Trouble brews on the touchline after Kevin Muscat takes out Dugarry (Mike Dadswell/Allsport)

Having flown halfway around the world for the controversial friendly, which finished 1-1, the World and European champions were given a hostile welcome by, among others, a defender from Wolverhampton.

Striker Christophe Dugarry was the victim of a tackle of such savagery by Kevin Muscat that the Wolves full back should have been sent off. Dugarry, who will be out for two months with the resulting knee injury, said: 'When you spend 46 hours flying here and back, you are due a minimum of respect.

'When someone makes a tackle like that, I can't imagine what must be going through his head. He went into that tackle to hurt me, really hurt me. I'm lucky it's not more serious.

'We came here to provide a match for Australia, to give pleasure to the fans. We didn't come here to be thrown around like rags. We're not World champions to be made firewood of.'

The real insult, though, was delivered by Australian referee Simon Micallef, who administered a meaningless yellow card to Muscat for the appalling 55th-minute challenge from behind.

David Trezeguet, Dugarry's partner in attack, said: 'To my mind it was a red card offence. The referee told us that if he sent the player off, he wouldn't be able to play in Australia's World Cup qualifiers.

'That's nonsense. We came all this way; it took us 23 hours to get here and when the referee tells you that, you blow your top.

'It's a shame we met a team who were very limited, very physical and who didn't want to give way. My impression of the Australia team? Negative. As a team, they kept their shape. That's all. Beyond that they just seemed interesting in fouling.'

Trezeguet's reaction was typical after a match which will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps it was inevitable that a fixture which attracted so much adverse advance publicity would not pass quietly into the Melbourne night.

France coach Roger Lemerre called Muscat's tackle 'an act of brutality'. His players, stung by such ungracious hospitality from their hosts, went further.

Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf said: 'It's a real shame for Dugarry to have come here for that. Muscat has no respect. I can't see how someone could have got so far in football by being that nasty.

'You can be aggressive, but you don't have the right to be nasty. You have to stay within the limits of what is allowed. He went outside those limits. He deserved a red card but the referee was Australian and because Australia have an important game in eight days, we suspected he wouldn't send the player off. That's shameful.'

Not that the Australian public appeared to care for the safety of the France players. 'Get up,' they howled at Dugarry as he lay on the ground and Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, among others, attempted to take up the issue with Muscat. The defender was substituted by Australia coach Frank Farina.

It was one of few occasions when the atmosphere rose above the funereal. Until Rangers defender Craig Moore headed Australia into a travesty of a lead just before half-time, you could have mistaken the 53,228 crowd in the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a theatre audience.

It was fully five minutes before Australia had their first possession of the ball, a fact not missed by the 2,000 France supporters - the only ones making themselves heard.

The continuous downpour did not help. Neither did almost total France domination in the first hour which deservedly brought a silky 49th-minute equaliser, served up deliciously by Dugarry and Robert Pires, and finished by Trezeguet.

Juventus striker Trezeguet was denied a second when Arsenal's Pires was given offside although clearly two yards on, while the Socceroos might have had a penalty after John Aloisi was challenged by Manchester United's Mikael Silvestre.

However, it was Australia's rough-house approach which provided the bitter after-taste. As France left the MCG, captain Marcel Desailly, of Chelsea, said: 'I'd like Australia to qualify for the World Cup.'

'And to play them in the World Cup?' came the question.