Sidesteps, swerves, fends ... all the famed French rugby evasiveness was there. And that was just the press conference.

Australian, New Zealand and French reporters discovered getting a straight answer, or any answer, on the strange Bastareaud affair from the French team camp in Sydney as difficult as the All Blacks found it to crack their defence.

There were shrugs, smirks and stony silences from coach Marc Lievremont and captain Thierry Dusautoir when quizzed on centre Mathieu Bastareaud's admitted lie about being bashed on a Wellington street last week.

A simple fib from a naive player or a cover-up involving fellow players and some in team management as Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast has suggested?

"Do you have a question on the game?" responded Lievremont through an interpreter at the team news conference ahead of Saturday's Test against the Wallabies.

Centre Bastareaud suffered facial cuts and severe bruising in what he claimed was an unprovoked attack by four or five unknown assailants following the second Test against New Zealand last weekend.

New Zealand PM John Key issued a letter of apology to the French team amid fears the incident would damage the 2011 World Cup host's international reputation.

On Thursday a New Zealand TV channel said police had recovered close circuit footage which showed Bastareaud returning un-injured to the hotel in company with two players and two women.

And anger was widespread in New Zealand after Bastareaud - sent straight home while the squad travelled to Australia - recanted overnight after police asked him about conflicting evidence.

"I have to return to the events in New Zealand," Bastareaud said in a statement issued by his Stade Francais club.

"I owe the truth to everybody. On Saturday evening, I went back to the hotel after drinking too much. I fell in my room, I hit a table and I snicked my cheekbone."

Bastareaud added that he panicked and was afraid of being axed from the French team.

"I didn't want to shock my family. I freaked out and I dug myself deeper into a hole," he added.

Wellington mayor Prendergast did not accept others in the touring party team management did not know.

"I have to say that passing it off as an inexperienced, young player isn't good enough," Prendergast said on radio in New Zealand on Friday.

"There was clearly collusion ... this is wider than just one player and I think we need an apology."

And so to the French team press conference in Sydney which began unpromisingly when media were told questions on the Bastareaud affair would not be answered.

Q: Did Monsieur Bastareaud actually have a fall in his room?

Lievremont: "I won't speak about that. I'm speaking about the game, the main reason we're here. The only one."

The coach did not want to respond to a suggestion in the New Zealand media that Bastareaud's injury may have been the result of a ruckus over a girl.

When media pressed further on the allegation of a cover up, the team's media spokesman intervened and referred media to the French Rugby Federation and a statement it had issued.

Afterwards, team media manager Lionel Rossigneux was asked if any of the French team or management knew Bastareaud had lied before he set the record straight.

"No," he told NZPA.

It echoed team manager Jo Maso who twice fronted the French media contingent at the team hotel late Thursday night to declare the team was "duped", along with the New Zealand public.

In Paris, the French Rugby Federation said it will open disciplinary proceedings after Bastareaud's admission.

The FFR said in statement it was "shocked by the player's lies" and apologised to the New Zealand Rugby Union, adding it will turn over the case to its disciplinary commission.

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