Imanol Harinordoquy has claimed that France's players did their own thing at the World Cup, rather than follow the instructions of now-departed coach Marc Lievremont.
Lievremont’s side, somewhat in spite of themselves, made the final in New Zealand and almost secured a stellar comeback against the All Blacks, only to go down by a single point at Auckland’s Eden Park.
Earlier in the competition they had been thumped by the same opponents and beaten by Tonga, while their semi-final win over Wales was far from anything to shout about.
And star back row Harinordoquy has now claimed that the players stopped taking any notice of colourful coach Lievremont once they suffered the pool stage shock against the Tongans.
Reuters quoted the player as telling Midi Olympique: "After the defeat against Tonga ... I did not attach too much importance to what Marc said.
"It was our adventure. It was meant to be the nice experience of 30 men. We had to free ourselves from his supervision.
"He cast the stone at us too often. When something goes wrong, we're all in the same boat. There are no good or bad guys.”
Harinordoquy then added of Lievremont – who slammed a section of players for going on a night out after the win over Wales: "I felt he was lost. I will not miss him."