The French awoke yesterday to the announcement of two grim and seemingly linked phenomenon: the nation threatened by the debt crisis that is driving the Euro to record lows, and "the total failure of French rugby", in the words of Sud Ouest newspaper.

"Plucked like chickens!" L'Equipe screamed in one of multiple references to the French national symbol of le coq, or the rooster. The team was even likened to squashed pate and petrified chickens."

Peter Bills was in the Stade de France last weekend to see the latest in Stade Francais owner Max Guazzini's spectacular productions and he describes it in detail in The Irish Independent.

"It wasn't something you see at rugby grounds every week. Entombed within a faux wall, a plaster of Paris- type creation, the half-naked girl lay draped upon the top of a cage in which a huge leopard prowled. By the time eight enormous men, dressed only in silk loincloth, complete with another 16 dressed as Roman guards, had wheeled the float onto the field and to the centre of the Stade de France in Paris last Saturday night, the girl and the leopard hidden inside must have been rather well acquainted. So they opened the faux plaster, to appropriate music, and the audience gasped at the sight of this beautiful creature. The animal, I mean, but you could have put a different interpretation on it.

"The girl was helped down from the roof of the cage, clutching a golden rugby ball. She wore a thigh-length, silk sash-type creation, which was swung across her body, leaving one enormous breast completely uncovered. She walked to the sideline holding high the ball. And as the players from Stade Francais and Toulon exploded onto the pitch amid this chaotic backdrop of climactic music and spectacle, the half-naked girl handed the ball to a player. Never mind the man with the golden gun; this was rugby's version of the girl with the golden breast.

"When you attend one of Max Guazzini's French rugby spectaculars, it's best to leave behind any preconceived images of a rugby occasion. But this being Paris and this being a home game for Stade Francais, you go expecting anything."

Saracens' Alex Goode on the charge in France © Getty Images

English clubs could be left behind by the combined financial clout of the French giants, according to Mick Cleary in The Daily Telegraph.

"Don’t be fooled by Nigel Wray’s affable exterior. As any fan of Reggie Perrin knows, you don’t get to achieve what Wray has in business without having a cold-eyed grasp of bottom lines and a hard-nosed attitude as to what needs to be done.

"The Saracens chairman knows only too well that if his club do not get themselves sorted out with a new stadium or considerably better facilities than those on offer at Vicarage Road pretty damn soon, they will be also-rans.

"Wray was a guest of Clermont-Auvergne for Saturday’s Heineken Cup opening Pool Two game. It was a splendid occasion, from the moment the capacity crowd of 16,000 began jumping in unison to club anthems long before kick-off to the alarming, if absurd, sight of a 10-strong phalanx of security guards rushing out at the final whistle to pack in around Scottish referee Peter Allen as he left the field. Colour, noise, a whiff of menace – French rugby at its intoxicating best."

Writing in his Guardian Shaun Edwards has cast his eye across to the French Top 14 who will use referees from across the channel in this weekend's round of games.

"Three Irish referees plus one each from England, Wales and Scotland will oversee matches in an attempt to familiarise French clubs with, according to the French referees commission, another style of officiating ahead of the opening rounds of European competition.

"The six referees are not among the better‑known officials on the circuit, but the plumb job goes to Peter Fitzgibbon, the most recent addition to a growing line of good Irish referees, who gets to control the match between the European champions Toulouse and the current league leaders Racing Métro (who, incidently, will be without their coach, Pierre Berbizier, for the next 60 days after a spat with the referee Christophe Berdos).

"Now, I am no expert on the ways of French referees, but this exchange of officials seems to be a clever move and it's good to see the French putting their hands in their pockets in a good cause because there has been considerable unease in some quarters about the way the new directives at the breakdown have been applied in the Top 14."

Paul Ackford believes that a northern hemisphere side must win on tour this summer to keep alive any semblance of pride in The Daily Telegraph.

"Since that visit, which encouraged the self-belief which led to global dominance two months later, England’s record has been execrable: a 51-15 defeat in Brisbane in 2004, followed by two Tests in 2006 which England lost 34-3 in Sydney and 43-18 in Melbourne.

"Yet, incredibly, England are the success story here. Wales have never won a Test match in New Zealand, Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks and last triumphed in Australia way back in 1979, and Scotland’s record against Argentina stands at two victories from 10 outings.

"That’s the reality right there. For all the smug self-congratulation at the commercial success of the Six Nations championship, for all the inflated salaries which the top players earn in this part of the world, when it comes to winning Test matches on the other side of the planet, we’re no bloody good."

Peter Bills salutes Clermont Auvergne following their Top 14 victory, but again calls attention to the state of the scrum in The Independent.

"Exorcising a demon is always a pleasurable activity and few come bigger than French club Clermont Auvergne's achievement at the weekend of becoming French champions for the first time in their 99-year history.

"To do it, Clermont had to banish the memory of 10 finals, every one of them lost dating back to 1936. This was their fourth consecutive final and they had lost in 2007, 2008 and 2009. So credit Clermont and their New Zealand coaching duo of Vern Cotter and Joe Schmidt, as the latter now heads for Leinster to replace Michael Cheika as head coach.

"In truth, Clermont's victory, by 19pts to 6 in the final over Perpignan, was no classic. But it contained, as too many matches do nowadays, an absolute absurdity that the International Rugby Board surely needs to address to restore proper values of fair play."

Toulon fly-half Jonny Wilkinson is fit and raring to complete year without a break with victory in this season's European Challenge Cup Final. The England No.10 files his latest column for The Times.

"Twelve months ago when I attended the press conference in Toulon after I had signed I did not know how the team were going to gel, how the spirit was going to grow, how the team were going to perform. That has turned out to be incredible. We have had players from all corners of the world who have come together in a collective drive. There were so many variables for me: a new country, new team, new language, new rugby, new environment, new body, new knee, new everything. So many, what ifs? So to find yourself at the end of the season still having something to play for is great.

