Laporte's secret for a new France – old England

A surprising devotion to the Carling ethos has worked wonders for Les Tricolores

Ask the French manager where he found the inspiration for his current all-conquering, Grand Slam-winning team, and you may be severely shocked. Yes, the Australians and New Zealanders played a part, but it is good old-fashioned English robustness that formed the cornerstone of his thinking.

Bernard Laporte's whole raison d'être as national manager has been to emulate England's hugely physical but oft-derided team of the early Nineties. "I really like the first [Will] Carling generation," Laporte reveals, three years after taking on the French job. "That team had players like Mike Teague, Brian Moore, Richard Hill, and I loved it. They had power, skill and passion, but above all they had discipline. No matter what you threw at them, they stayed focused on the job in hand."

Forget the flair and the drama, Laporte is interested only in making the French impossible to break down. That may sound like a predictable desire for a coach, but it is in fact a first chez Les Tricolores. Until Laporte took charge in the wake of the defeat to Australia in the final of the 1999 World Cup, France were allowed to lose so long as they did so playing attractive rugby. Nowadays, the philosophy has been turned on its head. "Win at all costs," Laporte explains, "even if you play badly. Ugly rugby does not upset me – defeats do.

"That's why I won't sit around and talk about our achievements. OK, so we've won a Grand Slam and beaten the southern hemisphere sides in the autumn, but that is not enough. I don't look in the past. All I'm interested in is the future and beyond. First, we have to retain the Six Nations' Championship, then we have to win the World Cup, and then we have to start all over again. Even if winning the World Cup allowed me to live 20 years longer, I still wouldn't sleep at night. We must never stop."

There is another reason why Laporte has long been such an ardent admirer of English rugby: consistency. Back in the days when he was still a little-known scrum-half with Bègles-Bordeaux in the early Nineties, and even during his time as the successful coach of Stade Français in the latter part of the decade, Laporte suffered as a supporter of Les Tricolores. He can remember watching matches in bars, celebrating exceptional victories one minute and then drowning his sorrows the next. "I was determined that if ever I was given the chance to lead my country," he says, "we would never be up-and-down again. A rollercoaster ride is fun once in a while, like that most incredible of matches against New Zealand in the semi-final of the last World Cup, but it can make you feel sick if it never ends."

England have a recurring tendency to suffer one major stumble in every Six Nations campaign, so their fans know just what he means. But Laporte is only too aware of what faces his men at Twickenham next Saturday. "They may not win a Grand Slam every year," he says, "but they are in the hunt every time. That, in itself, is a sign of strength. It is no surprise to me that my people always regard the England game as the most important and difficult one. Clive has built a formidable team, while adding extra touches to make this generation even more threatening. I'm impressed with them."

Laporte adds: "When I took over the French team, I, too, wanted to impose those solid foundations. It took a while to persuade the players, particularly the older ones who had become used to a certain way of doing things for so long, but once the results came they all realised that the daily routines were worth the effort. You know, it sounds like a cliché but if the basics are right, then the rest will follow easily."

Laporte must take much of the credit for achieving his aims, especially when you consider that he is still only 38 and never played at international level.

"Part of Bernard's strength," explains the evergreen French captain, 33-year-old scrum-half Fabien Galthié, "is that he explains why he wants us to do something or other. Training is not a chore, but a communal exercise where we understand what the strategy is. For years we were treated as kids, but with Bernard the French players are adults."

The idea of transforming French thinking patterns, let alone French playing habits, must have been daunting at first, but Laporte has now succeeded. Gone is the ill-discipline of old (Pieter de Villiers' indiscretions, if such they turn out to be, have been off the field). Gone are the inspirational victories one week and the batterings the next. Gone, too, is the tendency to blame everyone but oneself for defeats.

"Today," says the man known as Keyser, after The Usual Suspects film character Keyser Sozé, who likes to operate in the background, "we take full responsibility for what happens to us. We don't point at the referee, or worry about the weather, we just go out there and perform the way we know we can."

France will have to perform to that exalted level if they are do what Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all failed to do – come away with a win from fortress Twickenham. "It is a very special place," he says. "Like our Stade Velodrome in Marseille, Twickenham has a fabulous tradition and atmosphere. It's a magical stadium. You have to be at your best to get a result in that arena, but we are close to that at the moment so we have a good chance. A win there would confirm our current status in world rugby."

The team made in the mould of England could yet be made in the home of England.