If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Unless, of course, this time it’s personal.Even so, Saatchi & Saatchi, the advertising agency, the core brand, may continue relatively unharmed. That is a testament to the culture of self-belief they have instilled. Saatchi’s has never suffered from the mass staff or client defections that have blighted virtually every big agency at some time or another. Talk to anyone who walks through the door each morning and ask them if they do not get just the hint of a thrill as they pass under the awning carrying still the most famous names in world advertising.. RUGBY UNION The capital of the Franche-Comte is renowned for its clock- making, its citadel, and as the birthplace of Victor Hugo.

But emphatically not for its rugby and it is evident that the French team would be happier playing Canada almost anywhere bar Bescancon. Today’s match at the city’s Stade Leo Lagrange might have seemed like a good, missionary idea when it was arranged. But French players like the sun on their backs and, though there was plenty of that here yesterday, the temperature remained sub-zero all day. Besancon is hard by Switzerland, and is also renowned as one of the coldest places in France.
All of which means that the French captain, Philippe Saint-Andre, dare not hope for anything as conclusive as England’s 60-19 thrashing of the Canadians at Twickenham last Saturday. As he wearily noted: “The English had 20 minutes of dream rugby in the second half in a stadium that was packed out.

whereas we are at Besancon.”If this sounds like a neat and not particularly diplomatic put-down, it should be appreciated that in their more paranoid moments the French even suspect a conspiracy, though for once it has nothing to do with the perfidious Anglo-Saxons.No, it is the French rugby federation (FFR) itself which has supposedly done all it can to help Canada: a narrow pitch which might deliberately be designed to stifle the French flair, a perishing climate and, to top it off, the kick-off put back from 3.00 to sundown at 4.15 so that it will be colder still.Nor will there be any post-match escape, because the French squad of 30 – including the recalled film star-cum-centre Denis Charvet after an absence of nearly four years – who have been here since Wednesday will carry on training in Besancon until Tuesday.It is a rum business. The president of the FFR’s Franche-Comte region, Robert Natalie, happened also to be the FFR’s head of communications as well as a right-hand man of the president, Bernard Lapasset, and the ever acerbic French rugby press, headed byL’Equipe, has drawn its own conclusion.Besancon does have a rugby club but it is in the third division of the French championship. This make the need for missionary work palpable, yet in contrast to Test matches that have taken place in non-rugby cities as far flung as Nantes in the west and Lille in the north, in the east there are not even any complimentary tickets for schoolchildren.The pity is that those kids unwilling or unable to pay Fr30 (£3.75) will miss the chance to see France at a moment of unwonted confidence and expectancy after the double defeat of the All Blacks in New Zealand last time out six months ago. Thirteen remain of the side who won the second Test in Auckland and it would have been all 15 but for injuries to the outside-half Christope Deyaud and the flanker Laurent Cabannes.As, in addition, Canada have lost all five of their tour matches, their auguries are dishearteningly unpropitious – even though it was as recently as June that they achieved one of the all-time great Canadian results by beating France, then en route to New Zealand, 18-16 in Ottawa.”We are looking back more to that game rather than last week,” Raymond Skett, the manager, said. “If we’ve done it once, we can do it twice.” If this appears to be optimism running as wild as a moose in Manitoba, it is at least fair to point out that Canada are vastly better than indicated by the Twickenham score.”The English have once again given us a lesson in efficiency and realism but there was no surprise in that because it is exactly what we have been suffering from them for the last five years,” France’s coach, Pierre Berbizier, said.With Ian Stuart, injured against England, having gone home, Gareth Rees has been elevated to the Canadian captaincy with Karl Svoboda being given a game at hooker, and Winston Stanley on the right wing, and Steve Gray filling Stuart’s place at centre.”The Canadian team has nothing left to lose,” Berbizier added, trying to be kind. “They are at the end of their tour and when we met them in Canada we were at the beginning of ours.

After New Zealand, our own experience is that the end of tours are more successful than the beginning.”FRANCE: J-L Sadourny (Colomiers); E N’Tamack (Toulouse), P Sella (Agen), T Lacroix (Dax), P Saint-Andre (Montferrand, capt); Y Delaigue (Toulon), G Accoceberry (Begles); L Benezech (Racing Club), J-M Gonzales (Bayonne), C Califano (Toulouse), O Merle (Grenoble), O Roumat (Dax), A Benazzi, P Benetton (Agen), A Costes (Montferrand).CANADA: S Stewart; W Stanley (University of British Columbia OB), C Stewart (Western Province), S Gray (Kats), D Lougheed (Toronto Welsh); G Rees (Newport, capt), J Graf (UBC OB); E Evans (IBM Tokyo), K Svoboda (Ajax Wanderers), D Jackart (UBC OB), M James (Burnaby Lake), N Hadley (Wasps), I Gordon (James Bay), C McKenzie (UBC OB), G MacKinnon (Ex-Britannia Lions).Referee: B Leask (Australia).. While it may not quite qualify as a true giant-killing act, if Saracens beat Harlequins at The Stoop in the fourth round of the Pilkington Cup this afternoon they will certainly be more than satisfied. Sarries seek to remind us that they are alive and kicking and heading back towards the big time. A victory over their London rivals would make the point perfectly. As one of the four clubs to drop out of the First Division in the 1992-93 restructuring season of the long knives, Saracens are presently sitting pretty on a four-point lead at the head of the Second. And, with a little help from a certain friend, who isto say they are not capable of overthrowing a side hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone?
Indeed Saracens, you might say, have been enjoying the best of both worlds.

When Dick Best returned to Quins as paid director of rugby at the beginning of the month, something quite slipped his mind in the build-up to this first major task back in charge. “I’d forgotten all about it, but I was chatting to my wife and she said, `Didn’t you go along there in September’.”I said `you’re right there’ I’ve actually been up to Saracens this season coaching. I know their coach quite well and he invited me to do a session At that stage I wasn’t involved with Quins. It’ll be quite funny to see them again.” Not quite so funny, of course, if Sarries succeed in pulling off an upset. “It’s probably the pick of the draw and a few people sniff blood,” Best said.As Best noted, the Sarries’ back row factory is still turning out polished performers following the loss to other clubs of Ben Clarke, Dean Ryan, Chris Tarbuck and Eric Peters – not to mention Justyn Cassell who, along with the England prop, Jason Leonard, made the switch to Quins.Today, Quins are confronted by Richard Hill and Tony Diprose, who made their mark in this season’s Divisional Championship and against Canada for the Emerging Players, and the No 8, Barry Crawley, who is not to be under-rated.