"The extra-time loss to Clermont was horrendously disappointing. The closer you get to things, the more ambitions you have. To reach the final was a realistic opportunity; it hurts like hell to fall short but it is a valuable experience. The level of intensity, the stage we were on, what that brings is invaluable. After 13 years I have never experienced anything like the enormous pride the area has in its team. It is unique. It is a pleasure being around people who are so selfless in their support. They don’t expect anything except for you to do your best."

Jonny Wilkinson has found a new lease of life since moving to the south of France © Getty Images

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson is on the brink of winning his first silverware in six years. He tells The Independent's Matt Gatward how a year in Provence put a spring back into his step – and why that's good news for England.

"Next Sunday, his expensively assembled Toulon meet the might of Cardiff Blues in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in Marseilles, but Clermont Auvergne are the first rather dangerous, chunky and stubborn obstacle barring Wilkinson's attempts to lay his hands on a trophy. Toulon take them on in tomorrow's Top 14 semi-final, and while a few English heads will be turned towards St Etienne, it's the anonymity and liberation of playing across the Channel that's floating Jonny's boat.

"The best thing about it for me," says Wilkinson, "is that I don't know the people I'm playing against. It's a nice break to play rugby, for the simplicity of playing rugby. There's a less complex edge than there was in England. When I started out as an 18-year-old, I had that same feeling. But after a while you know everyone and I was in international squads meeting up with the guys I was playing against. Then it's all about the match-ups, me versus him. Whatever one guy does for his team it's going to be different to what I needed to do. They are incomparable. In France, that simplicity is back because I'm not vying against some other No 10 for the France jersey. It's just about you and your team. That's a nice way for it to be."

Bath prop David Flatman revels in the return of the scrum as an attacking weapon in the wake of the Heineken Cup semi-finals in The Independent.

"As French rugby sails full steam ahead towards the promised land, leaving the game in the British Isles paddling around in the shallows with its trousers rolled up to the knees, it is time to identify the things separating them from us.

"Their clubs have more money, for a start, along with greater pulling power: domestic championship attendances are now within 6,000 of the average gate in the top flight of professional football. They play for the most part in superbly appointed municipal stadiums, they have comprehensive television coverage and – very important, this – they all have a scrum.

"Yes, we're back in the age of the dear old set-piece: the 16-man game within a game where an inch gained here and there allows a team to win by miles. Last week, both Toulouse and Biarritz prevailed in their respective Heineken Cup semi-finals because they tore up the opposing scrum."

Stephen Jones salutes rugby's flyers, and in particular Biarritz's Takudzwa Ngwenya, in The Sunday Times.

"You can measure raw pace with a stopwatch or an electronic timer. Without such accuracy, your personal impression and even your sense of joy will do. When Jeremy Guscott took a pass from Stuart Barnes in the 1993 England v Scotland match at Twickenham and devastated the visitors’ defence with a diagonal run before putting in Rory Underwood at the corner, I swear it was the fastest I had seen a rugby player move.

"Had Guscott decided to dedicate himself to athletics, he could have been a contender. “I only did the sprint training so that the big forwards wouldn’t catch me,” he says.

"Who were the fastest men he knew? He chooses David Trick, a Bath and England colleague who ran a searing 10.4sec for the 100m when still a schoolboy, and Martin Offiah, the dual-code wing. “Offiah was seriously quick. Seriously. It was like trying to tackle a ghost.”

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal welcomes Jonny Wilkinson to the club last summer © Getty Images

Mourad Boudjellal will celebrate his 50th birthday in June and the rugby club he owns, RC Toulon, is attempting to give him a rather special gift. Peter Bills writes in the Irish Independent

"He's 5ft very little, is the proprietor and publisher of 'Soleil Productions', a comic-book business, and as far as I know, has never played rugby seriously in his life.He's a funny chap, too -- he hovers down on the touchline during matches in a nervous manner and he is never far away from a camera lens.

"...under Boudjallel's ownership, Toulon have done an awful lot more. Off the field, they have galvanised a region once famed for its rugby prowess. Racing Nice, along the Mediterranean coast, were French Championship runners-up in 1983 before disappearing into anonymity -- to an extraordinary extent.

"Last weekend, Toulon moved their home fixture against reigning champions Perpignan from their 13,700-capacity Felix Mayol stadium in the heart of Toulon, to the 60,000-capacity Stade Velodrome in Marseille. 58,250 turned up, a triumph for Toulon-born Boudjallel and what he has achieved at the French naval port town. He's done it chiefly by opening his cheque book very wide indeed. Some of the game's finest players have been lured by the riches on offer."

Peter Bills reflects on the changes seen at the end of the Six Nations in terms of pace and running rugby in The Independent.

"In a brasserie just off the main 'Place' in Bastille, the area of Paris where they know a thing or two about revolutions, a very dramatic event occurred last Saturday evening.

"A burly Frenchman was standing beside a television showing the France/England match live, and roaring his support for...... 'Les Rosbifs'. This was revolutionary stuff. He explained this dramatic state of affairs in the following words 'Ze are ze only team playing proper rugby.'

"I thought I'd have to go to heaven before I heard such words fall from the lips of a Frenchman. But it was an indication of how the southern hemisphere induced changes in the law interpretations, especially at the breakdown, began to influence countries by the end of what has been a pretty mediocre Six Nations Championship."

Paul Newman visits the Paris suburb from whence Mathieu Bastareaud emerged to become a French superstar in The Independent.

"Jean-Max Calice, who brought Bastareaud to Massy, remembers the first time he saw him. "He was playing at Viry-Châtillon in a junior tournament. He was a phenomenon even at 13. In fact he was very much the player he is now. He was strong, but what struck me most was his incredible will to win. I've never trained a greater competitor.

