Mick Aldous knew something was wrong when he saw his players together in a huddle at the time they were just four points behind Australia with seven minutes to play.
There among the white shorts, red, white and blue jerseys, kneepads and hairy legs in the middle of Stade Ernest-Wallon was a tracksuit and sneakers.
It was the France rugby league coach's assistant, Gilles Dumas, who played during an era when getting within 20 points of Australia was a triumph.
"When it was 34-30, he went out three times into the huddle!" the former Canberra centre, who has been in the country for just seven weeks, said.
"I said 'Gilles, stop, stop, come back, you can't do that!' He kept going out."
For 10 years, French league federation president Jean-Paul Ferre refused to play Australia, fearing a repeat of 1994's 74-0 result which would endanger prestige and - more importantly - government funding.
Les Chanticleers came in from the cold on Sunday and at one point looked like beating an opponent they had not bettered for 26 years,
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AdvertisementAs the crowd chanted "Allez le Bleu!", the postmen and council workers upended Willie Mason and made Mark O'Meley feel like he'd run at a cement wall while bamboozling the Australians with support play and daring offloads.
"I wasn't surprised today by what they could do," said Australian coach Wayne Bennett. "I was a bit surprised today by the way they kept doing it.
"They played a lot different to any Australian or English side I've seen play in the last five or six years and I enjoyed that. There were some lovely skills and support play and short balls and things that we've gone a little bit away from at home."
Captain Darren Lockyer added: "Physically, they were as strong as us ... they were doing things I didn't expect them to do. They've got some good players, particularly that No. 11."
But some things don't change. After the game, talent scouts for a host of rugby union clubs loitered behind the grandstand.
"That No. 11", second rower Djamel Fakir, is expected to have signed with Stade Toulouse by the time you read this.
And it was happening when rugby union was still "amateur".
"Perhaps they should be pushing more of their players to NRL clubs," said Bennett. "Let them come over there and be available for the French team.
"I'm sure if somebody rang us from here and said 'we've got a good player, he's worthwhile taking' that most of us would take him."
Aldous wants every NRL and Super League club encouraged to take on an apprentice from a developing league nation.
The scheme could win a sponsor plenty of feel-good publicity and help clubs that want the Tri-Nations called off understand what is happening outside their own backyard.
Told that NRL chief executive David Gallop was at Sunday's game, Aldous went off to look for him.
AUSTRALIA 52 (C Fitzgibbon 2, J Ryles, M Cooper, B Tate, D Lockyer, T Carroll, P Civoniceva, B Kennedy tries; Lockyer 4, Fitzgibbon 4 goals) beat FRANCE 30 (F Zitter 2, A Fellous, D Fakir, M Greseque, D Couturier tries; Greseque 3 goals) at Stade Ernest Wallon. Crowd: about 8000. Referee: Karl Kirkpatrick (Britain).
