Pupils at Trinity School in Croydon were treated to a French lesson of a completely different variety last weekend.

The French rugby squad, who are using the school as one of its bases during the Rugby World Cup, opened up the second half of their training session to pupils to get up close and personal.

With two comfortable wins behind them against Italy and Romania, the French players were relaxed enough to involve some of the 1st XV Trinity team in passing practice.

They then took questions for the school magazine from Trinity’s 1st XV captain, Charlie Fatoma, and posed for an abundance of photographs and selfies.

Fatoma also had an individual coaching session with fly-half Frédéric Michalak.

The 17-year-old said: “Michalak is my favourite player of all time so to be given one-on-one coaching by him is a dream come true.

Wimbledon Times:

"He took me through his kicking practice routine, which was taught to him by Jonny Wilkinson.”

The school's director of rugby Aaron Liffchak said: “We could not have been luckier with the team that selected us as a team base.

"France have given us unbelievable access to their cutting edge training techniques and coaching staff.

"We are very grateful and have learnt a lot. They have generated a tremendous buzz around rugby among the whole Trinity community.”

Wimbledon Times:

Dimitri Szarzewski shaking hands with Trinity School's st XV