"Mathieu has become a symbol for the banlieues. He's such a good example. He is very humble and respectful. He's gentle and has a nice sense of humour. Family and friends are very important for him. That's such a good image for rugby."

"Nicolas Gestas, the general director of Massy, agrees. "He's a good lad," he says, "which is why what happened in New Zealand last year was so astonishing." Bastareaud's mental scars are still evident. There were reports of a suicide attempt and he is still consulting a psychologist. A three-month ban for the player, who missed the autumn internationals but was recalled for this year's Six Nations Championship, was subsequently changed to community service. He is in the middle of 18 visits to schools, clubs and rugby academies."

David Hands meets the enigmatic French centre who has had a huge impact on the Six Nations so far, but still has to do his community service in The Times.

"A cold wind whips through the northeast Paris suburbs. The man in the white tracksuit top stands on a muddy, uneven playing surface in Pantin watching the Île-de-France under-26 squad going through their paces under poor floodlights. Mathieu Bastareaud is doing his time.

"This is not Bastareaud’s turf — at 21, he would rather be with his mates from Stade Français — but it is his city and this is the seventh of 18 community visits that he must make before June 30. This is the punishment awarded him, in lieu of a three-month suspension, by the Fédération Française de Rugby disciplinary committee in September for the episode during France’s tour to New Zealand last summer that ended with diplomatic exchanges between the governments of the two countries.

"To meet Bastareaud now is to meet a shy youngster but one determined to display his English, as determined as the powerful centre has been in taking the RBS Six Nations Championship by storm this month with two tries against Scotland and a significant part in the downfall of last year’s grand-slam winners, Ireland. Less than eight months ago, his face was plastered all over France’s television channels and newspapers and he was suicidal."

Peter Bills salutes a French performance of pace, power and invention against Ireland in The Independent.

"Be afraid, be very afraid. French rugby is stirring and a giant awakes. It was all very well for France's reinvigorated rugby team to hammer and humiliate the reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland, in Paris on Saturday. But to receive laudatory comments from that notoriously dissatisfied body of opinion known as the French media was another thing altogether.

"Thus, we can imagine that French coach Marc Lièvremont (below) probably needed to sit down in a darkened room once he had digested the words of France's great newspapers following his team's 33-10 victory at Stade de France.

"Combat Kings" L'Equipe hailed them. The magisterial Le Monde opined that: "France replied in masterly fashion to the question of what level they are at." And the rugby bible, Midi Olympique, added: "It was their aggression and breakdown work which were the most impressive aspects of the French performance."

James Haskell excelled for England © Getty Images

Richard Williams talks Top 14 with James Haskell in the wake of his star turn for England in The Guardian.

"James Haskell is hardly the first young man to go to Paris to find himself, but the city's magic seems to be working as well for him as it has for generations of artists and writers. With a brace of tries that shunted England towards a pressure-relieving victory over Wales, the 24-year-old flanker vindicated his much criticised decision to leave London Wasps and cross the Channel to join Stade Français last summer.

"Needing this win perhaps as much as any in their history, England had their opponents to thank for the errors that will allow Martin Johnson and his squad to spend the next week working in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity. Had Alun Wyn Jones not tripped Dylan Hartley five minutes before the interval or Stephen Jones not thrown an intercepted pass five minutes before full time, the criticisms of recent months would have intensified.

"Haskell's first try, on the stroke of half-time, came with a plunge for the line at the end of several minutes of English siege. The second found the flanker ready to make the final thrust as England swarmed through the tattered Welsh cover. These moments were, he claimed, prime examples of the squad's new spirit."

Gregor Paul is predicting some fireworks from an emotional French side as they take on New Zealand this weekend. Read his thoughts in The New Zealand Herald.

"If anyone is looking for a good bet to make on the All Black test this weekend, stick some money on one of the French players being sent off.

"It's been a while since a red card was shown in a major test, but there is something in the air that makes it feel entirely possible, almost probable, that one of the French players is going to lose it. Really do something memorably violent – a stomp on the head, a punch, maybe even a head-butt (they have got form there in both football codes).

"And for another different sort of bet – how about the All Blacks to win with a drop goal? Even better, how about Luke McAlister coming off the bench to land said dropped goal?

"The irony would be rich but again, there is this unmistakable edge at the moment that suggests things are going to boom at the Stade Velodrome; that this is going to be the most memorable test of the season and maybe not for the right reasons, either."

Ahead of the November Tests, four of The Guardian's rugby scribes pick their current world XVs.

"The hits may be getting bigger but class is permanent. It will be interesting, even so, to see how many of this team are still pre-eminent when the 2011 World Cup kicks off in New Zealand.

"The autumn Tests will certainly tell us more about Jamie Roberts, so influential for the Lions, and the new French captain Thierry Dusautoir. Watch out, too, for the fast-rising Irish back-rowers Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip, Australia's Rocky Elsom and France's Maxime Médard."

Eddie Butler accentuates the positives after Northampton Saints slipped to a Heineken Cup defeat against Perpignan at the "demonic" Stade Aime Giral in The Observer.

"Much as Treviso's 9-8 home win in round one over Perpignan, who are only the reigning champions of France, was greeted as one of those boosts for the game in general – and for Italian rugby in particular – the applause in Northampton was possibly qualified by the thought that somebody might have to pay for it.

"And so it was in the demonic Stade Aimé Giral, as deafening in its appreciation of an opposition kick at goal as Thomond Park, Limerick, is silent, the slighted champs of the Top 14 threw everything at last week's rather noble victors over Munster. Actually, it is hard to see a bald, genial, English Kiwi, bearing the name of Perry Freshwater, as a son of Satan – unlike the splendidly untamed Jean-Pierre Perez in the Perpignan back row – but the large loose-head prop played his part in the demolition of the Northampton scrum.

