FRANCE has taken an early lead over England in the Rugby World Cup even before the two sides meet.

The French have managed to turn their players into sex symbols - no mean achievement in a game known for bloody noses, broken teeth and cauliflower ears.

Fuelling women’s interest in the game was a rugby calendar called Les Dieux du Stade (Gods of the Stadium) featuring several statuesque French players with only small portions of their anatomy hidden from view - a sharp contrast to the more traditional calendar of the English Rugby Football Union.

“They are athletic bodies, beautiful, sophisticated men,” said Anne Saouter, a Parisian anthropologist and author. “That is different from the brutish virility that rugby used to put on display.”

Sébastien Chabal, the hulking, long-haired forward with whom French women were falling in love last week, might be nicknamed “the Caveman” but 'les rugbymen', as they are known, have evolved - in France, at least - into household names making fortunes from multiple endorsements. Even “Mad Bernie” Laporte, France’s bald coach, was cashing in with a £150,000 contract for television advertisements for cooked ham.

How can England compete? Female interest in the World Cup victors of 2003 has been waning, according to Jill Tipping. She had set up a rugby website for women because “there was nothing out there for girls who like to watch the guys on the pitch because of what they look like”.

Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staf-fordshire University, grimly concurred. “If England had half a decent chance of defending the title I think there would be more interest,” he said. “The players haven’t really translated into household names with the exception of [Jonny] Wilkinson.”

He is injured, however, and one newspaper described him as “epically dull”. As for Jason Robinson, it was hard to imagine much romance around a born-again Christian nicknamed Billy Whiz.

By contrast, Jérôme “Hercules” Thion, a French forward, sets female hearts racing: he is mad about surfing and collects old Mustang cars. Frédéric Michalak, another French heart-throb, has his own clothes brand and has modelled for Christian Lacroix. He has a tattoo on an intimate part of his body.

With his royal connections, England’s Mike Tindall, the boyfriend of Zara Phillips, might have produced a frisson of glamour but he is not playing this time. The rest of the English crew are a fairly anonymous bunch. They may have their “scrummies”, as the wives and girlfriends are known, but 'les bleus' can count on the devotion of almost half the French female population. According to one survey, French women make up 40% of spectators, convinced that rugby players are valiant, humble and honest. In short, “real men”.

Or are they? It would probably not go down well in the Welsh valleys, but Max Guazzini, the calendar guru who runs Stade Français, one of the most successful rugby clubs, has persuaded his players to appear in pink or floral shirts to pander to the female and gay rugby audience.

That is not all. So fashionable has rugby become that the sport was being used to sell beauty products to so-called metro-sexuals. There’s even a deodorant called In the Scrum.

In case anyone should accuse les bleus of going soft, however, their prematch training had included combat training with French special forces. It did not help them in their first match, against Argentina, however, which they lost 12-17. If that goes on, no amount of sex appeal will save them.

Top mismatch

The Rugby World Cup will see what could be one of the most blood-spattered mismatches in sporting history next weekend when newcomers Portugal square up to New Zealand, the top-ranked team in the world.

Portugal, ranked 22nd in the world, arrived in France with a squad comprising amateurs - including doctors, lawyers, veterinary surgeons and designers - and one player who plies his trade in the French third division.

Mike Bundy - of Pure Sports Medicine, a clinic in Kensington, west London - said: “The mismatch is one of experience, skill and possibly bulk.

“If you’ve got an enormous second row against a slight wing in open play and in tackling - that’s where a lot of injuries occur.”

Yesterday, the All Blacks hammered ninth-ranking Italy 76-14 in their first match of the tournament.

Portugal, known as the Wolves, knocked out Morocco and Uruguay to qualify. But in a warm-up match last month they lost to London Welsh - a club side who finished 12th in the English second division last season.

Earlier this year Francis Baron, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, voiced his fears for the safety of the Portuguese players.

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