France makes drastic changes in squad against Canada - Rugby Union News
France has decided to test a new combination in their up coming encounter of the Rugby World Cup 2011 against Canada on September 18, in Mclean Park, Napier. The head coach of France, Marc Lievremont, disclosed his new and fresh crew for their second campaign
of the ongoing global showpiece with twelve changes on Monday, September 12. The duo consisting of Vincent Clerc and Francois Trinh-Duc are the only players to keep their places from the last match against Japan and the rest of the positions will be occupied
by new faces against the meagre side from Canada.
The French coach was not happy with his teams’ performance despite a 47-21 victory over Japan on September 10. The coach was expecting a much better output from his side against the Asian champions Japan. His side failed to respond and ultimately faced stern
criticism from their boss.
The French side conceded a huge number of penalties in their maiden outing of the RWC which highlighted their disciplinary deficiencies against a feeble side. They missed eight tackles in the match and missed two conversion goals. Although they scored six
tries in the match, the result could have been better the the team had remained focused.
Talking to the media about his new plans for the Canada encounter, Lievremont said that eleven personnel and one positional change will be made this coming Sunday. He added that, “I had some very harsh words but the players were also unhappy (with their
performance against Japan)."
Talking about the changes he said that, “Aurélien is one of the players that needs game time. He played for ten years on the wing. I wanted to make him captain and we spoke about it. In the past he was less mature. But he's a positive guy. I don't really
see playing the matches against New Zealand and Tonga without my captain.”
France will face Canada on September 18 with following players:
France:15 Damien Traille, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 David Marty, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Aurélien Rougerie (c), 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Romain, Millo-Chluski, 4 Pascale
Papé, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux Poux.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Imanol Harinordoquy, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Fabrice Estebanez, 22 Maxime Médard.
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