Allez Les Bleus

It’s a sad old story when the most enjoyable moments of last weekend’s Calcutta Cup battle at Murrayfield were the frequent TV cutaways to Scotland coach Andy Robinson giving an Oscar-winning performance as the world’s angriest man. In his playing days he was known as ‘Growler’ but there wasn’t much growling here: near demented hysteria, flailing arms, and lip-readable damnation of the referee and all his works. He was one step away from banging his head on his desk. And you couldn’t really have blamed him. The referee allowed England to get away with a whole heap of skulduggery at the breakdown, Dan Parks hit the post twice and a Scottish victory would have had a poetic justice. But this was a brutal game: rugby as war not sport, and not much fun either apart from a frenzied last ten minutes when both sides seemed to forget their battle orders.

Johnson has built an England in his own image. But when everyone is looking for contact not space, it makes for a gloomy spectacle. That’s why anyone who loves the sport should be hoping for a France victory over England in Paris in Saturday’s final game of this rather forgettable Six Nations. French coach Marc Lievremont has come in for some heavy critical fire, not least at home, for his fiddly selections but he has built a superb squad, clearly aiming at next year’s World Cup (Les Bleus are the only one of the top five who haven’t won the William Ellis trophy). And this year’s Six Nations will be a tasty bonus en route. Watch out for the magnificent centre partnership of Bastareaud and Jauzion, and how well they are liberated by France’s sublime scrum half Morgan Parra, whose sheer rugby intelligence is a lesson to anyone in Johnson’s side.

All in all, not a bad time for French sport. Though the country’s club football has always been a modest affair compared with the vibrant and money-drenched leagues of England, Spain and Italy, no one with a pulse could have failed to thrill at Lyon’s Champions’ League elimination of Real Madrid. And this week there was every likelihood that Lyon would be joined by Bordeaux in the draw for the quarter-finals. Two French clubs in the last eight? Ooh-la-la.

Strong though Lyon are, Bordeaux really look like the coming team — they are currently leading the 2010 race. Much of the credit has to go to their manager Laurent Blanc, the former international defender who has made the transition from top player to top boss look easy. Some have even touted him as a possible successor to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, where Blanc spent a couple of years in the twilight of his playing career. He’s certainly un homme serieux.

Is there anyone more annoying than Mike Atherton? He was a heroic and determined cricketer, who then stepped over the boundary to become an excellent broadcaster. He’s written two fine books, Opening Up, one of the better sporting autobiogs, and a thoughtful study of the bane of the lives of many of us, Gambling: A Story of Triumph and Disaster. Now, he has turned himself into one of our very best journalists, first in the Sunday Telegraph and recently, in one of journalism’s most inspired signings, for the Times as a columnist and cricket correspondent. And at last week’s Sports Journalism Awards, he cleaned up with the two main gongs, Columnist of the Year, and Sports Journalist of the Year. To cap it all he made an effortlessly charming thank you video from Chittagong. So a better cricketer than any of us, and now a better journalist than most of us. Plus, he’s got a beautiful wife, and is an absolutely delightful bloke to spend any time with. Bastard, eh!

Roger Alton is editor of the Independent.