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Bernie`s latest clanger

'Should I stay or should I go...'

Bernard Laporte is not exactly renowned for his political correctness, and as such it seems odd he should be taking up a senior political position post-RWC.

Then again, he may not stay all that much longer! Laporte said on Tuesday that he would only stay in the job if he liked it, and if he didn't...

'Crazy Bernie', as he has become known, once denounced his own fans as 'bourgeois s***' after they had rounded on his team during a Six Nations match and was forced to write a formal letter of apology after letting fly at referee Stuart Dickinson.

But his latest bout of speaking without thinking may have burned a few bridges in government's notoriously canal-lined corridors of power, before he has even started the job!

Laporte will officially take up office as France's junior Sports Minister after his final match in charge against Argentina in the World Cup 3/4 place play-off on Friday

"I'll have a new job (after Friday)," he told reporters after naming his team for Friday's game.

"If I like it, I'll stay. If I don't like it, I'll stop, it's as simple as that."

His comments did not amuse Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot, effectively Laporte's future senior.

"I think the question about a ministry is not whether you like it or not," she told French radio.

"When you have a duty, you don't do it for pleasure. You do it in the best interest of your countrymen. I think that's the main point."

The French sports ministry could be an entertaining place to be over the next few weeks...