Unhappy Lievremont rings the changes
France coach Marc Lievremont on Sunday reacted to the disappointing 34-12 victory over Fiji by making eight changes to his squad ahead of the one-off Test against Argentina in Montpellier next weekend.
Lievremont, whose side at least ended a run of two defeats in beating the Fijians on Saturday in Nantes, admitted to being frustrated by the performance and that there were certain players he would liked to have retained but had dropped in any case for a match against a side that last time they met in June walloped them 41-13.
However, he added he was going to stick to his policy of rotating the squad for the three year-end tests, though he made it clear that veterans Imanol Harinordoquy and Sebastien Chabal were fortunate to be retained after both disappointed in the No.8 position.
For Harinordoquy especially it was a disappointing match as the two-time World Cup veteran had been named captain for the first time and Lievremont expressed his regret that he had to drop Fulgence Ouedraogo from the squad for the Pumas clash even though he had been one of their more impressive performers against Fiji.
“Obviously Fulgence is upset. Also because he was France’s best player, certainly the best player from the scrum,” said 42-year-old Lievremont.
“He is in top form. He is one of the players on whom I am counting for the future.
“He certainly earned the right from his performance on Saturday to retain his place but we are bringing back the captain [Thierry Dusautoir] and Julien Bonnaire, which is no small thing.
“And even if we are not happy with the performances of our No.8s [Harinordoquy and Chabal], we need them.
“It’s even more of a heart breaker when one realises that the match against Argentina is in Montpellier where Fulgence would have loved to have played in front of his closest friends and family and his first club Pic-Saint-Loup.
“But nevertheless he is part of the group of players well-placed to come back into the squad for the Australia match.”
Lievremont, who guided France to their first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2004 earlier this year, said that the inexperienced international duo of centre Fabrice Estebanez and Jerome Porical had been retained partly because of their performances and also because he wanted to see them play again.
“There would have been a debate on those two players whatever happened in the match though their good performances did help,” admitted Lievremont.
“However, there were several discussions over different players such as Jerome [Thion] and Romain [Millo-Chluski], between Max [Medard] who absolutely doesn’t deserve to be left out, because he played a good match but was rarely in the action, and Jerome [Porical] who didn’t put a foot wrong.
“Also between Fabrice [Estebanez] who showed some promising stuff and lacks experience – it is for that that we want to continue to work with him – and David [Skrela] who doesn’t deserve to sit it out either.”
Aside from the recalls of Dusautoir and Bonnaire, Lievremont also brought back hooker William Servat, second row and former captain Lionel Nallet, centre Yannick Jauzion and wings Aurelien Rougerie, Marc Andreu and Yoann Huget for Saturday’s match.
France:
Backs: Morgan Parra (Clermont), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Damien Traille (Biarritz), Fabrice Estebanez (Brive), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont), Marc Andreu (Castres), Yoann Huget (Bayonne), Alexis Palisson (Brive), Jerome Porical (Perpignan).
Forwards: Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Jerome Schuster (Perpignan), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), William Servat (Toulouse), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Jerome Thion (Biarritz), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, captain), Sebastien Chabal (Racing-Metro), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).
AFP
