In a thoroughly un-French move, Philippe Saint-André has kept largely the same squad to take on Ireland in the Six Nations this weekend, from the one that beat Scotland in the opening round.
The one change comes in the front row, where Eddy Ben Arous takes the place of Alexandre Menini, who drops out of the squad with an injury.
France team to play Ireland:
15. Scott Spedding, 14. Yoann Huget, 13. Mathieu Bastareaud, 12. Wesley Fofana, 11. Teddy Thomas, 10. Camille Lopez, 9. Rory Kockott; 1. Eddy Ben Arous 2. Guilhem Guirado, 3. Rabah Slimani, 4. Pascal Papé, 5. Yoann Maestri, 6. Bernard Le Roux, 7. Thierry Dusautoir (cap) 8. Damien Chouly
Replacements: Ben Kayser, Uini Atonio, Vincent Debaty, Roman Taofifenua, Loann Goujon, Morgan Parra, Remi Talès, Remi Lamerat.
2 replies on “Six Nations 2015: France team to play Ireland”
Ireland will hammer us and I don’t see any other alternative. They will dominate the scrum, the line out, their offensive game is better than us, better bench and they play home. If we can manage to get within 15 points this will be somehow a victory. But honestly I hope we will get trashed because I am tired with all the “excuses” we keep having, yes we won against the wallabies but they were completely burned with key players missing. The victory against Scotland was not really deserved and except Guirado, Bastaraud and Le Roux the rest is poor … very poor. Need a change !
Saint-André has a similar dilemma to Lancaster in playing catch up & having to give some relatively new combo’s game time as the WC looms like the Petronas Towers in zoom mode.
Not sure about, e.g., Bastareaud @ centre as he goes away from trad Fr mid field play with guys likeTrillo, Lux & Maso. I think Fr lack cohesion in selection & style of play. St. André seems to be apeing a more English bosh type of game. Fr have had some gr8 fwds (for instance, going back to days of Walter Spanghero) & backs & yet I think their coaches haven’t matched up to their players’ abilities.
Shame… for France… I think!? Might make me eat my words tho.