By Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail
Published: 22:34 GMT, 7 February 2019 | Updated: 22:39 GMT, 7 February 2019
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It is 14 springtimes since Dimitri Yachvili’s boot inflicted France’s last win over England at Twickenham and he is ready to disclose a secret.
The day before that Six Nations game he could not find his direction with a single practice kick. Wide, low, but nothing between the posts. To compound the frustration he broke his tee and called Serge Blanco in a panicky search for a new one.
Blanco, the France legend of an earlier era, reassured him that he had friends in London who could help source a replacement. And the upshot was this: unbeknown to the Twickenham shop, they provided the tee to the scrum-half who in 2005 kicked the six penalties that flayed Andy Robinson’s England.
Dimitri Yachvili’s boot inflicted France’s last win over England at Twickenham in 2005
‘I’ve never told that story before and even now I am not saying who Serge’s friends were in case they are driven out of England,’ smiles Yachvili, now retired at 38 and living in the south of France.
Whisper it ahead of the latest instalment of the rivalry on Sunday but this star of a French team who scaled significant heights during his 61-cap international career between 2002 and 2012, does not hate England at all.
This cordiality is the result of the formative season he spent at Gloucester in 2001-02, helping his side to the championship, their first silverware since 1978.
‘I had a great year in England,’ he says. ‘I know very well how rugby is there. The culture of the game. How hard they train.
‘The English are sometimes arrogant, yes, but that is because they work hard and