"Add to the frenzy of the Perpignan forwards the sheer class of Maxime Mermoz in the centre and the industry of Nicolas Durand at scrum-half and it could all have unravelled for the visitors. They said they had done their homework and knew what to expect, but nothing can ever really prepare you for a descent into the Aimé Giral."

Stuart Barnes admires the turnaround at colourful Top 14 giants Stade Francais in The Sunday Times.

"In their florid pink shirts, Stade Français could have been a poetic fancy conjured up by Baudelaire after a heavy night on the hashish and absinthe. And for the first five matches of the season one of the most glamorous of all the French clubs performed as if they could not shake off the bleary effects of the night before.

"Stade were languishing 13th in the Top 14. Think the Tigers perched precariously above Leeds in the Premiership and you understand the shock. The Parisians didn’t have a defence as much as a sieve. In those five games they conceded an average of 31 points, including an infamous 40 at home to Montauban, whose modest aspirations are for nothing more than mid-table security.

"That defeat was followed by another 30-point fiasco in Biarritz and that . . . that was followed by action more drastic than anything achieved until then on the field.

"Max Guazzini, their extravagant owner, with a showtime penchant for Moulin Rouge girls and jousting knights, showed the less playful side of his character, dismissing head coach Ewen McKenzie, once an Australia prop, and assistant coach Christophe Dominici, a former Stade and France wing."

Paul Rees recalls a few blood 'n' thunder clashes between French and Welsh sides in the Heineken Cup ahead of Brive's trip to face the Scarlets in The Guardian.

"Brive return to the Heineken Cup tomorrow after an 11-year absence. They do so, perhaps fittingly, in Wales. There they face the Scarlets in Llanelli, but the milieu they step into to is far different to the one they were used to in the early years of the competition.

"The Heineken Cup was then known for confrontations between Welsh and French sides on and off the field. Local police forces were put on alert, arrests and charges were far from the exception and the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd became used to sitting in judgement on warring Celts and Gauls.

"Cardiff's first match in the inaugural tournament in Bègles in 1995 became so violent that their second row, Derwyn Jones, at one point shouted: "Circle the wagons." Llanelli and Pau were each fined £20,000, half of which was suspended, in 1997 after a match ERC said was smeared with examples of gratuitous violence. Brive and Pontypridd fought a notorious encounter the same year: two players were sent off and a brawl erupted that night in a bar packed with players from both sides."

	Wilkinson has found form and fitness in France © Getty Images

"I have quickly been reminded that there is no perfect world. Last weekend, I had a last-minute kick to win a league game for Toulon, it was from about 50 metres and an angle, but I knew I could get it — and I didn’t. The disappointment was horrendous; I haven’t felt that down for a long time. But then I realised I recognised that horrid feeling — it’s like an old friend. When I was injured, I didn’t have to deal with friends like that.

"How is it going? I’ve got a long way to go. People want to know how I rate my form, but I almost always say about six out of ten. When I get a bit farther down the road, I might get as far as 6½. Or maybe not. There is so much more that I am shooting for here; I am still nowhere near where I want to be."

Aurelien Rougerie, Clermont Auvergne's talisman, talks frankly about Top 14 heartbreak ans the Heineken Cup with Stephen Jones in The Times.

"If ever sporting misery was personified, its name last June was Aurelien Rougerie. He was inconsolable. He was called “an extraordinary player” by Bernard Laporte, the former France coach. Rene Fontes, the president of Clermont Auvergne, the club Rougerie captains and that begin their Heineken campaign next weekend, said: “Aurelien is our franchise player, as the Americans call it. He is our marquee player. Our hero. He is the heart of the club.”

"Make that broken heart of the club. Rougerie was captured on television at the end of the French Championship final at the end of last season. Clermont had just lost a magnificent match to Perpignan, the latest of their 11 finals, the most of any French club. They have won none of them. “Sometimes you feel that the current group, and maybe even this club itself, is fated not to become champions,” Rougerie said in the hour of defeat.

"Most of the truly great rugby clubs in any country are strongly identified with the community around them. Rougerie, 29, is effectively a local boy, from Beaumont, Puy de Dome, near Montferrand, where Clermont play. The club was created before the first world war by the Michelin Tyre Company, for the use of their employees, and the current stadium is still called Marcel Michelin, after its founder. Their desperation to finally win the French Championship typifies the dilemma of many French clubs when it comes to the Heineken Cup."

	Jonny Wilkinson is excelling in France © Getty Images

"It's definitely coming back," Jonny Wilkinson says quietly of the form and assurance that once helped him win a World Cup at the death. That same deadly conviction was evident earlier this month when Wilkinson scored all of his new team's 18 points and steered Toulon to a memorable victory over their illustrious opponents, Toulouse, before a crowd of 60,000.

"He made 20 big hits, over three times the tackles expected from a fly-half, and proved as withering in defence as he was relentless with the boot. Despite defeat, his opposite number, Frédéric Michalak, spread his hands wide and said of Wilkinson's return: "It's great for rugby."

"Yet on Saturday, to protect the famously intense Wilkinson from himself, his coach, Philippe Saint-André, started with him on the bench against Biarritz – and Toulon collapsed without him. Wilkinson has reclaimed the aura of a man who could, once more, become just as important to England as he already is to Toulon.

"Having suffered terribly from injury over the last six years, Wilkinson qualifies the praise with a more introspective appraisal of his French resurgence. "It's difficult to know for sure," he cautions. "It's a new scenario and hard to quantify. In terms of progression, the feeling of comfort, I'm getting to where I need to be. But in terms of, 'Am I happy in what I'm doing on the field?' the answer is always 'No.' There is much more I could be doing. If I was playing amazingly I would still say the same. But I honestly mean it when I say I've got a lot more to do here."

