Mathieu Bastareaud was an angry man after his side lost 14-21 to Fiji in Paris on Saturday.
After France captain France captain Guilhem Guirado was replaced by rookie Julien Marchand on 68 minutes, Bastareaud took over the captaincy.
Television microphones caught the angry post-match speech he addressed to his players.
So, for those of you who do not speak sweary French, I’m afraid Twitter would ban me outright were I to translate what Bastareaud was saying in full microphone audio there to his team
— Catherine Kavanagh (@KavanaghCk) November 24, 2018
Bastareaud said in colourful language: “Who do we think we are? We beat Argentina and we think we’re something special. We have to start from scratch now and we’re at rock bottom. Because we’re pathetic, shameful, we have to be aware of that.”
All of Fiji’s points came from backs who play for French clubs as Bordeaux-Begles’ Semi Radradra and Toulon’s Josua Tuisova scored tries and Racing92’s Benjamin Volavola added a conversion and three penalty goals.