The French rugby team has always been a mercurial outfit, prone to the odd world-class performance with a healthy dose of mediocrity and drama sprinkled in between.

Even by those standards, though, the situation playing out in Japan is a mess, with skipper Guilhem Guirado (giving the thumbs up above) reportedly being relieved of his captaincy duties by management.

Despite the fact that the French have won all of their three matches, their performances have been patchy at best, and their narrow victory over Tonga on Sunday was said to have caused further unrest in the camp.

Reporting below via Stuff:

France’s World Cup campaign is threatening to descend into turmoil after Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal told the players to overthrow the coaching staff and Guilhem Guirado was reportedly ousted from the captaincy by the management…

French newspaper Midi Olympique claims that Guirado will not start against England after falling out with [head coach Jacques] Brunel and [assistant Fabien] Galthie, with Camille Chat – who has started the past two matches against the United States and Tonga – likely to be preferred. A France training session scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled at short notice…

The team is reported to back Guirado’s leadership, despite the fact that management has taken the decision to relieve him of the captaincy, and there are fears that this could lead to the sort of revolt seen at previous tournaments:

In a further twist, Boudjellal [below] has called on the players to “take control” against a coaching staff who he believes are setting the national side up for failure. His call comes eight years after France did exactly that in the 2011 World Cup, with coach Marc Lievremont sidelined as the team recovered from a humiliating pool-stage loss against Tonga and reached the final, losing 8-7 to New Zealand.

That time around, the mutiny ended in a World Cup final, but this time around that looks increasingly unlikely.

Football fans may also recall that the 2010 World Cup French outfit, led by then captain Patrice Evra, was also involved in a controversy, with the team refusing to train after striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home for verbally abusing coach Raymond Domenech.

Peak France, right there.

Boudjellal was very outspoken about the need for the players to rise up against the coaching staff in a video blog:

“There is a lot of experience, there are guys in this group who will certainly be major coaches in the future, so start to be a big coach today. Kick the coaches out, take control, tell your own story, because we are ready to follow you.”

Makes our Eben Etzebeth drama seems rather mellow by comparison, right?

Press conferences are usually rather dull affairs, but all eyes are now on Brunel, who will face the media tomorrow ahead of France’s clash with England on Saturday.

[source:stuff]