The Worst Grand Slam champions ever?

Is it possible that there has ever been a less impressive set of grand slam winners than France of 2010? This is not to attack France themselves per say. They were efficient, compact and strong going both ways and were rarely if at all in danger of defeat in any of their five tournament matches. But it is exactly this that leads me to the original question; is this the least inspiring Grand Slam of all time?

France never slipped out of third gear at best. They never once needed to. Morgan Parra goal kicked beautifully often and crackled and fizzed with the occasional threat, which showed his potential to explode into life, but was never really required to do so. As France and the tournaments' best player he personified the general performance of our champions; good enough. I constantly yearned to know how good are this French side really? But here were no huge moments to test them, no moments of adversity in which for us to measure the true character of this side, no need to urge themselves to brilliance.

This is to take nothing from France who were clearly the best a generally sub standard tournament had to offer. Their tight five always had them in the game, Francois Trinh-Duc directed solid patterns, the back row was athletic and embodied the general physicality of the side as a whole, whilst Jauzion and Basteraud were by far the form centre pairing. In Morgan Parra and Clement Poitrenaud France had two of the tournaments few stand out players. Poitrenaud's vibrant counter attacking and astute, rather than aimless, kicking game was a cautionary tale to the cautious; the best form of defence is attack. Parra is simply a spiky magician in the most stereotypical French traditions. Alive and open to any option of pass, kick, run, what became most striking was the way he committed defenders. He ran AT players; moved them with footwork, body movement, trickery but he made them make decisions. Too many of the Six Nations 9's first movement with the ball was across the pitch. Scrum Half play is about pace as much as efficiency. This sideways motion buys a defence too much time and makes the decision easy; it puts the decision back on the attacker and at this level of rugby you cannot always beat someone like that.

In spite of these two and the glimpses of promise from Mark Andreu and David Marty, France were no better than fine. Steady, safe. They just simply made fewer mistakes and whilst that should not be a criticism at a professional level, it does leave the mind in a state of limbo when trying to ascertain the actual quality of this French side in the run up to the World Cup.

So congratulations go to France, comfortable champions. We hope that messers Kidney and Robinson, Gatland, Mallet and Johnson are already back at their easels thinking again. We wait to see what they come up with. We do likewise with the true measure of this French side.