James Haskell opens up to David Walsh about Stade Francais and calendars in The Sunday Times.

"When Max first called to ask about the calendar, James Haskell’s instinct was to say no. Barely a week with his new club Stade Français, he didn’t need to pose virtually naked. But Max Guazzini, the club’s owner and his boss, is persuasive and Haskell hadn’t set up home in Paris’s 17th arrondissement to say no to every new experience. So he played for time.

"What he knew about the calendar was this: it was the biggest seller in France, each year a different renowned photographer took the pictures, it was massively popular with the gay community and with young and not-so-young women. If he said yes, Haskell would play into the hands of those who see him as a glamour boy with a weakness for off-the-field distractions. He could hear them tut-tutting: “Haskell, he’s only started in Paris, and he’s done this.” But these people, what did they mean to him? Since when was he going to live his life to satisfy them? In any case, their disapproval was insatiable.

“Max,” he said, “it would be an honour to appear.” His fellow England internationals Simon Shaw, Tom Palmer and Olly Barkley, and the Scottish internationals Hugo Southwell, Thom Evans and Max Evans, also said yes. They took him to an industrial part of Paris and the shoot was done on a rooftop car-park. The photographer was an American who kept screaming: “Chin up, chin down, chin out.”

"Women wolf-whistled from nearby offices and he had to laugh. “What greater commitment can a man show his club,” he thought, “than to stand bollock naked on a rooftop holding a golden rugby ball over his groin?” When the pictures were processed, Max pulled him to one side. “James,” he said, “we’re very impressed. We think you could be the front cover.” And he was pleased. He thought it was unbelievable that with all the pretty boys who play in the backs, they should choose him for the front."

Rugby is a game in which the laws, although they may be written down, are open to interpretation - so writes Jonny Wilkinson in his latest column for The Times.

"We have all taken those sort of gambles over and over. When they do not come off, you are accused of having bad discipline; when they do come off, you are the hero.

"I could rewind to the weekend just past. My team, Toulon, were winning against Montpellier until the last minute, when they scored the try that stole the victory from us. What if we had gambled differently? In retrospect, if we could have, we should have. We should have spoilt, stolen or slowed down their ball to prevent their try. We should have taken the gambles that might have had us penalised but might also have allowed us to prevent that try.

"But that is how rugby works: it’s about getting as much as you can before you get penalised. That is professionalism."

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills ran the rule over Jonny Wilkinson's Toulon debut and was impressed by what he saw.

"You couldn't quite call him the coolest guy in the ground. Not beside the Mediterranean, with temperatures still in the high 20s at 11pm.

"Yet with 17 points from that trusty left boot, a couple of audacious long touch kicks and his inherent ability to put his team where they would like to be, Jonny Wilkinson reminded his new audience at Toulon that, even at 30 and after almost a year out, plenty of his genius remains.

"The control Wilkinson has always exuded in his own life remains manifest upon the rugby field; unflustered, calm and decisive, the fly-half negotiated his latest comeback with the aplomb to be expected of a World Cup winner."

Owen Slot, writing in The Times, heads to Toulon to check up on Jonny Wilkinson's progress ahead of the new season.

"You do not need to know Jonny Wilkinson particularly well to enjoy his story of his maiden trip to the club gym. He tells it because it wryly mocks both himself and the culture at Toulon, his new team in the south of France.

"It is Day 1 and there he is in the gym, before 8am, as keen as any new recruit would be to make a good impression. He finds he is sandwiched between one group of club-mates, the 7am-ers and the second wave at 8am. He starts doing stretches and warm-ups but cannot get down to work because the 7am-ers all come and shake his hand with a warm “Ça va?” He then starts to do some weights but every time he gets going, one of the 8am-ers arrives and shakes his hand with another friendly “Ça va?” How can he be diligent, hard-working Jonny with all this going on?

"But within days, he has realised that acceptance must come before frustration. Every morning he must go through this, before he can put his Wilko hard-work head on; he, like everyone else in the squad, has to ensure that he has shaken hands with all the others. It is the French way.

"He is learning, but has not yet cracked, the regional differences of the morning greeting, the handshakes and hand slaps. Some do the French double-kiss, the players from the Mediterranean rest their heads against each other, like a kissing of temples."

Jonny Wilkinson has touched down in France and The Times' Mark Souster sees the budding seeds of 'Jonnymania'.

"Jonny Wilkinson arrived in the South of France yesterday to start house hunting in preparation for his new life on the Côte d’Azur. He will today be formally presented to an expectant public in Toulon who still cannot quite believe that one of the world’s greatest players is joining them next season.

“I don’t think Jonny appreciates how excited people are by him coming here,” Tom Whitford, the Toulon team manager, said. “He is an icon. The town is so unbelievably passionate about rugby and for him to be here is a real coup for us and the region.”

"Anthony Hill, the general manager at nearby Nice, was less circumspect. “The place is going bonkers at Jonny’s arrival,” he said.

Wilkinson, who was 30 on Monday, admits he is not sure what to expect this lunchtime at the Stade Mayor. He will, however, take it in his stride and feel genuinely humbled that people care so much about him. Jonnymania is about to begin afresh but this time around he is keen to embrace it rather than try to run and hide."

With Jonny Wilkinson heading to Toulon, Gavin Mairs commends his decision in The Daily Telegraph.

"The only sticking point to his move, having given 12 years of service to Newcastle Falcons, had been whether Toulon could secure their place in the French Top 14 for next season, which they did recently with a heralded victory over minnows Dax.

"But Toulon also had their own concerns, despite the fact that they believe Wilkinson's signature alone will prove a marketing coup for French rugby similar to David Beckham's move from Manchester United to Real Madrid back in 2003.

"Most pertinently, they were worried about Jonny's knee. Wilkinson hasn't played a game since dislocating his kneecap last September while playing for the Falcons against Gloucester and endured a number of setbacks as he attempted to return before the season to put him in the mix for the Lions.

