When Racing wing Virimi Vakatawa was passed the ball he was already well into his stride and bearing down on the Toulon 22. But space was in short supply. He was tip-toeing the touchline and the Armitage brothers were closing in. What followed was the cameo which hinted at genius.

Without breaking stride Vakatawa chipped the ball over Delon's head and gathered it on the full in time to evade Steffon who was powerless to prevent the score.

Now, just a handful of Top 14 appearances later, the Fiji-born flyer is into the France 23. A swift promotion? Not so.

The try against Toulon was scored three-and-a-half years ago. He followed it up with a hat-trick against Mont-de-Marsan yet soon after was sidelined and a victim of Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti's busload-in, busload-out recruitment policy. Then with no other clubs apparently on the lookout for an unemployed legend-in-the-making, he skulked off to the parallel universe of Sevens.

There, predictably, he was a runaway success. And so it is, in 2016, Vakatawa has been drawn back to the XVs format at the highest level by a coach who a couple of years ago, in his previous role, is likely to have allowed his C.V. to pass unnoticed across his desk.

Such is French rugby. Slow on the uptake.

Guy Noves© AFP PHOTO / KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

Indeed, some might say the appointment of Guy Noves as France coach is belated. Perhaps by a decade. Maybe longer.

Two years ago, in the aftermath of the controversy sparked by Noves when he chivvied a bloodied and concussed Florian Fritz to get back on to the pitch during a Toulouse-Racing barrage tie, it was suggested European rugby's most decorated maestro was more dinosaur than deliverer.

His once all-conquering, all-entertaining Toulouse were in decline. As they fell further and further behind the likes of Toulon and Clermont so Noves confessed the club's recruitment policy had not kept pace with the changing times.

The Toulouse style of its heyday, both pleasing on the eye and productive on the scoreboard, had morphed into something significantly less attractive and a whole lot less effective. Biff-bash-bosh. An over-reliance on a muscular pack supported by half-backs with limited ambition and ability. How else do you explain the underachievement of men like Maxime Medard and Gael Fickou?

Yet we are supposed to believe that the French federation's change of heart in appointing Noves ahead of Raphael Ibanez -- his Bordeaux-Begles side had earned the reputation of being the most entertaining in the Top 14 -- was the move made to rediscover French rugby's lost soul.

Noves has promised as much and is being lauded for conducting what appears, on the face of it, a cull of Philippe Saint-Andre's failed generation. The 23 for their opener against Italy is likely to include just half-a-dozen of those involved in the 62-13 mauling by the All Blacks in October's World Cup quarter-final.

But before we get too carried away in the anointment of Noves suggesting he's somehow cast away his cloak of conservatism in favour of an altogether more radical plan, perhaps we should consider just how brave he truly has been. Is he being bold (as he unquestionably is with Vakatawa) or is it just that he's picking the best available?

Take 23-year-old loose-head Jefferson Poirot as a case in point. He is likely to make his debut this weekend as the bench support for Eddy Ben Arous. Poirot is undoubtedly a huge talent but its raw nature is being carefully managed at Bordeaux-Begles who started him against Castres on Saturday for the first time in a Top 14 match since the night before France got smashed by the All Blacks.

© ESPN

The lack of quality in France props was suitably illustrated at Brive last Friday night where a couple of journeymen, Lucas Pointud and Damien Jourdain, gave La Rochelle and France's Vincent Pelo and Uini Atonio a right good working over in the set piece.

The inclusion of 20-year-old hooker Camille Chat is eye-catching with a couple of more experienced names passed over to fast-track him into the squad. Like Ben Arous, Poirot and tight-head Rabah Slimani, they have sufficient youth and potential to forge careers that will take them to 50 caps and beyond.

Yacouba Camara is a youngster whose rise Noves can claim credit for. Four years ago, he was a gangly 18-year-old plucked from the obscurity of Massy and straight into the Toulouse first team. Saint-Andre toyed with picking him but didn't have the courage. Noves has given him a spot on the bench for Saturday's opening game against Italy.

Another debutant, this time in the XV itself, is Stade Francais centre Jonathan Danty who has received high praise over the past 12 months and, in the absence of Wesley Fofana -- who was injured in Clermont's home defeat by Montpellier on Saturday -- starts alongside Fickou. Whether Danty lives up to his billing is a moot point but Noves seems prepared to give him his chance.

Despite the clear-out, many of the problem areas that haunted Saint-Andre are likely to be the same for Noves. Quality French locks are an endangered species. Just eight of the 28 locks who started in the Top 14 last weekend are French-born. A couple of injuries in that department over the next fortnight might see Noves checking on the three-year residency rule status of a couple of South Africans.

Elsewhere, the likes of Damien Chouly and Wenceslas Lauret have been around for a while but have never properly held down a starting position. The same goes for fly-half Jules Plisson who was given his chance by Saint-Andre but deemed to have failed and was dropped. Since then he's been injured and is now playing for a club on the slide, Stade Francais.

Even if most or all of the above justify Noves's faith, and France do get themselves into a winning position against Wales, Ireland and England, then a shoot-out involving each of Dan Biggar, Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell might expose France's most obvious Achilles' heel. As of Tuesday, it was claimed no one in the France squad knew who would be kicking the goals.

That, in itself, speaks volumes. Three of the four possibles aren't even the best kickers at their clubs leaving the fourth, Toulouse's Sebastien Bezy -- who starts at scrum-half -- as the most likely preferred candidate. He's a classic French 9 in that he's toyed throughout his career with also being a 10. Dimitri Yachvili told me in December that he rates him highly as a scrum-half -- that's good enough for me -- while his Top 14 kicking stats have him at over 85 per cent.

Bezy doesn't look the most comfortable of kickers but the numbers suggest his method works. At least, that is, when he's clad in rouge et noir. Whether that translates to the maillot bleu -- which he'll wear for the first time on Saturday and in front of a packed house -- is, of course, an altogether different proposition.

Chance to be a hero. Guy Noves, for one, will be willing him on.

Martin Gillingham will be commentating for ITV throughout the Six Nations.