Marc Lievremont maintains his quarter-final winning squad for semi-final encounter against Wales
Marc Lievremont, the head coach of France, has named an unchanged side on October 11. The identical side that faced England will now take on Wales in the semi-final of Rugby World Cup 2011, on October 15 at Eden Park, Auckland. The retained French side had
done a remarkable job of thumping the last world showpiece’s finalists in the quarter-final last weekend. However, their scrumhalf, Dimitri Yachvili, is rested from practice sessions until Thursday but the coach is confident about his recovery before Saturday’s
clash.
Yachvili could not complete the last game for France due to a bruised thigh and left the field in the early minutes of the second half. Meanwhile, Jean-Marc Doussain has been named as a standby player in case Yachvili fails to prove his fitness. Overall,
France has not taken any risks for this all important match and has decided to go with the second most experienced side of their history.
Talking to the reporters about the injury to his scrumhalf and his unchanged side, Lievremont said that he is hopeful to play the grand final of the event with same team. He added that, “(Yachvili) will be rested until at least Thursday, but he will play.
I would not have hesitated to change the team if I thought another one was better. Once again, they're the same players who played against Tonga and England.”
The coach further accelerated his conversation about the pressure game and said that, “I warned the players about not getting carried away. In '99 we spent too much time thinking about our semifinal win against New Zealand and we came up short against an
Australian team that was programmed to win.”
France had named a similar seasoned side for their previous semi-final of 2007 but was crushed by England.
French side for first semi-final of Rugby World Cup 2011:
France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Morgan Parra, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal
Papé, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Francois Trinh-Duc, 21 David Marty, 22 Cedric Heymans.
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