No Joke - Link's Jest The Kind Of Guy French Are After

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday April 18, 2008

Rupert Guinness With AAP

WHILE Ewen McKenzie was discussing job opportunities with Stade Francais owner Max Guazzini over lunch in Paris on Tuesday, across town, the club's players were abuzz.

It was only yesterday, after returning to Sydney to take back the reins of the Waratahs for tomorrow's Super 14 game against the Lions, that McKenzie learned of the impact of his fleeting visit to meet with Guazzini.

As he, Guazzini and French agent Pierre Vandome sat in the restaurant of a five-star hotel near the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of Paris discussing all things great about the club, a number of Stade Francais players were using his visit to plot some tomfoolery for an afternoon training session.

McKenzie smiled yesterday when told how the players summoned teammates one by one to a cabin near the playing field on the pretence that he was inside, waiting to give the squad a private audience with their "new coach".

Of course, McKenzie was nowhere to be seen. And, as the players fell for the ruse, each was given a standing ovation from their laughing teammates and current coach, the former French halfback Fabien Galthie.

OK ... maybe it was one of those situations where you had to be there. Or maybe it was just the French sense of humour. Either way, the episode demonstrates the significance of McKenzie's 48-hour visit to the French capital.

Having rejoined his fourth-placed Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium yesterday, and named an unchanged side from that which beat the Force in Perth last weekend, McKenzie said his future was no clearer - at least officially.

However, comments from Galthie indicate that McKenzie is favoured to succeed him by Stade Francais. Guazzini has reportedly approved Galthie's request to break his contract after this season to pursue new goals - so long as a new coach is found.

As McKenzie walked the streets of Paris digesting Guazzini's pitch, Galthie was telling the French sports paper L'Equipe: "I would love to have met with him so we could chat about the game."

Galthie's assistant, Fabrice Landreau, concurred, saying: "It would have been good to show him how we function."

While happy to be back at the SFS, where NSW and Lions will do battle tomorrow afternoon, McKenzie could not disguise his enthusiasm about a possible return to France, where he played with the Paris University Club from 1992-94.

"I certainly enjoyed my visit. It is 13 years since I have been there ... properly, in the French culture," he said. "My comprehension of French is still pretty good. My speaking wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be, but I found a way. I battled away. I found over a couple of days that I improved quite quickly. That is one of the challenges of life over there. But the Parisian lifestyle is quite a good one, from my point of view."

McKenzie said his trip was more about "fact-finding" rather than negotiating, and that no formal offer was made.

"We had a typical French restaurant meeting ... a couple of hours," McKenzie said. "They were having a look at me. I was having a look at them. I had a look around the facilities and talked to the officials about the lay of the land. They were talking to me about what I was thinking. That is pretty much where we left it. We will be communicating again in the near future."

Until then, McKenzie's mind is back on the task at hand: getting NSW into the Super 14 finals.? Brumbies skipper Stirling Mortlock has been ruled out of tomorrow night's match against the Sharks at Canberra Stadium.

Mortlock's absence is the only change to the side which upset the Blues 16-11 last weekend, in which he sustained an accidental knee to the head. Fellow Wallaby Adam Ashley-Cooper shifts to outside-centre, while Francis Fainifo has been promoted from the bench to the left wing.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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