No doubt Toulon would have preferred for Wilkinson to have proven his fitness before they offered him a reported £700,000 per season, two-year deal."

French rugby is being flooded by talent in pursuit of record wages, but local resistance to the invasion is growing according to Ian Borthwick in the Sunday Times.

"With Jamie Noon and England Sevens skipper Ollie Phillips joining the trend last week, and Jonny Wilkinson about to sign for Toulon, France is looking more and more like rugby’s El Dorado. A fatter pay cheque, a better lifestyle, the rugby boom in France and the prospect of a wider variety of styles in “le Top 14” mean France is the destination of choice for many of the world’s best players.

French rugby clubs have been affected less than their English counterparts by the credit crunch. The sums offered to the game’s stars continue to hit record levels. Perpignan paid All Black Dan Carter €750,000 for seven months, reduced to two when the fly-half was injured. With Juan Martín Hernández (Stade Français) on €440,000, Byron Kelleher (Toulouse) on €460,000 and Kiwi League convert Sonny Bill Williams (Toulon) on €500,000, seven of the 10 best-paid players in France are foreigners."

Peter Bills delights in a feast of Top 14 action on trip to France - read his thoughts in the Independent.

"One of the intrinsic delights of rugby football in Europe remains for many people an undiscovered gem. Yet for the connoisseur, this enduring secret of the game is easy to find, simple to locate and pleasurable in the extreme. If you love rugby, then a weekend of club games in the south of France ought to be top of your "must do" list and with so many clubs within an easy drive of Toulouse, it is easy to do.

"...Saturday night at Toulouse offered a wide variety of choice in the field of restaurants and hotels, to suit most budgets. And if you like to keep fit, take your training gear because there is nothing better on a quiet, sunny Sunday morning than a run along the towpath of the Canal du Midi which threads its way through the city. Parts of it, lined by trees on either bank with the sun glinting through the fresh, new leaves of spring, are exquisite."

Charles Bremner reviews the French media's reaction to Sunday's Six Nations defeat to England in The Times.

"Usually it's the British who like reminding the French of Waterloo and Trafalgar. Today, French commentators have been invoking the ancient humiliations to qualify the epic defeat that their rugby team suffered at the hands of the English at Twickenham yesterday.

"This is not about gloating (I'm Scottish and the Six Nations Cup has three sides from Great Britain). But here for any interested fans is what France has been saying about the 34-10 débâcle that England inflicted on les Bleus. The defeat was the second worse after the 37-0 rout by les rosbifs in 1911.

"C'était Waterloo!" said the headline on the front of L'Equipe, the sports daily. "Massacre in an English Garden," said le Figaro. Le Monde called it "un coup de Trafalgar" and said France had been "administered a spanking like in those strict boarding schools in 19th century England".

France coach Marc Lievremont is creating a team that will play without fear, according to Hugh Godwin in The Independent.

"Marc Lièvremont kept his hands firmly on the desk in front of him when he met the media after the recent win over Wales but he might as well have given them the "bras d'honneur". Arm bent at the elbow, fist pumping upwards; the Gallic equivalent of our two-fingered salute. By inflicting a first defeat on the Welsh in two years of the Six Nations Championship, Lièvremont's France stayed in the running for the title and they will jog into Twickenham this Sunday with confidence renewed.

"The list of sporting coaches who have railed against the press is as long as your arm, bent or otherwise. But Lièvremont, who became head coach of Les Bleus at the start of 2008, is emerging as a man who knows which fights to pick and how to win them. Wales were beaten at their own high-tempo game at the Stade de France and it was a vindication of Lièvremont's chopping and changing of personnel, with a dollop of luck thrown in. Now for Les Rosbifs.

"The way Lièvremont describes it, France are seeking a Mediterranean style of rugby, which means a great reliance on the set piece, and a natural place for spreading the ball wide. A penalty try conceded by France's scrum at home to Ireland last year was the blackest of marks as the Lièvremont era began."

Writing in The Guardian, Eddie Butler is thankful for the superb showing from France and Wales on Friday night as Saturday's Six Nations offerings plumbed the depths.

"When it was announced that the Six Nations was going to hold a Friday-night party in Paris, there was a groan. Change is not always welcome in our rugby. Well, thank goodness for that nine o'clock special, the France‑Wales game that made up for one of the most woeful Saturdays of rugby in living memory.

"At least Scotland-Italy had nothing to live up to, having been billed as the wooden-spoon decider. The action was poor from the outset, but nothing was as sad as the sight of so many empty seats at Murrayfield. This was depressing rugby in a time of recession. Instead of lightening the mood, sport reflected these sombre times.

	Sergio Parisse drops a goal at Murrayfield © Getty Images

"What, for example, has happened to Mike Blair? The scrum-half, who after the autumn series was vying for the Lions No9 spot and maybe even the captaincy, had another game of hesitation and slow delivery.

"Italy, badly beaten yet again and struggling to reach the standard required for the championship – not that this Saturday did anything but lower the bar – still held in their ragged ranks the best player on display. Sergio Parisse was captain, tackler, yard-maker, inspiration and drop-goal kicker. He could not have done more."

Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills fires a broadside at the RFU following their reaction to the news that Riki Flutey, James Haskell and Tom Palmer will be leaving Wasps for Stade Francais.

"Is not the hysterical reaction of the Rugby Football Union to the news that three England players had signed for French clubs typical of a selfish organisation?

"In a sense, it showed English rugby’s naivety. The French have seen some of their international players, the likes of Raphael Ibanez, Sebastien Chabal and Olivier Azam, plus former Biarritz scrum half Julien Dupuy, going to England to play their rugby. In a professional era, what is surprising about that ? Players will go where the best deals are and be tempted by living and playing in another country.

