England v FranceAt France's base south of Paris yesterday there could hardly have been a greater contrast with the sense of panic in Brian Ashton's England team selection of the day before.
Underlining that les Bleus have returned to a state of stability after a troubled autumn, the France XV that will line up at Twickenham on Sunday will show only three changes from the side that beat Wales.
Whereas England barely know what tomorrow will bring, France's coach, Bernard Laporte, yesterday confirmed that both his newly-cemented halfback pairing of David Skrela and Pierre Mignoni and the resurgent number eight Sebastien Chabal are virtually certain to figure in his World Cup squad of 30 after the impact they have made in the past few weeks.
Only one change for Sunday is performance-related and linked to a major area of doubt for the World Cup, namely Pieter de Villiers' appearance in the front row for Nicolas Mas, who did not play to expectations against the Welsh.
Mas is only part of the picture here, however, because de Villiers' promotion was also down to the broken shin suffered by Sylvain Marconnet during a weekend skiing trip, which may leave the French without their most versatile prop in September.
"It's our biggest worry of the moment, as Sylvain can play on both sides of the front row," confided the France manager, Jo Maso.
There remains the prospect of one other possible change, Cedric Heymans or Aurelien Rougerie for Christophe Dominici - the "captain" of the France backs - who has been kept to his bed with flu and is not expected to train today.
Whereas Chabal's selection ahead of Elvis Vermeulen is down to the devastating way he carried the ball against Italy and his improved stamina, the arrival of Dimitri Yachvili at scrumhalf in place of the in-form Pierre Mignoni is a gamble.
Laporte's intention is to see whether the quietly spoken Biarritz player can raise his game after the arrival of Mignoni.
"This is Dimitri's chance to show us he can push for a place," said Laporte. The change also smacked of superstition: Yachvili has figured in France's three wins on the trot against England in their past three meetings and has scored 53 of their 73 points in those games. Having not started a game since January, he is acknowledged to be short of match time and may give way to Mignoni for the final half-hour.
Guardian Service
