France head coach Marc Lievremont has expressed his surprise at his England counterpart Martin Johnson's decision to drop Jonny Wilkinson for Saturday's crunch RBS 6 Nations showdown in Paris.
Toulon fly-half Wilkinson, who took a heavy knock to his head during last weekend's draw in Scotland, has been widely lambasted for his failure to bring England's back-line to life during this year's Championship but, after four successive starts, his demotion to the bench for the trip to Saint Denis still came as shock to many pundits.
Lievremont certainly didn't see Wilkinson's axeing coming but that is not to say that he feels that the World Cup winner's replacement, Toby Flood, is a lesser threat to France's hopes of winning the Grand Slam.
"I was expecting Wilkinson to start if he was fit, or not to take part at all if he hadn't recovered from his head injury," Lievremont said.
"But I haven't forgotten, however, that Wilkinson was not playing last year at Twickenham and Toby Flood was at fly-half. It didn't save us from conceding 30 points."
Meanwhile, Lievremont admitted that he was less surprised by Johnson's decision to recall Test veterans Mike Tindall, Simon Shaw and Lewis Moody.
"We were expecting the return of Simon Shaw, who is the cornerstone of the English pack. We were also expecting England to beef up their backline with a player like Tindall, even if I appreciate Mathew Tait is more creative and unpredictable," Lievremont said.
"Through the selections of Shaw and Tindall, England have unveiled their game plan."