"In soccer, David Beckham has played in Madrid, Los Angeles and most recently Milan whilst continuing to represent England. Years and years ago, the likes of Kevin Keegan, Mark Hughes, Gary Lineker and Laurie Cunningham all played their club football on the Continent whilst still playing for their countries.

"I detect a note of arrogance in English rugby’s reaction to the London Wasps players, Riki Flutey, Tom Palmer and James Haskell announcing they have signed for French clubs for next season. Flutey will go to Brive, Palmer and Haskell to Stade Francais."

Robert Kitson has very little time for Friday night Six Nations games, but would like to see cricket's referral system given a whirl at domestic level, in his blog for The Guardian.

"On the subject of innovation, however, imagine the following scenario. It is the 79th minute at the Stade de France and the home side have just been awarded a penalty in front of the sticks. The Welsh forwards have been penalised for killing the ball and, with France trailing 25-24, the visitors' grand-slam goose looks cooked. Or is it? Under an experimental new rule inspired by the referral system in Test cricket, the Wales captain Ryan Jones is allowed to challenge one refereeing call per game. Shrewdly, he has kept his wildcard up his sleeve for precisely this situation. The decision goes upstairs where close inspection of the slow-motion replays indicates a French knock-on half a second earlier. Scrum to Wales, kick to touch, game over, grand-slam bid still intact.

"Is this progress? Having watched a number of recent games settled by marginal – or plain dodgy – calls, I would suggest it is at least worth a trial at domestic level. France's forward-pass try against Scotland last week and Northampton's non-try against Wasps on Sunday (when the charging Ben Foden was hauled back off the ball out of sight of the referee and touch judges) are merely the latest examples of game-bending moments evident to everyone bar the officials.

"Umpteen referrals would clearly be impractical but allowing each side to query one penalty decision per 80 minutes would not slow the game down unduly and would also revive the role of the on-field captain. The skipper would not be allowed to seek advice from the touchline and would have only 10 seconds or so to lodge a protest. The side protesting in the heat of the moment and getting it wrong would lose out, the cool-headed would thrive and justice might just be done slightly more often."

In his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, Stephen Jones assesses whether the often precious attitude towards silence for kickers is really all that important.

"Whenever there is booing or jeering as an opposition kicker is taking a shot at goal, you can be sure that the public address system will soon kick into life and we will hear an announcement in tones associated with Mr Quelch. For those who have not made a close study of the Billy Bunter books, Mr Quelch was a master who tended to cane first and ask questions afterwards.

"You will have heard the announcement many times. “May I remind you of rugby’s sacred traditions of silence for the kicker ... no sneezing or shuffling of seat or blowing the nose ... offenders will be ejected from the ground and may be birched ... lack of parental supervision … downfall of Western civilisation as we know it, end of rugby, blah blah blah... “

"At some grounds they really make a big thing of the deadest of dead silences. Munster and Leicester are two of the most hostile arenas but the fans there, accompanied by a loud shushing, are so desperate to maintain the silence that they have been known to loudly attack cringing radio commentators who have the temerity to do their job and whisper into the microphone as the kick is being prepared. This on the grounds that their listeners might be confused by two minutes of dead silence and that a few whispered sentences make absolutely no difference to the kick whatsoever."

As he does on most Wednesdays, Steve Thompson, England's World Cup-winning hooker, will go hunting in the forests that surround the French town of Brive. Gavin Mairs reports in the Daily Telegraph.

"While the impending departure of Flutey and his Wasps and England team-mates, James Haskell and Tom Palmer, to France has sparked fears of an exodus from the Guinness Premiership because of the financial muscle of the French clubs, Thompson paints a very different picture.

"Moving to a club like Brive is not just about money, it is about the life experience," he said. "It's funny all this talk about money. When I was in England, I drove big cars like Range Rovers, BMWs and TVRs but last year I was driving a Renault Clio and normally I just ride a scooter about the place. If you drive a big car here you are seen as a bit of a muppet."

France's Six Nations hopes have been undermined by the increase in foreigners in their domestic championship, says L'Equipe's Ian Borthwick writing in The Scotsman.

"One of Lièvremont's problems is the rising number of foreigners in the French championship. A raft of Fijian wingers, and Georgian props, countless South Africans in all manner of positions, plus Byron Kelleher at Toulouse, Juan Hernandez at Stade Français, Daniel Carter at Perpignan, Andy Goode at Brive, Manny Edmonds at Bayonne, the uncapped Aussie Brock James at Clermont… more and more clubs are resorting to recruiting etrangers in pivotal decision-making positions.

"And at a time when Chris Cusiter has wrong-footed everyone by opting to make the trip back to Glasgow, the prevalence of non-French nationals in le rugby Français is starting to reach crisis point. "As coach of France, I am directly concerned by the problem. The quality of our game is suffering because in certain key positions it is becoming increasingly difficult to find players of quality," admitted Lièvremont. "Having the odd international star in the Top-14 is a great thing, especially for the shop-window of French rugby. But it has gone too far, because in some French clubs we are now seeing some team lists with up to 80 or 90% foreigners.""

Writing in The Guardian, Paul Rees mulls over the dilemma facing the IRB over Perpignan hooker Maruis Tincu's appearances while banned.

"The Tincu case has more profound implications for the IRB and its sub-committee already has a draw full of bulging files as it battles to maintain the system that means a player's ban covers all tournaments, not merely the one he was sent off in or cited.

"A problem with that is if a player is sent off playing for his country, his club suffers, and vice versa; a punishment should principally hit a player. Martin Corry was this week cited for alleged eye-gouging during Leicester's defeat at Ospreys last weekend: if found guilty, he would face a long ban, but anything less than nine weeks would see him free to play in the Tigers' next Heineken Cup match.

