Although there may be dreams of an upset in quiet corners of the Caucasus, Georgia are unlikely to bring France's World Cup to a premature, ignominious end tomorrow afternoon in Marseille. But the mere fact that that possibility exists, however remote it may be on paper, reflects the fact that France cannot escape the consequences of their dire opening-night defeat against Argentina.
Among those who have paid the price for their first-night nerves is the centre Yannick Jauzion, the key element in France's back-line, tipped by many before the tournament as the best in his position in the world. The Toulouse player, a veteran of 45 caps, was dropped for both of France's past two games, against Namibia and Ireland.
Now he has his chance for redemption tomorrow, along with two other men previously considered indispensable but left on the sidelines since that first night: the scrum-half Pierre Mignoni and the veteran winger Christophe Dominici. Like Dominici, Jauzion was one of Bernard Laporte's five "wise old heads" nominated as leaders before the World Cup: with Fabien Pelous injured, only Raphaël Ibanez and Serge Betsen have performed to expectations.
Ironically, Jauzion was far more influential off the pitch against Ireland last Friday than he had been two weeks earlier on the turf of the Stade de France against Argentina. From the substitutes' bench on the touchline he spotted that the Ireland wing Andrew Trimble was tending to come infield at the set piece, leaving a large gap exposed on the right.
Jauzion got word to the France fly-half Frédéric Michalak, and the eventual upshot was Michalak's cunning banana-kick to Trimble's corner that set up Vincent Clerc's try just after the hour, the try that settled French nerves and put the match beyond Ireland's reach, ensuring that France maintained their hopes of going through to the knock-out phase.
When the post-mortem is carried out on France's World Cup campaign, after Laporte is installed as a sports minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's government, one area of scrutiny is bound to be Laporte's man-management. The case of their back-line leader may well be on the agenda, however far Les Bleus progress.
This week, Jauzion's version of why he had not played in France's two games was at odds with that given by the management. Their case was that he was not properly match-fit, that he had missed 35% of training sessions due to personal issues, but the big centre was adamant that this was not the case.
"Thirty-five per cent compared to what? I've missed a week and a half's training. I think I'm in form physically and can play a full match without any problems. They meant that I didn't produce my best rugby against Argentina and so I'm not in form in that sense.
"Everyone is capable of playing for 80 minutes after two months of physical preparation. If I haven't played in the last two weeks, [the reason] is clear and simple: I haven't shown that I'm capable of rising to the level that people expect of me. If we had won against Argentina it would have been different." In other words, he has been dropped to make him rethink.
Jauzion is lucid in his analysis of what went wrong against Argentina among France's back line. "I haven't discussed with the staff what I personally did well and what I didn't. We watched the video. The staff felt that I was a bit non-existent. They didn't see a lot from me and it's true even if it's difficult in that sort of game even if because we didn't get a lot of ball and there was a very strong Argentina defence in place.
"You have to find solutions and I owe it to myself to find the way. Perhaps we needed to play differently, change tactics as Fred did by kicking over the line, kick at their full-back. There is an analytical part [in my role], a realisation that you have to have on the ground. It was a matter of not being able to change tactics because we were chained down, they were pressing in our faces. It wasn't so much a question of doing this or that wrong with the ball but as a leader of the three-quarters that I didn't function."
It was not, he maintains, a question of motivation, and he is unable to say whether being dropped for two matches will help him to play better tomorrow and, maybe, next weekend. He can only hope that is the case. "The important thing is to play. I hope I can express myself this week and come back. I know what happened against Argentina and know what I have to do now."
A tidal wave of tries against Namibia notwithstanding, France have yet to show their best in this World Cup, failing for example to manage a single line-break against Ireland, a match in which both tries were produced with the boot. There remains a chance that Georgia will overcome the fatigue of playing two matches in five days and at least rattle them. On the evidence of the opening phase against Ireland, this France side are easily rattled.
Jauzion, however, believes France were inhibited against Ireland by the need to win at any cost merely to qualify. "It's difficult to be ambitious when there is that pressure. We need to take risks. We have got our heads up now, I hope it can continue against Georgia. I have no doubt we can do that, then we can let ourselves run free in the quarter-final."
