FRANCE v IRELAND:MARC LIÈVREMONT doesn't do unchanged teams – witness his tinkering with 70 players in his 22-game tenure thus far – but such is the desire to see France beat Ireland at Stade de France (kick-off 5.30 local time/4.30 Irish) in Saturday's crunch Six Nations encounter he probably would have done but for injury.
As it is, only the wingers Aurélien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall are unavailable after fearlessly throwing themselves into the Murrayfield fray last Sunday, and they are replaced by Ireland’s nemesis Vincent Clerc and, more surprisingly, the Brive 22-year-old Alexis Palisson.
The latter is preferred to Julien Malzieu, which is far more of a like-for-like replacement for his Clermont team-mate Rougerie. Malzieu is promoted to the bench along with the experienced prop Sylvain Marconnet, who comes in for the injured Luc Ducalcon.
“We are not used to changing a winning team,” said Lièvremont, who has given 33 players their first caps, with no hint of irony.
Whereas there was no debate about promoting Clerc to the right wing, the other flank prompted more debate, and Lièvremont conceded that fears of Ronan O’Gara’s kicking game earned Palisson the nod.
“The matter has been under discussion,” the head-coach admitted. “But we have named Alexis because of his versatility, though he is quite different from Aurélien Rougerie. In addition to his usual spot, we feel that Clement Poitrenaud will need some help and he (Palisson) will act as a second fullback.
“We will rely on him in defensive fall back and for his first-rate left foot. It will be crucial to tackle the efficient Irish kicking game, and notably that of Ronan O’Gara. He will try to keep the pressure on us and keep us in our own 30 metres, and Julien Malzieu is less efficient in this sector.”
On the evidence of Leinster’s two meetings with Brive, and Top 14 television coverage, the selection of Palisson is unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of the travelling Green Army.
And it’s curious that the brilliant Toulouse fullback cum winger Maxime Medard is not accommodated anywhere. But he was omitted from the original 30-man French squad for the Six Nations on the basis that he did not reproduce his club form in the national jersey last year.
They had considered promoting Julien Bonnaire instead of Fulgence Ouedraogo at openside, but retained the latter “who made a first-rate performance at Murrayfield” in an unchanged pack.
“They’ve been very conquering, and gave us great satisfaction in Scotland,” said Lièvremont, who added: “because they had played two matches in only six days, our players need not only to recover, but also to train in continuity to further the cohesion in the group.”
As for Ireland, Lièvremont adopted a much more respectful tone than the sniffily critical one of last year when Declan Kidney’s team initially completed the Grand Slam. While “happy for the Irish people”, Lièvremont maintained that Ireland had played the “most negative rugby” in the Six Nations.
When reminded yesterday that he had not been especially generous towards Ireland’s success, and asked if he had the same opinion, Lièvremont said: “It’s a team which had lost for a long time with the golden generation but which has now developed a taste for victory through Munster and Leinster, and with Declan Kidney.
“They’ve got the sense of detail, there’s a lot of pragmatism in their game. They are impressive. In a way they make me think of Australia with an extreme efficiency.
“It’s a team which is not penalised a lot, even if I think that sometimes they are over the limit,” added Lièvremont, who has revisited the 12-3 penalty count in this match at Croke Park last year to up the pressure on next Saturday’s referee, Wayne Barnes.
“I found it difficult to work on their match against Italy; they didn’t show much. But I’ve worked on their draw against Australia which was a very good match,” admitted Lièvremont.
On board Ferris travels
A 24-man Ireland squad will travel to Paris today, with Stephen Ferris and Kevin McLaughlin on board the flight from Dublin as the Irish management give Ferris every chance to recover from the knee injury which ruled him out of last Saturday’s win over Italy.
Ferris trained fully on Tuesday and the expectation is the Ulster flanker will return to the team, with Seán O’Brien covering the backrow and Jonathan Sexton and Paddy Wallace on the bench when the line-up is finalised today.
