Fly-half: Frédéric Michalak
France have recalled veteran Frédéric Michalak to fly-half while Florian Fritz and Maxime Médard also make the XV for their Six Nations clash with Ireland.
Les Bleus go into the match at the Aviva Stadium rooted to the bottom of the table and are out to avoid their first wooden spoon since 1999.
Philippe Saint-André's men, however, have the psychological advantage of knowing that they have only lost once to Ireland in their last 13 games - the Irish's Grand Slam victory in 2009.
France have named an unchanged pack for the clash, with Thierry Dusautoir leading the side.
France: 15 Yoann Huget, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Maxime Medard, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Christophe Samson, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo.
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Vincent Debaty, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Sebastien Vahaamahina, 20 Antonie Claassen, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Mathieu Bastareaud.
Date: Saturday, March 9
Kick-off: 17:00
Venue: Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes (England), Greg Garner (England)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Comments
Spartacus says...
WTF?!?! PSA appears to be throwing all his chips on Michalak having a good game.
I can see France getting whitewashed now despite all this talent, and PSA/Lagisquet are 100% to blame. My only sympathy is that French clubs do have too many foreign players, especially at flyhalf. That said, Parra played better at 10 in the World Cup than Michalak has played this season (or possibly ever?).
Hopefully next season we get a new coach, and France playing as they should. I was planning to go see Boks v France in Autumn, but wont bother if PSA is still there.
Posted 09:58 07th March 2013
Bones7 says...
Can't quite see what Trinh-Duc did wrong and Michalak did right to get swapped around but I assume that's what everyone is thinking. The national shirt is not a place to play your way back in to form.
Posted 09:33 07th March 2013