Laporte - We will not target Wilkinson
February 13, 2003

French coach Bernard Laporte today insisted that his team will not specifically target England's goal-kicking danger man Jonny Wilkinson in Saturday's vital Six Nations opener at Twickenham.

Last year France successfully negated the effectiveness of Wilkinson and that played a big part in their 20-15 victory in Paris which denied England both the Grand Slam and the Six Nations title in the final match of the championship.

But today Laporte said: "We know Jonny is a dangerous player but there is no special plan against him.

"We must concentrate on him because we know he's very dangerous but there is no anti-Wilkinson plan.

"We know we have to be careful when he has the ball and get in quickly because he can put us under pressure but there are other players we also need to watch."

Laporte welcomed the new international rugby board directive to referees instructing them to hand out yellow cards and sin bin for 10 minutes players who do not roll away and allow the ball to be played quickly after tackles.

France will work on it with Joel Dume, the French Rugby Federation national director of referees, who is part of their backroom team as refereeing consultant.

"We have a top international referee working with us and this is a good decision," said Laporte.

He added: "There are about 50 rules in the game and this is the one reason why the game lacks continuity in the phases. It's important it's being looked at."

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