Lievremont spins the wheel
July 02, 2008 - 1:57pm
Story by: ARU
France coach Marc Lièvremont has made wholesale changes to his team for the Bundaberg Rum Rugby Series Test against the Qantas Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane this Saturday night.
The 39-year-old has shown his ruthless side, making in all 10 changes to the Les Bleus starting XV that lost 34-13 in Sydney last week, seven in personnel and three positional.
Only five players start in the same positions as the First Test: Brive winger Alexis Palisson, impressive in Sydney, Montpellier loose forward Fulgence Ouedraogo, the two Sebastiens from Sale Sharks – lock Chabal and hooker Bruno and the captain from Castres Olympique, lock Lionel Nallet.
Of the omissions perhaps most notable is experienced international centre Damien Traille who is gone from the 22 altogether with Lièvremont opting to blood young Toulouse centre Maxime Mermoz.
The others to drop out of the starting line up are: fullback Pepito Elhorga, who went off last week after a heavy tackle from Rocky Elsom and Wycliff Palu, Bourgoin-Jallieu flyhalf Benjamin Boyet, Biarritz scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili, Montpellier No.8 Louis Picamoles, Biarritz prop Benoit Lecouls and Sale Sharks prop Lionel Faure, who is also injured.
Coming into the starting XV along with Mermoz are: Thibault Lacroix from Albi, who will play inside centre, Bourgoin-Jallieu wing David Janin, Castres-Olympique scrumhalf Sebastien Tillous-Bordes, Dax flanker (and younger brother of the coach) Matthieu Lievremont, prop Renaud Boyoud, also from Dax, and at tighthead Albi’s Pierre Correia.
Of the seven coming in to the starting side only Mermoz and Correia were not on the bench in Sydney.
In terms of positional switches Montpellier flyhalf François Trinh-Duc, a surprise selection at outside centre last week, shifts in to his usual position for the axed Boyet, Biarritz winger Benjamin Thiery moves to fullback for the injured Elhorga and Biarritz No.8 Imanol Harinordoquy also reverts to his usual position from flanker.
There are also multiple changes on the bench where only Leicester Tigers hooker Benjamin Kayser and Biarritz lock David Couzinet remain. Dropping to the reserves from last week’s starting team are Lecouls, Picamoles and Yachvili while coming in from outside the squad are Montauban flanker Yannick Caballero and Bayonne winger (and candidate for longest name in Test Rugby) Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet.
After the Sydney Test, Lievremont had seemed that he would keep faith with the line-up that lost heavily at the ANZ Stadium. But a few days later he admitted both the staff and the players must take their share and decided to shake up the line-up for this weekend's clash.
"It seemed to me that we didn't do everything we set out to do," said the former international. "We lost almost every ball on the ground, we only played in front of their defence and we often ran the ball into touch without looking dangerous.
"We [the coaching staff] also have to take responsibility as we said that from slow ball, we needed to use a pressure kicking game.
"The problem was that every ball was slow and the only ones we were able to exploit were wasted straightaway by our poor kicking game.
"So even if we were brave for a long time, it was inevitable we were going to crack.
"There are two injuries [Elhorga and Faure] but as well as that I have decided to make changes so we can bring some physical freshness into the squad. Also, we will be more tactical."
Whether that will be enough to match Robbie Deans’ improving Wallabies in their last hit-out before the Tri-Nations, remains to be seen.
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Franceteam for second Test against the Qantas Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane this Saturday:
XV de France
15 Benjamin Thiery (Biarritz), 14 Alexis Palisson (Brive), 13 Maxime Mermoz (Toulouse), 12 Thibault Lacroix (Albi), 11 David Janin (Bourgoin-Jallieu), 10 Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), 9 Sebastian Tillous-Borde (Castres-Olympique), 8 Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), 6 Matthieu Lievremont (Dax), 5 Lionel Nallet (Castres Olympique) (captain), 4 Sebastien Chabal (Sale Sharks, UK), 3 Renaud Boyoud (Dax), 2 Sebastien Bruno (Sale Sharks, UK), 1 Pierre Correia (Albi).
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser (Leicester Tigers, UK), 17 Benoit Lecouls Biarritz), 18 David Couzinet Biarritz), 19 Louis Picamoles (Montpellier), 20 Yannick Caballero (Montauban), 21 Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), 22 Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet (Bayonne).
Date: Saturday July 5, 2008
Kick-off: 20:05
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Marius Jonker (South Africa), Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)
Television match official: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)
Assessor: Andrew Cole (Australia)