"Football's model is fairer and more logical, although punishments for drug offences are uniform. Rugby's disciplinary code was drawn up in the amateur era but livelihoods are now an issue. Whereas suspensions in football only exceed three matches in exceptional cases, bans in rugby are often measured in months, but when did soccer last have an eye-gouging case?"

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mick Cleary predicts financial trouble ahead as the gulf grows between European rugby's rich and poor.

"The upside of professional rugby looks buoyant. A full house of 77,000 at the Stade de France last weekend, Harlequins set fair for a 50,000 capacity crowd at Twickenham for their Dec 27 league game against Leicester, and sold out signs at various Premiership grounds.

"Rugby to be the new soccer? I doubt it. Scratch that shiny surface and things are not so wholesome. True, the big-hitters, such as Perpignan, Stade Francais or Leicester and, coming up on the rails, Quins, have either got high-rollers bankrolling them or have solid foundations. The name of their game is a mix of consolidation and expansion.

"But what of the likes of Newcastle or Bristol, clubs scrapping away to keep themselves on sound commercial footings? It's easy to get drawn to the headline attendance figures. The turnstiles aren't clicking all over the land. Wasps attracted only 7,596 for their important Heineken Cup game against Edinburgh; Glasgow, lively and potent the previous weekend, a paltry 3,306 for their return fixture against Bath. The Scottish regions rarely break the 5,000 barrier."

In his Rolling Maul blog forThe Times, Stephen Jones has more than a little sympathy for the French sides in the Heineken Cup.

"If I were a French rugby club I would seriously consider whether it is worth contesting the rest of the Heineken Cup. The odds are so stacked against them that the concept of fair play has been lost.

"One old Harlequins grandee took me to task yesterday for saying that Harlequins were outrageously fortunate to be awarded at least half the points of their famous win over Stade Francais in Paris last weekend. I had to gently point out that if I were Quins, and the beneficiary of such largesse, I’d stop complaining about the messenger and take the win and move on.

"But for goodness sake, don’t let anyone tell you that Stade Francais were not crucified by officialdom, because they were. Or that both Biarritz, who lost to Cardiff, and Perpignan, who lost at Leicester, had anything but the worst of the refereeing, and a total lack of what they were due from officials in this so-called professional sport. French rugby is always stuffed by refereeing. It is one of the first laws of the sport. Sad, but true."

Chris Hewett became the latest to round on the unfortunate Perpignan full-back Philip Burger in The Independent, before espousing the merits of Leicester's granite tight-head Julian White.

"If Stade Français had the cancan girls – more a distraction than an inspiration, judging by the Parisians' performance at the weekend – Perpignan had the lingerie. Philip Burger, a South African seven-a-side specialist from Pretoria who may not be the toughest full-back ever raised in Springbok country, took the field at Welford Road in a pair of the nattiest black tights, thereby attracting the attention of 17,000 wolf-whistling Midlanders who made it their business to put him off his stroke. Predictably, the poor petal suffered the torments of hell, for which the home side were duly thankful.

"Leicester tend not to go in for this sort of stuff: whoever supplies their match-day kit, it isn't Ann Summers. Julian White in gloves and frilly knickers? Please. When it comes to added extras, the tighthead prop from Devon restricts himself to a pair of contact lenses – perhaps not an absolute necessity for an individual who spends his working life in the darkened recesses of the scrum, but who's arguing? Unlike Burger, the former England front-rower commanded respect. He was, to borrow a striking phrase from one of the travelling Frenchmen, "the king of the field".

"How England could use him at the moment. Deep in his 36th year, White is significantly less mobile than he was at 26 (even at his quickest, he was no threat to Usain Bolt) and he turned away from international rugby some 18 months ago by opting out of the World Cup squad, apparently to spend more time on his farm. All the same, he would have spared the national team some blushes at Twickenham just recently. The red-rose forwards would hardly have been shunted off their own ball by sundry Wallabies and All Blacks had the strongest scrummager in Europe been anchoring the operation."

Writing in the Independent, Peter Bills tears into the northern hemisphere's willingness to put aside competing on the international stage in favour of raking in the cash.

"This large helping of humble pie at every rugby man's table in the northern hemisphere should herald a re-think, a study of why the game in this part of the world has again been left behind by the southern hemisphere.

"But it won't. When you put weekends in Rome, Paris and London ahead of the actual product on the field, when you study only your own bank balances and ignore the fare presented in front of you, there can be no proper judgement made by the countries of the northern hemisphere. All that matters in this part of the world is money, the filthy lucre. If that is swilling around and the national Unions and clubs are filling their snouts at the trough, then all is well. Nor does it seem to bother the patrons that they're largely watching second grade stuff most of the time.

"At least Wales were in the hunt for 40 minutes in Cardiff. They understood the need for fast, second phase ruck ball and off-loading in the tackle to have any hope of playing the modern game successfully. England, five years to the day after they won the World Cup, weren't at the party at Twickenham against the World Champions for half that time whilst France were inferior in Paris. All this tells a revealing story. The northern hemisphere has been studying its own navel, content with the view, for too long. This autumn Test series has underlined that all is far from well with the game in this part of the world."

Writing in the Independent, Hannah Wright surveys opinion on the latest addition to the Stade Francais Paris wardrobe.

"The shirt, with fetching denim-look sides and sleeves, made its debut this month against Montauban. Although the club's other shirts are decorated with flowers, and all have pink on them, the new version has created a verbal ruck in French rugby chat-rooms.

"One fan said: "If it wasn't so expensive I'd buy loads just to throw away. It makes me feel nauseous." Another said: "Who's smoking what at Stade Francais? And where can I get some?"A contributor on the British site, rugbyforum.com said: "Are they purposely trying to make every kit gayer as each season passes by?" Another asked: "Are they designed to hypnotise the opposition when they go to tackle them or something?"