CHRIS HEWETT
GUEST COLUMNIST

You always knew where you stood with French second row forwards of a certain vintage, even if you didn’t stay standing for long.
Exhibit A? Michel Palmie, the “Butcher of Beziers”, who punched his way to infamy and beyond – when the law finally caught up with him, he was banned for life – and, to make matters worse, habitually took the field strapped up like Tutankhamun, thereby denying his opponents the bandages they were sure to require.
Exhibit B? That would be Jean- Francois Imbernon, the Gauloiseand-granite Perpignan lock who partnered Palmie in the ...