RUGBY:France tonight drafted Toulouse duo Frederic Michalak and William Servat into their squad for Saturday's Six Nations match against Italy in Rome.
Michalak, who can play in either halfback position, comes in for scrumhalf Sebastien Tillous-Borde (biceps) while hooker Servat replaces Benjamin Kayser, ruled out with a neck injury.
The mercurial Michalak, who has 50 caps to his name, returns to a France squad for the first time since 2007. He is back playing in the Top 14 this season after a successful spell in South Africa with the Natal Sharks.
Servat won the last of his 20 caps in the Millennium Stadium encounter against Wales in last year’s Six Nations.
Prior to tonight’s announcements, Les Bleus head coach Marc Lievremont had gone with an unchanged squad for the trip to Rome, despite admitting today that he was let down by some of his players’ attitudes during yesterday’s thrashing by England.
If Lievremont thought all was rosy in the French garden after their superb defeat of Wales on match day three of the Six Nations, he will be going back to the drawing board following the drubbing at Twickenham.
Not only did the embarrassing 34-10 defeat ruin Les Bleus’ outside hopes of the title, it puts Lievremont back under pressure.
Somewhat surprisingly, he originally made no changes to the squad for the Italy match, giving his underperforming players a chance to make amends.
And he hopes they take his instructions on board next weekend as the French look to finish the tournament on a good note.
“We want to see certain players and say things to them,” said Lievremont at a debriefing in London today, prior to the squad’s flight back to Paris.
“Some of them got it wrong in terms of the work rate, the demands of them at the highest level and in match preparation.
“There is a worry there, a gap between certain players. And we had hammered it into them all week that we mustn’t rest on our laurels (after the Wales match).
“Looking at the match on video, we had it confirmed that the great team ethic we had against Wales was shattered against England. At no time did we behave like a team.”
Lievremont admits a consolation win against an Italy side who are yet to pick up a point in this season’s competition would now mean little.
“This match against Italy will not be easy,” he added. “We are banking on a reaction in terms of pride.
“This match against Italy will not bring us a great deal. We had wanted to be capable of competing with a great team away from home. We haven’t been able to do it.”
Since beating Scotland at Murrayfield in their first game of the 2008 Six Nations, a match that was also Lievremont’s first in charge, France have not won on their travels.
A defeat to Italy would leave Lievremont staring down the barrel but he maintains he needs some help from the players he sends out on the pitch. “Some players are disappointed, others have the potential to succeed,” he said.
“In a squad playing at a high level, you must take responsibility. On the pitch, you can’t be dealing with 15 little boys who are waiting for the advice of their coach.”
Lievremont will name his starting XV for the Italy match on Wednesday.
