France coach Marc Lievremont has blasted World Cup organisers for unfair scheduling of the World Cup's smaller nations saying they were acting out of an "Anglo-Saxon logic."

With 20 teams playing in four groups of five, the pool stages consist of 40 games spread over a 23-day period and the top Tri-Nations and Six Nations sides have generally been given more time to recover between games.

Other "second-tier" countries such as Tonga, the United States, Canada and Georgia have found themselves with just three or four days to recover.

"The Tongans [who lost to Canada on Wednesday] had just five days to recover after their match against the All Blacks and that is too little," Lievremont said on Saturday a day ahead of France's game against Canada.

"But that is Anglo-Saxon logic for you which deems that the big powers enjoy all the advantages and the so-called minnows just have to get on with it if one day they too want to be big.

"If it were French logic we would be rather talking about equality and we would be appalled by this type of behaviour. But I think that has always been the case. It's nothing new. Ever since 1987 (first World Cup) it has worked the same way."

The French enjoyed a break of eight days after their first match against Japan to prepare for Canada, who in turn had just four days from the game against Tonga.

AFP