Le Roux to make France debut

Editor

Racing Métro flanker Bernard Le Roux will make his debut for France in the second Test against New Zealand in Christchurch.

Racing Métro flanker Bernard Le Roux will make his debut for France in the second Test against New Zealand in Christchurch.

The 21-year old starts at flanker as one of four changes to the team that lost the first Test in Auckland.

Frederic Michalak starts at fly-half in place of Camille Lopez, with Christophe Samson in at lock to partner Yoann Maestri and Nicolas Mas starting at tighthead.

Luc Ducalcon and Sebastien Vahaamahina both drop to the bench, where they are joined by Benjamin Kayser, Brice Dulin and Mathieu Bastareaud who were absent from the 23 last weekend.

France lost the first Test in Auckland 23-13 and squandered a rare chance to win at the venue where they lost the Rugby World Cup Final in 2011.

A midweek side did however defeat the Auckland Blues 38-15 on Tuesday, during which Le Roux did enough to impress Philippe Saint-André and warrant a start.

“He's good in the ruck area and has qualities as a jumper, he had a very interesting game on Tuesday,” said Saint-André, who comes in to replace the injured Fulgence Ouedraogo after the Montpellier flanker was ruled out of the tour through injury.

France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Adrien Planté, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Yoann Huget, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Christophe Samson, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Brice Dulin, 22 Remi Tales, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud.

Date: Saturday, June 15
Venue: AMI Stadium, Christchurch
Kick-off: 19.35 07.35 (GMT)
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), tba (Australia)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)
Assessor: Lyndon Bray