The French arrived in the Southern Hemisphere having put in mediocre performance in the 2000 World Cup.
The French squad included Eric Anselme (St Gaudens), Frederic Banquet (Villeneueve), Patrice Benausse (Carcassonne), David Berthezene (UTC), Laurent Carrasco (Villeneueve), Jean-Emmanuel Cassin (Toulouse), Gilles Cornut, Fabien Devecchi (c - Avignon), Yaccine Dekkiche (Avignon), Arnaud Dulac (St Gaudens), Laurent Frayssinous (Villeneueve), Romain Gagilazzo (Villeneueve), Renaud Guigue (Avignon), Rachid Hechiche (Lyon), Sylvain Houles (UTC), Pascal Jampy (UTC), Patrick Noguerra (Pia), Nicholas Piccolo (Limoux), Artie Shead (Villeneueve), Romain Sort (Villeneueve), Gael Tallec (UTC), Michael Van Snick, Jerome Vincent (Toulouse), Frédéric Teixido (Limoux), Jean-Christophe Borlin (St Gaudens) and Vincent Wulf (Villeneueve).
Jeff Whittaker coached the South Island team that featured mainly Canterbury Bulls players.
[5] The team was captained by Shane Beyers and included Aaron Whittaker.
[6] Northern Districts included Lance Hohaia and Hare Te Rangi.