Dimitri Yachvili: Ready for Test rugby?
Laurent Rodriguez is fuming. The Biarritz manager reckons the French national team are playing with fire by recalling Dimitri Yachvili too soon after injury.
Yachvili returns to les Bleus camp for the first time in nine months but has played just one match (last Saturday against Toulon) since seriously spraining his knee on January 9.
The Test veteran has take the place of Fred Michalak, who has a season-ending knee injury himself and Rodriguez believes Yachvili is in danger of joining the Toulouse player on the sidelines.
"Dimitri just came back from injury and we think he is not yet ready for an international match," Rodriguez told French daily, Le Parisien.
"We had planned to rest him at the start of the week, before the match against Perpignan, and now he is going to train intensively."
The former French international didn't stop there either, launching an attack at French coaching staff's training methods.
"I'd like the French national team to send players back to their clubs in the physical form that they arrived in," said Rodriguez, who won 56 caps for France during the 1980s.
"The Bleus coaching staff profit from the physical form of the players but they don't train the way they should. The players do zero weight training with the national team.
"When Fabien Barcella returned from the Autumn tour, he had lost seven kgs because he never did weight training at Marcoussis (French headquarters)."
Rodriguez's angry has been aggravated by the fact that Biarritz left Imanol Harinordoquy on the bench against Toulon in the best interests on the national side, but the favour has not been returned.
"Marc Lièvremont's only explanation for selecting Yachvili is that there is no one else. In the past, when we questioned why he hadn't been picked, we were told that there were better players than him, " added Rodriguez.
Comments
Iyhel says...
Is that a whinning contest with Guy Novès ?
Dupuy is banned, Michalak injured, Elissalde as well, Tillous-Bordes back from injury as well as Yachvili... Sorry mister Gomez but there aren't that many fit scrum-halves left in France ! That said maybe the staff could bring in the young Mélé from Perpignan...
Posted 21:45 08th March 2010
Sinolated says...
"Rodriguez's angry has been aggravated by the fact that Biarritz left Imanol Harinordoquy on the bench against Toulon in the best interests on the national side, but the favour has not been returned."
That's rubbish - Harinordoquy injured himself in training on Friday with Biarritz BEFORE the match against Toulon was played on Saturday - that's why he didn't play. Clubs doing the national team favours? That's funny!
Posted 20:51 08th March 2010