Team News:France coach Bernard Laporte continued
his rotation policy today by making five changes, two of them
enforced, for Sunday's historic Six Nations meeting with Ireland at
Croke Park.
"We decided to rotate the players to maintain a competition
among our squad," said the coach. "The players who are going to
start the match on Sunday will be very eager to show they are as
good as the ones who won in Rome last Saturday. They know they are
in competition with each other."
In the two forced changes, Perpignan centre David Marty, 24,
who has eight caps to his name, replaces Florian Fritz, who was
ruled out due to a leg injury he suffered in the 39-3 victory in
Rome. Vincent Clerc replaces his Toulouse team mate Cedric
Heymans on the wing.
Three other players, lock Pascal Pape, prop Sylvain Marconnet
and flanker Imanol Harinordoquy, are promoted from the bench.
Pape, 26, who will make his 16th appearance for France
alongside Castres team mate Lionel Nallet, takes over from Jerome
Thion, who has not fully recovered from a knee injury.
The 33-cap Harinordoquy, who was France's first choice number
eight at the 2003 World Cup, has been selected ahead of Julien
Bonnaire.
Sylvain Marconnet, who starts at loosehead prop in place of
Olivier Milloud, will win his 69th cap to break Christian
Califano's French prop record.
Thion, Bonnaire and Milloud are included among the
replacements.
Laporte kept faith with the backbone of the team - hooker and
captain Raphael Ibanez, number eight Sebastien Chabal, scrumhalf
Pierre Mignoni, flyhalf David Skrela and fullback Clement
Poitrenaud - which he fielded in Rome for the first time.
Sunday's game will be the first rugby international played at
Croke Park, the traditional home of Gaelic football and hurling, as
Lansdowne Road is being rebuilt.
"It will be a hellish game. The games against Ireland are
always tough but this one will be played in a very special
environment, in a stadium which is a temple of Gaelic sports where
rugby players didn't have the right to play," Laporte said.
"Ireland are a quality team, a very complete team. They play
good rugby and they will certainly will be eager to beat us because
the last four times we played, they lost, and because we'll face
each other in the World Cup pool phase", he added.
Laporte, however, denied that the result of Sunday's game
would have any impact on the teams' World Cup meeting. "As I said
before we faced Argentina last November, every game is played in a
different context. Sunday's winners will not necessarily win in
September," he said.
FRANCE XV
15-Clement Poitrenaud;
14-Vincent Clerc,
13-David Marty,
12-Yannick Jauzion,
11-Christophe Dominici;
10-David Skrela,
9-Pierre Mignoni;
8-Sebastien Chabal,
7-Imanol Harinordoquy,
6-Serge Betsen,
5-Pascal Pape,
4-Lionel Nallet,
3-Pieter de Villiers,
2-Raphael Ibanez (captain),
1-Sylvain Marconnet.
REPLACEMENTS:
16-Sebastien Bruno, 17-Olivier Milloud, 18-Jerome Thion, 19-Julien Bonnaire, 20-Dimitri Yachvili, 21-Lionel Beauxis, 22-Cedric Heymans.
