St Helens legend Sean Long says France have ‘a few tricks’ ready for England clash

Former Saints’ legend Sean Long and Laurent Frayssinous - who will be assistant coach to Paul Wellens at the Totally Wicked Stadium next season - will be joining forces on Saturday as France bid to lower England’s colours in their World Cup Group A showdown at Bolton.

Great Britain scrum-half Long, who made more than 300 appearances for St Helens in a trophy-ladened career between 1997 and 2009, insists he has a few tricks up his sleeve ahead of the weekend encounter.

Long, 46, is assistant to France head coach Frayssinous and will be looking to pick holes in the England defence in his role of attack coach.

The French began the tournament in confident fashion with a 34-12 win over Greece in Doncaster on Monday, but Long knows they must go up several gears against an England side that flexed their muscles in ominous fashion with a 60-6 rout of a dangerous Samoa team.

“It’s a massive test for us,” said Long after France’s final team run at the University of Bolton Stadium on Friday afternoon.

“We’re going to have to all play our best ever game to beat them, they are such a good team and well drilled.

“I wasn’t surprised at all by their win over Samoa if you look at the quality in their team.

“I know they are missing a couple like (Alex) Walmsley and (Jonny) Lomax but the people they’ve brought in, like (Victor) Radley and (Herbie) Farnworth from the NRL, they are very good players.

“Their back five are very strong, we’ve got to contain all their yardage carries before (Jack) Welsby and (George) Williams and (Sam) Tomkins get the ball.”

The French forwards laid the platform for the win over tournament debutants Greece but Long says his team will need to produce their renowned flair if they are to pull off a first-ever World Cup win over England.

“We’re known for playing with flair but we didn’t do that last week against Greece because we didn’t need to,” Long explained.

“We just wanted to complete. We felt their middles were weak but, up against England, they’re not weak in any department.

“So we’re going to have to come up with something different, a bit more flair and a few trick plays.

“We’re going to have to throw the ball around because you can’t just take one-off carries against England. Samoa tried it and they’re giants.”

Frayssinous has added Featherstone prop Gadwin Springer to the team which defeated Greece on Monday and Long, who has been appointed as the successor to Brian McDermott at the West Yorkshire Championship club, expects him to bolster the pack.

“Gadwin gives us a bit more punch and a bit more size,” Long said. “We’re not a big team but we work hard for each other, that’s probably our strength.”

France (from): M Escaré, A Romano, S Langi, M Laguerre, F Yaha, A Mourgue, T Gigot, J Dezaria, A Da Costa, L Belmas, B Jullien, P Séguier, B Garcia (capt), E Pélissier, J Sangaré, G Springer, M Goudemand, C Le Cam, C Rougé.